I haven't reviewed a show in a while and the answer as to why is pretty simple: I usually don't have much to say about a particular show. Sometimes, that's a good thing. I might not have anything to say because I don't find any obvious faults. Sometimes, that's a bad thing. The show might just be too boring to write a bunch of words on them. To its credit, Luke Cage has inspired me to write. Unfortunately, that's only because it's incredibly easy to find faults with this show.
The best part about Luke Cage is the music. That's not usually something you want to hear about a TELEVISION show, but I'll say that the music would possibly be the best thing about the show even if it was a really good show. In fact, it's probably got some of my favorite music on any TV show or movie ever. I'm still listening to "Long Live the Chief" everyday and I watched that episode like two weeks ago. (For those who don't like hip hop, there's also plenty to love like Nina Simone, Isaac Hayes, and The Delfonics - and look if you don't like rap at all, you probably aren't watching Luke Cage anyway if we're being honest.)
Luke Cage did not have material for 13 episodes - not even close. Like they maybe could have pulled off eight great episodes. Maybe. There's an entire episode dedicated to a flashback from when Luke was in prison, there's TWO whole episodes where Luke does nothing but recover from injuries, and the finale essentially is a recap of the season more than an episode (I was completely unengaged by the fight that took up about 20 minutes if you want an idea of how much the show had lost me.)
I don't really want to spoil this, but I'll put this in terms as vaguely as possible. At first, it appears that one man will be the "Big Bad" of the season, and by the middle of the season, a "Bigger Bad" ends up dominating the natural villain role. Problem: the first one was great. The second was TERRIBLE. Easily one of the most cartoonish, ridiculous villains I've ever seen. The first one was great because both Luke and him cared about the community of Harlem above all else. He was complex. You understood his motives. This is basic Storytelling 101 here.
The second Big Bad though? He does not give one single fuck about the community and only cares about Luke Cage, to the point of irrationality. He is so single-mindedly passionate about Luke Cage, that he does a bunch of stupid shit that makes you wonder how the hell he's supposed to be a composed businessman running the entire underworld of Harlem. The connection between him and Cage is also stupid. Cage is fucking up his business. That should be enough for him to want to take him down, but nope gotta make a contrived connection between them that doesn't actually work at all to make you care about the villain. I can't stress enough how much this second bad guy ruined the later episodes.
Watching Jessica Jones, I was concerned about Mike Colter being able to lead a TV show because he wasn't very good at the emotional moments. And.... nothing he did this season changed my feelings. He looks the part. He's good at playing intimidating, at being playful, and being charming. But he can't really channel emotions effectively into his performance. It's stilted. It's weird because he plays intimidating well, but when he has to play angry, it just doesn't work.
Similarly, they really botched up Misty, the police detective who gets caught up with Cage. Here is the clearest example of when TV shows tell and don't show. We see pretty much zero evidence that she has ever been a good cop from her actions during this season. But we are told that she's one of the best. There's a clear disconnect. She consistently does dumb things throughout the series that hinder investigations and don't pass a simple logic test. She does them for plot reasons, not character reasons.
I could go on, but I'll summarize my thoughts with this: it seems like the show had about seven good episodes and didn't really know what to do past that so they threw in a cartoon villain who was at odds with the realistic tone the show had set previously. Everything came tumbling down as a result. Shades and Mariah were interesting I guess, though I find them much less interesting than evidently everyone else (the overwhelmingly positive response to those two has bewildered me a bit - they're fine) I hope that Netflix allows these shows to air less than 13 episodes going forward because every single show - Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and now Luke Cage - seems like it would have benefited from about three less episodes each season. (Luke Cage is somewhat different from those shows in that it has considerably fewer good episodes.)
Grade - C
