Luke Cage has great promise with high ratings and big fan base

Andrew Sandoval
Mesa Legend

Andrew SandavolLuke Cage is out, and “Sweet Christmas” it holds nothing back, powerful, sexy and action packed. From the first episode we get a brilliant narrative, about a man who’s running from his past, and trying to build a future. The show has a great pattern that it follows, many of this seasons episodes start out slow, building up tremendously and using the music played at the villain’s nightclub, to amplify many of the shows highlighting moments, maybe to an even higher degree than other shows out there.  The acting here is very strong probably the strongest piece of the show, (Mike Colter’s) portrayal of “Power Man” or Luke Cage, is spot on, like they ripped him strait from the comic book pages, marvel has truly hit a stride these past few years and it doesn’t look like they are slowing down any time soon. There are many pivotal scenes that make up who Luke Cage is; a man of righteousness, and a man of color, from his confrontation outside Crispus Attucks too his moving statement to the police, Cage owns who he is; openly using his power for people who have none of their own. (Simone Missick) as detective Misty Knight was also another fantastic choice, that woman has a nose for the details’, throughout the show she reconstructs events in her head as they transpired at various crime scenes, sometimes to her own detriment. “I see everything and I forget nothing”.

luke-cage
Gabriela Juarez/ Mesa Legend

The show has a lot of themes that tie into our culture today, the idea of a bullet proof black man in America is a symbol many of us can get behind, in the same light, later in the season Luke will feel the pain that anyone who’s been shot can understand. As far as themes go family also plays a big role. Cage finds his in a man named “Pop” (Frankie Faison) an old barber who’s lived in the heart of Harlem since before Luke was born, Cage sweeps up hair in his shop and reveres him like a father; ultimately being the catalyst for Luke to make his transition from man in the shadows, to hero in the streets. Cottonmouth (Mahershala Ali) one of the main antagonist goes through a complex arch from start to finish, when a hit goes wrong and Pops get killed by one of cottonmouths own men, He takes it upon himself to throw his associate off the roof in an act of fitting revenge, this a trend Cottonmouth seems to follow throughout the show, if someone disappoints him he deals with them, in a very permanent kind of way. That theme of revenge and rage is a reoccurring one in Cottonmouths storyline; his cousin Mariah Dillard, played by the talented (Alfre Woodard), also falls into that same wheel house of rage throughout the season, and her performance is one of the most transformative throughout this seasons run, from halfhearted politician too full blown sociopathic egomaniac.
This show has a great blend of deep philosophical ideals and common current events that seem pang off our real world, and it even bleeds into how Luke Cage and Cottonmouth see their own world. Were Cottonmouth has a family first mentality, believing everything he has is owed to him anyway, built on the vines of his lineage; Luke takes on Pops advice and goes “forward always”, never giving in to what fate lies before him, always fighting for what he knows is right in his heart. Saying some expectations were fulfilled would be understatement, from the throwback to the original costume to his cool catch phrase, “Sweet Christmas”, although the show is updated to fit current trends of dialog you can feel the old school style it whispers through the cracks, and the show is littered with Easter eggs. Alongside the great source material, some crazy twists are thrown in that no one could have seen coming, the other snake in the grass Diamond Back (Erik LaRay Harvey) comes out of the corners quick and cast a much bigger shadow than either Cottonmouth or Dillard. Though the show sees three different main villains with three different goals throughout the series, they all have the same underlying theme, the rage within them manifests itself as wrath outside of them, they are fueled by anger and it splashes out into the streets of Harlem and right onto Cages lap.
Rosaria Dawson is superb in her reappraisal as one of New York’s night nurses Claire Temple.
Her character continues to grow as she decides finally, that her path is too help these super powered people with her nursing abilities.

Luke Cage and h spend a lot of screen time together in a total of eight out of the thirteen episodes and by the finale things are heating up pretty nicely for this new power couple. There are few pacing issues at the beginning of the season. It does take some time for things to get going. The only problem this show really has is lack of impactful action, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of fights scenes and shoot-outs, but I was excepting something over the top, a Gatling gun straight to his chest or something crazier than that. The show’s final showdown between Luke and a one of the villains could have used that as opportunity to do something wild. Oh well, I’m sure they are saving all the cool stuff for when “The Defenders” hit the streets in 2017. Temple and Cage is a symphonic allegory to our current societies handling and viewing of urban black males. He’s not in tights or flying around with a cape, he is just a man in a hoodie with extraordinary capabilities and that makes it his responsibility to step up, protect the weak and stop the wicked; pushing everyone around him forward, “never backward, always forward, forward always”.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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