What's the opinion on Luke Cage?

[Saetha]

So it occurs to me that, out of Marvel's four Netflix series, Luke Cage is the only one I haven't heard anyone talking about. I first heard about Daredevil and Jessica Jones because of the praise people gave them, and Iron Fist at least had a mess of controversy to herald it's entrance into the MCU. But to me, Luke Cage seems to have just... happened. I haven't heard much buzz, but then, I haven't gone looking for it either. Still, I was a little shocked when I first saw it on Netflix because I hadn't heard that it even came out - but it's apparently Marvel's highest rated show (Going off of critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes.)

I haven't sat down to watch it, yet. But I'm curious to know what other people think, and if I've simply avoided the hype somehow.

 

[Saelune]

Maybe because no one has anything to complain about?

I really liked it, but I for some reason really like Luke Cage. He was the one I was most looking forward to.

The main criticism I hear is that due to his powers, most fight scenes are very simple, since he just tanks, as opposed to DD who actually needed to worry about dying. Some other criticisms that are a bit spoilery though, mostly in where the direction goes in the later parts.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The characters and the music and the atmosphere were good. The pacing, fight scenes, and story are pretty meh.

To me it's just okay. I think it's the same for most people.

 

[Kyrian007]

I really thought it was fine. It did suffer from a similar problem to Daredevil season 2 though. They abandoned a pretty interesting villain halfway through the season in favor of a far less interesting villain. Otherwise I thought it was pretty good.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Atmosphere was swell, rest was kind of bland. Bland acting, bland characters, bland conflict after the first villain. It felt like Marvel shows becoming routine. Then again Marvel as a whole is starting to feel routine. It didn't leave much of an impression on most it seems, so it doesn't get talked about a lot as the others.

 

[Zhukov]

Gave up halfway through.

It wasn't even a "Fuck this" giving up, I just forgot to keep watching and once I remembered I couldn't see any reason to.

I liked the character Luke himself, but there didn't seem to be anything engaging on offer.

 

[Guffe]

I liked it on an OK level
So as many others have said, it was a good series with nothing to complain about, but it didn't have anything really special. It had the whole african american thing going for it which made it stand out, the overall atmosphere was good and the actors were good in my opinion (for example I am having a little trouble with Dan Rand in Iron Fist). But it had no WOW-factor in it to make it stand out.

 

[bjj hero]

I liked it. It had a real shaft/dolemite feel with an amzing sound track. I hope its not too spoilery to say Luke Cages powers are being super strong and damn near indestructable so he lacks to finesse of the ninja like daredevil when fighting.

It doesnt finish as strong as it starts but is well worth a watch.

 

[maninahat]

Cage has the same problem all the other shows, in that it has far too little content for 13 episodes. I don't dislike it; Cage is a likeable lead, I liked the setting, and I like the themes on gentrification. But the story has been spread so thin there is very little driving it forward. It has taken me months to get only to the 10th episode. As I said, the other series have a similar problem, but there is enough impetus with the central plot to drive you through to the end. Also, Cage lacks any real serious opposition. He's against a gangster who scowls a lot, an idiot who wears sunglasses indoors at night, and another thug who likes bible quotes. Cage is super strong and bullet proof. Why hasn't he punched everyone yet?!

 

[bdeamon]

To me, the first half is reminiscent of those 70's blaxploitation movies, in a good and well done way, especially with the the blues (I think) music in every episode. After that, it kind of shifts to do more world building in the Defenders universe and it kind of loses some of that individually from the first half, but I still found it very enjoyable overall and is definitely worth a look. Also, I want to mention that my black friends do talk about the show and I think it resonates more with them than with me, so that is something to keep in mind when looking at buzz.

 

[Goliath100]

I think the flaws of Luke Cage is a little too complex for general audiences to talk to death about, but not complex enough to have really in depth conversations about it.
Examples: Cottonmouth might have been an intresting character, but also the weakest villain upon that point. Never scoring anything close to a victory against Cage. And that's ontop of been stupid. He had to be told to try drowing or fire, than never trys it. Doesn't even try posion.
"Shades"; it's a really good villain. He's actually competent, but he needs one more twist to him. My suggestion is to make him a vampire (just to set a potential Blade show), so he could go 1v1 with Cage.
Diamondback should only have a brief scene setting him up for season 2, and then let Black Mariah be the main villain.
The supporting cast is the best of the Netflix shows, to bad they doesn't get enough to do.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I really thought it was fine. It did suffer from a similar problem to Daredevil season 2 though. They abandoned a pretty interesting villain halfway through the season in favor of a far less interesting villain. Otherwise I thought it was pretty good.

