Luke Cage

The blaxploitation vibe works well and helps offset clunky writing and cheesiness to a degree. It's well cast, but falls away significantly in its second half. A welcome addition to the Netflix side of the MCU, but sits some way behind 'Jessica Jones' and 'Daredevil'.

Honestly, it mostly suffered from the writing. The narrative threads were poorly or illogically tied together, they had way to many scenes where they just made lists of famous black people, and they blew the strongest villain with the best actor early. Also, some of the acting was bad. However, the blaxplotation aesthetic was great because it allowed for an overall serious tone matched with some cheese, goofiness, and melodrama which is fitting for a show about superheros.

This is probably my second favorite of the Marvel/Netflix shows. I don't know know a whole lot of material on Luke Cage, but I thought this was really good for its two seasons. It suffers from some very weird and inconsistent pacing issues, not to mention a lot of filler sequences and side stories, but I love Colter as Cage. His story and progression alone made this a enjoyable watch. Quite frankly, I think that was the most important part to nail, and they did. I wish we got more.

Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodard do a fantastic job as the first- and second-act villains. They carry the show. There's not much else to this series, unless you're into clunky social justice metaphors.

It had a very promising start (1st episode) but then it got bogged down with a problem of not having a direction. Luke Cage is mostly used like a garden accessory even though he is supposed to be the main character. Diamondback's menacing act was very annoying and the story between him and Cage was madly stretched. It would have been great had it been handled a bit better (Superhero story with a bit of 70s blacxploitation and a sprinkle of Homicide/Wire could have been magical).

A bit of a miss here but the fairly slow burn blacksploitation isn't without its entertainment value. This probably wasn't the best character for a solo show, but eh it sets up some of the other Marvel Netflix stuff.

Mixing The Wire with Shaft didn't really do its thing here, because of pretty weak characters, except for Misty, Shades and Claire perhaps, and a corny view of politics and mafia business. The supernatural didn't weave into the plot properly, so it felt quite alienating at times. The music contributed greatly to the overall good atmosphere, though, and Cage is a decent character, but way too shallow to come anywhere near Jessica Jones and Daredevil (and their great adversaries).

S1: 62, S2: 65

It's less interesting looking back. Some villains had more potential than others.

I'm really enjoying this. I had heard it was not as good but I think it is better than that. Season 1 rating only - will update as I watch other seasons.

Couldn't finish it. What I watched was fine, but supremely uninteresting.

[through episode 6, then abandoned] Had to give up on this one. Just incredibly bland writing that doesn't seem to really have any reason for existing beyond the Marvel branding.

Luke Cage himself is a really cool character, and so I enjoyed the show because of him, but unfortunately the stories he found himself in weren't as interesting for the most part.

The intriguing storyline and good cast keep proceedings engaging. Also, the soundtrack is fantastic, some of the characters have interesting arcs and, probably most importantly, shows focused on black people, representing the culture, heritage and reality of black communities, can never stop being refreshing. Despite that, "Luke Cage" as a whole fails to rise above the tropes of the genre, undercut by contrived dialogues, predictable plot devices and mostly average fight choreographies.

On Series 1 only | --- Crazy busy ? - hope to fill in review (in detail) when have time. For now just score & maybe notes. Hope everyone is well & watching good stuff ?

I never enjoyed Luke Cage. The acting is good, but the pacing is glacial and something interesting only happens for about 5 minutes every 4 episodes. Each episode seems to also include an unabridged song from the catalogue of African-American musical history; some of which is good, some of which is painful. I couldn't ever stand Woodard's Maria Dillard.

Excellent show somewhat betrayed by writing. Diamondback in particular is a wasted villain. Good actor, terrible backstory and motivations.

A mesh of magnificence and mediocrity. With an outstanding soundtrack but terrible fight choreography. Fitting casting with some strong characters scrambled with cartoonish cutouts of black people. Interesting story-line cut short by some mediocre acting and writing. Good representation of real issues but diminished by shoehorned references and dropped names of famous black people for the sake of it. Nevertheless a good try in the good direction on how black people should be represented in tv.

s1: 60 // s2: 60

S01: Good; S02: Awesome

Season 1

I pretty much forgot that Luke Cage was a MCU superhero and just soaked up the Harlem vibe of this show. Probably the most interesting of the MCU Netflix shows in terms of going beyond what folk expect from a superhero show. It's a little heavy-handed in its handling of race issues and sometimes strays into blaxploitation territory, but overall it's a solid show.

Amazing character growth and development. Amazing visuals. Pushing forward the representation of POC.

Its very cool,the soundtrack is great and the characters and the world feel grounded and real for almost the entirety of the show only to be ruined by a character introduced mid-season.Its pace per episode is pretty bad as well...

Well, this show now came out nine months ago and I've yet to work my way through its thirteen episodes, so I guess it's officially the moment to call time of death on my attempt at getting through it. Just didn't grab me I guess. Mahershala Ali is great as Cottonmouth, like a slightly more colorful and comic booked up version of an antagonist you'd find in The Wire or something. Little else grabbed me.

Good but not the best of the Netflix/Marvel show,looking foward to The Defenders.

Definitely a format that fits better Marvel's lesser known super heros.

W2E1P1S0V1M1A1R0. I tried, but when I turned it back on after months away, the first line was "Man, these wounds are kicking my ass!" Seriously? Daredevil at least survived on the occasionally good (if overwrought) action sequence, because it relied on martial arts. But a TV-budget super strength focus will always look stupid (a la Jessica Jones), and this was no exception. There is literally zero tactical reason to throw someone through a window EVERY TIME you are in a fight.

Blaxploitation w/timely, more thoughtful attempts at social issues replacing more exploitative elements; or maybe a superhero version of Fat Albert. Actors have the right look, but I was a bit disappointed by acting. Also, wished filmmaking was more interesting, although I understand this is a TV show.

It's okay, but not near as good as Daredevil. The story telling is very slow and sadly Mike Colter can't act well enough. It's worth of watching, but don't expect too much.

Il grosso problema di questa serie è la mancanza di personaggi carismatici e di una storyline coinvolgente, si salva per alcune puntate ben riuscite. La seconda stagione inizia malissimo con puntate di una noia mortale, poi pian piano si riprende, ma non appassiona mai. La svolta dark di Luke poteva essere un ottimo spunto per il futuro, ma la cancellazione ha stroncato tutto sul nascere.

this is a boring, boring television show

I've never given the other Marvel shows a fair shot, but I continued to watch this one simply because I like the soundtrack and complete absence of spandex.The guy who plays Shades sure likes to look cool in front of the camera.

started off strong but SPOILER once Cottonmouth goes, things got bland, way too preachy and too much on the nose. really loved the music though, I want a club like Harlem's Paradise here in Switzerland.

Pretty lame thru out, but gets particularly worse in the second half. Found Colter's character shallow and his acting wooden, I guess his idea of acting is inhaling and exhaling a little louder when the shit hits the fan. The writing isn't too good either, most characters are either two dimensional or have lame motivations (or both) that just doesn't hold up given the circumstances. I liked the soundtrack tho.

had a promising first half, but the show went downhill pretty fast. The last couple episodes were pretty tedious.