So just finished watching getting through the first season this afternoon. Overall, I'm pretty damn satisfied with how this show turned out. It wasn't overly spectacular, but I definitely feel it was an extremely solid thirteen hours with a lot to recommend it. The showrunners did a great job of making Luke's corner of New York feel rather fresh and unique, in addition to the man himself. Really dug the much more urban nature of the show
Overall, I'd give this rater the show a solid
8/10.
Pros:
-The setting. From the opening scene in the barbershop, this show had a really great sense of
place that did a lot to win me over, a neighborhood with it's own rich sense of history and culture which in turn made it feel so much more tangible and lived-in. Allowed you to immediately develop a sense of Luke Cage's connection to the place, as well as the other villains.
-Fun supporting characters. Lots of very naturalistic actors in the cast which really helped sell the drama. The characters all felt like part of this very expansive, connected community which added so much to the urban texture of the show.
-Loved the opening title credits, in addition to the theme music, so much so I'd get annoyed whenever Netflix would automatically skip over it whenever I would start a new episode.
-Thought they did a great job with the subtle social commentary running throughout the series. I thought the increasing use of the bulletproof hoodie in Harlem was especially powerful, as was Method Man's rap.
-Liked the wider use of references to the MCU universe. From the fun (Justin Hammer reference!) to the subtle (
Trish Talks briefly making an appearance). Also loved the idea of someone selling pirate copies of bootleg Battle of New York footage, I thought that was particularly creative.
-Claire kicking ass and taking names.
Cons
-Commented on this briefly in the other thread, but I felt that for the most part, all the villains were painted as rather incompetent and disorganized from the start, which was probably only an inevitability when you pair them off against a super-strong, bullet proof protagonist. As a result, Cottonmouth and Dilliard never felt particularly threatening to me, or particularly well developed enough for me to invest myself in their individual subplots. As a result I felt a lot of the tension was lost whenever they would come up with another, fairly rushed scheme to take Cage down.
-I know it's from the comics, but DIamondback being Cage's brother really didn't work for me and it made their relationship come across as overly convoluted. Also, his Hammer Tech approved "Battle" costume was too ridiculous to take seriously.
-The finale episode felt like a bit of a mess, consisting of five minutes of a dubiously choreographed superhero fight sequence, and forty five more minutes of everyone lounging around a police station licking their wounds. Wasn't overly keen on the oddly downbeat tone of the ending either, felt too deflating.
Can we talk about how Rosario Dawn (Claire) is the real MVP of the Marvel TV universe? She's appeared in all the series, has always been able to take care of herself, and finely straddles that line between friendly and helpful and not taking shit from anyone. I love her character
I
absolutely loved Claire in this series, she's just so great. I've said in the past how much I've really dug her character, so to see her pop up again here in such a substantial role was a real treat. I just love her unwavering capacity for rushing to help those in need, in addition to her toughness....she's exactly the kind of mentor any upcoming superhero would be lucky to have. It was great to learn a little more about her background in this as well, after seeing her revisit her roots at the diner and meeting her Mom.
I thought it was kind of amusing how strongly it was implied that Claire is somehow going to find her way into Danny Rand's life now with that Colleen Wing reference in the finale. I mean, I love Claire...but it seems a bit too coincidental that she'll now have randomly managed to stumble into all
four of the Defenders lives by accident. Hard to complain though, because I love Claire. Rosario Dawson's doing so much for these Netflix series.
