It was thus a big surprise when I finished Marvel's Luke Cage: it is not at the level of the other two. Not even close. I will try to explain why and remain spoiler-free.
Luke Cage was introduced in the Netflix universe during the first season of Jessica Jones. He is a bartender somehow connected to the recent past of Jessica and it turns out he has superpowers: his skin is indestructible and he is superstrong. Here, we find him in Harlem a few months after the events of Jessica Jones, living a quiet anonymous life.
The season is essentially an origin story: the events will make Luke Cage take action against the evil villain, forcing him to face his obscure past and finally move forward. Always. I will say no more to let you discover it by yourself.
The first issue is the most problematic one and is about the hero himself. I have the same issue with Superman: any challenge is futile until kryptonite appears. For Luke Cage is even worse since there is no kryptonite for him. The immediate consequence is that any action scene loses its tension and they are not choreographically good as in other shows. Why dodge a bullet if it bounces on you? I can save a few of them because we can all like a power player from time to time but, in general, they are very underwhelming.
Luke Cage's kryptonite is really only his past and his consciousness. This is well displayed in the show, but I never felt tension when his fate was on the line. If you have an invulnerable character you need to give him some sort of deepness, some moral purpose, something other than the usual call for justice and revenge we are used to seeing. We thus have to look how the character and the story are presented.
Most of these guys wear spandex, who would have thought that a black man in a hoodie would be a hero
The entire story takes place in Harlem, therefore we have glimpses of Harlem's culture and how the characters are participating in such culture, what is their role. When it comes to Luke Cage, we can appreciate an attempt to give him some political weight by making him expressing some opinions on the role of the community. In particular, it comes to my mind a very intense monolog on Crispus Attucks and the use of the N-word. However, such attempts are quickly lost after the first few episodes, leaving the picture incomplete and thus failing in drawing a character that creates tension or emotions. The collateral effect is representing a community through powerful messages and then fall in the most generic silliness. Allow me a very insignificant spoiler: a black kid is beaten up by the police during an interrogation and the community, after like 5 minutes of rage, responds by giving the police better guns. That's generic silliness.
Another big issue is the presence of too many villains in one season. In a superhero show, the villain is 80% of the final result because what makes the story interesting is the struggle, how the superhero overcomes the adverse conditions and defeats the villain. In Luke Cage, there is a potentially great villain that is then wasted, lost and obscured by other breaking into the scene, villains way less interesting and way over the top.
The storyline is then confused because force the viewer to shift the attention to different menaces.
There is this villain!
Forget about that, now there is this one!
What's up, guys? I am another one, watch me!
The result is either a very non-linear narration or a very slow one, needing half of the season to even begin.
One last remark about the crossover technique, which was one of the strong suits of Jessica Jones. If the viewer was able to appreciate everything of the last year's show without knowing the rest of the Marvel universe, this time I feel like you actually lose something. You don't get the reasons why some character acts in a certain way. Therefore I feel one of the revolutionary aspects introduced by Netflix one year ago as lost in favor of a more conventional marketing strategy.
In conclusion, it is a show that brings some fun, the technical execution is at the level of the others, but fails in being innovative as it could be. A not so well characterized superhero, a not convincing narration structure, and the feeling that the only reason of its existence is a set up of what is coming next year on Netflix all make the show a forgettable one and several steps behind the previous two.
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