To say Luke Cage Season One is one of the lesser Marvel Netflix shows isn’t really saying all that much. I find that most of the shows, with few exceptions, range from mediocre to straight up bad – those exceptions being The Punisher, and the first season of Jessica Jones (haven’t seen the second yet, so can’t comment on that). However, I’m glad to say that the newly released season two of Luke Cage was something that genuinely took me by surprise.
Granted, a lot of that is simply due to the lack of the same issues that these shows have largely suffered from. It doesn’t hit the ground running only to lose all steam halfway through and stumble its way toward an overlong and poorly structured climax. Luke Cage, like The Punisher, is methodically structured in a way that allows itself to take its time. It is still a bit too slow for my taste, but it never feels like time is being wasted.
And it’s where the show spends its time that helped make it so compelling, the characters. Specifically, in the villains. Aside from Mahershala Ali’s Cottonmouth from the first season, I didn’t have anyone in particular to latch onto. However, this time around characters that I initially saw as dull and one-note such as Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Shades (Theo Rossi) were far more well-rounded and interesting to me. I quite liked how deep of a dive we get into these characters, including the main villain, Bushmaster, played by Mustafa Shakir, who brings a great screen presence and one hell of a swagger to the role. Not only does this extra time on the characters give them some humanity, but it also expands the scope of the show into something legitimately grand and epic.
I did end up missing Rosario Dawson’s Claire, who leaves for somewhat frivolous reasons early on, but it gave space for other new characters that were well worth exploring like Luke Cage’s dad, James, played brilliantly by the late great Reg E. Cathey in – I think – his final performance. I also surprisingly enjoyed Danny Rand (Finn Jones) when he shows up for a single episode where it briefly turns into its own little Power Man and Iron Fist adventure. And of course, there’s Mariah’s estranged daughter, Tilda (Gabrielle Dennis), who is great in this season, but will probably play a bigger role in the next.
The show is also full of wonderful, small touches. In the first episode of the season (which, interestingly enough, is directed by Lucy Liu), we get a glimpse at what life is like for Harlem to have its friendly neighborhood superhero. But unlike in Spider-Man: Homecoming where that’s just a thing people keep repeating, Luke Cage offers tactile details that make that phrase have actual meaning. I love how Luke Cage is constantly being tracked through social media, to the point where there is literally an app that people can use to find him at their convenience. I like that Luke Cage experiences money problems at a point later in the season. It evokes this feeling in a way that hasn’t been done this effectively since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. You can be the biggest badass all you want, but you’re still not made of money. I’m curious if Luke Cage even has health insurance.
I think it’s also not an exaggeration when I say that this season of Luke Cage features not only the best music of this whole Netflix/Marvel enterprise, but also the most thrilling action sequences. It’s a blast watching Mike Colter, who is still just as charming as ever, effortlessly destroy anyone who tries to get in his way, and when Bushmaster proves to be a worthy opponent, it leads to some brutal and exciting brawls. But the fights also largely serve some purpose to the characters involved. There is a bar fight involving Misty Knight (Simone Missick), and the whole fight was about her learning to get over the fact that she has no right arm and to improvise and learn to adjust, and coming from an able-bodied person, that storyline of hers seemed tastefully done. I loved one tiny character beat early in the fight when she instinctively tries to punch a man with her missing arm before realizing she can’t do that. Plus, having Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) help Misty fight off the guys is so incredibly satisfying as the cherry on top for the scene. And as far as the music from composers, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, goes, I love how it evokes the kind of inner-city dramas of the 70s, lots of blues-inspired tracks that later infuses elements of reggae due to Bushmaster’s Jamaican origins. And the musical guests are always a treat.
As far as any issues go, they’re mostly minute. Some characters are introduced in the final few episodes, and the way the show brings them in and goes in and out of their story as it relates to the overarching plot is a bit sloppy. Also, there’s a point in the show where Bushmaster has a bounty on Luke Cage’s head, and the whole time I kept wondering, why couldn’t he just check the Harlem’s Hero App like literally everyone else does?
Like I said, it’s small, doesn’t really distract from the overall story. I was thoroughly compelled the season, much to my surprise. It’s a small story but told in a big way with big ideas, big themes, and big emotions. It’s a story about family, tragedy, community, loyalty, what makes someone a hero, and the effects that power can have on a man. It got me to care about characters that I had previously been totally bored by, and that’s one hell of a feat. A part of me hopes that they can go into some of the more weird and overtly comic book-y elements of the source material in the future, but I still really like what they’re doing here, and I hope they continue this on to the next season.