Luke Cage

Last seen in Jessica Jones, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is working two jobs in Harlem to make a living.  He sweeps the floor at a barber shop and works as a dishwasher at a nightclub.  Interestingly enough, the night club owner is a crime lord known as Cottonmouth (Mahershala Ali) and the barber shop owner is a reformed criminal who used to run with Cottonmouth.  One night, Luke has to stand in for the bartender who has gone missing during a heist and meets undercover cop, Misty Knight (Simone Missick).  The bartender pulled the heist with a kid who works at the barber shop too.  Wow, could we include any more convenient coincidences to pull all the players together?  Yes, we can.  Cottonmouth's cousin is Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard), a corrupt councilwoman who gladly benefits from Cottonmouth's criminality.  The obligatory corrupt cop on the force just happens to be Misty's partner.  It is all very tidy for a 13 episode series.  Even when Luke's backstory is explored, it again turns into a tidy little bundle.  His nemesis in prison just happens to show up in Harlem and Luke's half-brother, Willis Stryker - who is responsible for Luke's imprisonment - happens to view Cottonmouth as a friend.  Interestingly, these 'friends' share zero screen time in the 13 episode series.

 

Luke had a big part in Jessica Jones, showing up in 7 episodes.  The two had a budding relationship and, in the comics, are married.  One kind of expects that she would have a cameo here.  Nope.  Instead, Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) shows up to further tie the various Netflix series together.  She evolves into the clear love interest and at one point offered to put Luke in touch with a lawyer she knows.  Though she does not mention his name, it is obviously Matt Murdock.

The best character was probably Misty Knight, a tough smart detective.  She was too reckless, nearly getting herself killed on a couple of occasions because she went alone but overall I liked the character.  Alfre Woodard made Mariah come to life as a crooked politician who gets pulled deeper into criminality until she finally embraces it.  She will make a good villain in the next season.  Shades (Theo Rossi) was the best of the gangsters, not reckless like most of his superiors.  He was loyal to his superiors but also manipulative of them.  Cottonmouth was too menacing, always the gangster and never the musician.  When he finally begins to develop, he dies immediately.  Stryker is barely contained madness.  He makes a good villain but not a believable kingpin of a crime syndicate.  Either he needed to dial back the rage or be relegated to a gangster enforcer.

Claire frequently accuses Luke of being corny.  Some of the things he says are a bit corny but the corniest moment in the whole show was when Shades turned to Stryker and said, "Watchoo talkin' bout, Willis?"  Straight out of Diff'rent Strokes.  Stryker was not amused but I was.

The series ends with Luke heading back to prison though there is the potential of exoneration, with Mariah ensconced as the new owner of the nightclub and inheritor of her cousin's criminal empire, and his half-brother about to undergo the same process that made Luke almost indestructible.

The weakest of the MCU series on Netflix so far, it is still entertaining.  I look forward to the further adventures of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire.