Not as instantly entertaining as “Marvel’s Daredevil” and
not as progressive as “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” I’m curious to see how “Marvel’s
Luke Cage,” with its first season premiering in its entirety this Friday on
Netflix, lands with the American public. It’s another solid entry in Netflix’s
Marvel line-up, driven by performances that feel far more lived-in than your
typical superhero saga. In fact, special powers are almost an afterthought in
this drama, a show that’s closer to “The Wire” in tone than it is “Captain
America: Civil War.” Sometimes the dramatic heft of the series can be to its
detriment, as “Luke Cage” feels like its striving for cultural
importance and commentary but then often pulls back just as it starts to sound
like it has something to say. It’s the kind of show that will drop references
to Black Lives Matter and Malcolm X but then seem like it’s moving on quickly
from any sort of cultural or racial commentary lest it alienate that much
needed Marvel fan base. And watching multiple episodes in a row amplifies the
relative thinness of this show, both narratively and subtextually. However, the
cast is strong—including one likely future star—and the production values are
high. It’s an entertaining drama that sometimes feels like a missed opportunity
to be something greater.
Transitioning from “Jessica Jones,” Mike Colter again plays
Luke Cage, a man who basically has the superpowers of The Thing of the Fantastic Four, without the
skin problem. Luke has immeasurable strength and unbreakable skin, although,
like so many Marvel heroes in this universe, he’s not exactly using his powers
to their greatest advantage. When the series starts, he’s working two jobs—one sweeping
up at a barbershop and another at a hot Harlem nightclub run by criminal boss
Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali). The two worlds intersect in the
premiere when an employee at the barbershop is a part of an inside job that
strikes at Cottonmouth’s empire. As the Kingpin of this series (although much
less engaging as a big bad, through no fault of the great Ali but the writing) tries to hold on to his power, Cage is forced to step in for the little people
who could use some of his strength.
There are a few women in Cage’s life, but the most
interesting is the newest: a cop named Misty Knight (Simone Missick). She’s
instantly attracted to Cage, meeting him at the club. The two have palpable
chemistry, but her character is too often pushed to the background over
subsequent episodes, running an investigation with her partner Scarfe (Frank
Whaley) into why violence keeps erupting all over Harlem and how Cage is
attached to all of it. Her character is indicative of both the strengths and
weaknesses of “Luke Cage” in that the performer is strong enough to make Knight
interesting but you’d much rather see her and Cage flirting over drinks than
the machinations of the plot. Rosario Dawson also returns as Claire Temple,
solidifying that she’s going to be the connective tissue between all of these
shows.
It doesn’t help that “Marvel’s Luke Cage” is weighed down
with TV dialogue—“The only direction in life that matters is forward”; “Boys
run, men stand”; “I ain’t guilty but I ain’t innocent either”—and doesn’t have
much of a visual language to make it interesting on that level. And I’m annoyed
that I could predict exactly when the flashback/origin episode would kick in.
These series have already gotten that predictable.
So why the cautious recommendation? The cast. Ali, so
fantastic in the upcoming “Moonlight,” and the always-great Alfre Woodard as
his politician cousin who helps him pull his strings, add depth to characters
who could become more interesting as the season rolls along. And Colter is a
unique lead in the Marvel universe in that he doesn’t always have the right
quip for the current situation. He’s a strong, silent type, and Colter sells that there’s so much going on under the surface that Cage doesn’t always know
how to process it. Dawson is always a welcome supporting cast member and
Missick is a likely future star. If people take to “Luke Cage” it will be for the
cast. I just hope they’re given a bit more to do in the second half of the
season and future ones.