This is really the main point of criticism for the series for me and many others. The characters, dialogue, and themes are all great but the story drops in quality about halfway through for spoilery reasons. Not to say the show still isn't good- it is. It's just that the first half is amazing and the second half is just good. Kinda dampens the lasting impact of the show a little bit. I for one enjoyed the style of the fighting/conflict and how Cage is really just a wall for things to bounce off of. It complements his personality well and the symbolism of a black man having bullets bounce off of him is pretty neat (Even if it is shoved in your face multiple times through dialogue).

 

[SirSullymore]

I don't want to just echo what everybody else said (but they're right), so I will posit that I think the action scenes are pretty good! Yeah you don't feel like Luke is in any danger but damn if I don't like watching him beat the crap out of tons of guys.

Also I will mention that Luke's origin episode is probably my second favorite episode of all the Marvel Netflix shows (after Daredevil S1's Stick episode).

 

[rosac]

Echoing the sentiments here. The villain change was too abrupt and played for shock value, when they hadn;t put any real effort into building up the replacement, who had literally the single most cliche villain story I have ever seen. Like... Wow. I think Cottonmouth should've become the "rat backed into a corner" or played up the fact that actually...

Spoiler

He never wanted to be a criminal. He was literally forced into it. A lot of his motivation is protecting his club

and worked in this dynamic more prominantly through the series.

Shades is interesting and should've been the replacement. I would've like it if

Spoiler

Shades was diamondback, he was just acting as a middleman

but nah. Bland shit replacement instead.

 

[PapaGreg096]

It as good but the second half really drops in quality

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It was pretty boring. It was an uninteresting story that didn't really need telling, took too long to tell and went nowhere before, during or after it was being told. There were some interesting moments, but it was largely boring. People sitting in rooms talking like gangsters and gunfights against a bulletproof hero *sigh*. Not bad enough to dislike, not good enough to enjoy, just boring boring boring.

 

[Callate]

Well, even the critics can be wrong. Especially if they're given reason to fear they'll be called out as racists.

It's not bad. Mike Colter, as the lead, has a lot of charisma and presence, and Rosario Dawson is good (as she is, consistently, through all the Netflix Marvel series that I've seen, noting that I haven't been able to force myself to watch Iron Fist just yet.)

But, without giving too much away, it loses something major about halfway through, and never really bounces back. Two of the most important characters start behaving in erratic ways that increasingly make a viewer go "what the ever-loving @#$%...", and since we're apparently supposed to find one of those characters at least quasi-sympathetic, that's no small problem. And the finale really wants to dwell on an emotional moment that it doesn't really earn.

It falls kind of in the middle of the Netflix Marvel shows, right now, but to my mind that's only because Iron Fist has been so broadly viewed as underwhelming and season 2 of Daredevil forgot to give its hero some kind of moral high ground in between repeated sessions of getting the tar whaled out of him.

I really wanted to like Luke Cage more than I did; Colter is great, and the character he established in Jessica Jones was likable and compelling. But it really drops the ball on some major issues of storytelling and character.

 

[hermes]

To put it simply, it was half-way decent, literally. It has the regular (at this point) problem that most Marvel Netflix series has, which is that it would have been a lot better if it lasted half of what it did.

Without going too much into spoilers, they introduce a new villain about half way into the series, and he is awful: cartoony in his actions and mustache twirling evil, he doesn't fit the style of the series. Which is a pity, because in the second half the conflict becomes more interesting, grounded and politically charged, but it is all undermined by this ridiculous villain.

 

[American Fox]

Still haven't seen it yet, but I like Luke Cage. Everyone should read the Cage Marvel Max series. Azerello is like Scorsese for comics, he wrote the Constantine series Hard Time where John was sentenced to an american prison.

I've tried so hard to like Jessica Jones for years. Bendis couldn't even make her interesting for me. I shut it off thirty minutes into the first episode. Even Tennant couldn't get me to watch it.

 

[jademunky]

I liked it. My criticism mostly reflects what other people said, gets rid of an interesting (yet ineffectual) villain halfway through and replaces him with Mr. Evil McBadguy.

One interesting thing about this series over the others is that Luke is the only one of the Netflix heroes that is not......broken in some way. He's level headed, polite, slow-to-anger, not a serial liar (Matt, you repeatedly lied to your best friend! How could you?), and not an irresponsible overprivileged douche-canoe.

I still think Jessica Jones was the best of them overall with the Kingpin and Punisher-heavy DD episodes being my own standalone episodic favourites.