LUKE CAGE

Sweet Christmas…

I’m not going to lie, Luke Cage is one of the most boring TV shows I’ve ever watched.

That pretty much sums up the rest of this review, but just in case anyone is still reading, I’ll explain. Daredevil started off Netflix’s and Marvel’s collaborations, and it was great. Jessica Jones improved upon that partnership, and Daredevil series 2 improved upon it again. Luke Cage on the other hand, well, let’s just say it’s nowhere near to improving anything. While I will admit Episode 4 was, on its own, a good episode as it showed us Cage’s backstory and how he got his powers, however vaguely, the series, bearing in mind it’s made up of only 13 episodes, doesn’t get going until around episode 8 or 9. That means most of the series is wasted. And although the final few episodes build and build, the finale is...not anti climatic, but not what I wanted it to be. That being said, it does set up Daredevil's and Luke Cage's meeting for The Defenders.

I don’t mean wasted as in the story moved slowly from one episode from the next, slowly building and building as it did so, I mean it as in wasted. For example, in the first episode, nothing happens. Nothing. Nothing from episode 1 impacts the following episodes in anyway. It just spends a few minutes looking at characters that, whilst do loads later on, don’t do anything at that moment. That’s not a good way to start off a series.

The series is also riddled with bad writing, bad acting and repeated continuity mistakes that show up in nearly every episode. Mike Colter, the show’s leading man, and the guy who plays Luke Cage, brings so little emotion to the role that at times, it actually gets annoying.

I'm pretty sure Henry Cavill showed more emotion in Batman V Superman than this guy does in 13 episodes...

I know Netflix’s Marvel shows aren’t as comedic as Marvel’s films, and believe me, I like that, but the characters still have personalities. Luke Cage though…doesn’t. Think back to Jessica Jones, and the episodes he was in that. Now imagine that guy getting thirteen episodes to himself. In those few and far between moments where Colter does bring personality to the role, the writing lets him down. I thought we had moved past the days of cliché action lines being used as serious dialogue.

As for the shows villain, things don't much better. For the first seven episodes, the show's main villain is Cornell Stokes, aka Cottonmouth, played by Mahershala Ali.

In a bad rip-off of Daredevil's Wilson Fisk, Stokes is basically a gangster in Harlem. That's err...about it actually. Wow, thought that would take more explaining. Guess not. Yeah, he's a gangster, and Luke Cage sets out to stop him. Anyway...after *spoilers* Stokes meets his end, for some reason, half way through the series, the *true* villain is revealed, in the shape of Diamondback, played by Erik LaRay Harvey. As it turns out, Diamondback has been pulling the strings the entire time, and is...let's just say he's someone from Luke Cage's past. To be perfectly honest, Diamondback was one of the things I liked more about the series. I won't go into too much depth because most of his story is spoilers, but he's something to look forward to. He's one of those villains who does both the strategic and physical parts of the villain's job. I like that.

Moving on from villains, remember Daredevil? Remember those incredible single-shot fight sequences that went on for ages, and looked incredibly brutal? Good. Now forget them. Fight scenes are…um…rare in Luke Cage. And when they do appear, as un-often as that is, they’re poorly shot, and only last about the same amount of time it takes to lace up a pair of shoes. There’s barely any movement what so ever, which makes the fights even more boring to watch. Fights shouldn’t be boring. They should be the fun part of the episode. Nope, not here.

A push here and a slap there is as complicated as the fight scenes get.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted Luke Cage to be good. Honestly, I thought it would be. So far, Netflix and Marvel’s collaborations have gone brilliantly. Maybe it’s the acting, maybe it’s the writing, or maybe it’s a mix of both, but Luke Cage, as a series, doesn’t work. It’s boring for too many episodes, and by the time thinks pick up, the series is over. While it was nice to have him cameo in Jessica Jones, and have him part of Marvel’s cinematic universe, it’s a character that I hope they don’t focus on for too long. If the Netflix characters do show up in the next Avengers film, at least he’ll be in the hands of some better writers. But in the hands of these writers, Luke Cage is stuck.

At the start of this review, I said it was one of the most boring shows I’ve ever watched. Some of you will just take that as casual over-exaggeration. It’s not. I genuinely didn’t enjoy watching a great deal of this series, and unlike Daredevil or Jessica Jones, I didn’t binge watch episode after episode. After one or two episodes, I wasn’t watching because I wanted to, I was watching because a) I was hoping to dear god that it would pick up soon, or B) that I felt like I had to watch it to better understand Netflix’s upcoming Defenders series. While I’m still looking forward to that and Iron Fist’s own series, I hope Luke Cage doesn’t get a second. This series' predictability, slow, pointless plot lines and bad acting/writing was enough. We don't need a second dose of that.

I will say this for the series though, it's a theme that's featured heavily in the series, and it's one that resonates very heavily in today's world. Luke Cage does bring a much needed layer of diversity to the Marvel cinematic franchise, as will Black Panther when it releases in 2018. Jessica Jones served as Marvel's first female-lead project, and Luke Cage serves as their first African-American one. While I'm sure Black Panther will get the most praise as it will undoubtedly have a wider audience, Luke Cage does touch on issues such as Police brutality and racism, and I'm glad it does, as the series helps bring those issues to the minds of people in the real world.

Comic book fans, fear not. You will get to see the classic outfit…For about twenty seconds.