Luke Cage, season 2

Or, the one where it’s evident Luke never watched the fifth season of Angel but Mariah has, while the scriptwriters and directors are really into The Godfather and film noir. And the overall verdict is: very mixed. Acting is great (and the season takes full advantage of having Alfe Woodard at its disposal as a main villain this time around), sense of place is still the strongest of any of the Marvel tv shows, there are no bewildering clunkers like the instant from s1 when Mariah after an incident of police brutality got to show her political demagogue powers by… making Harlem cry to give the police more weapons. Also, Misty has a great arc, and as opposed to Jessica Jones‘ second season , which doesn’t mention any Defenders related events, Luke Cage‘s second season mentions them left, right and center, with the connections made there continuing to exist in places where it makes sense. (I.e., Foggy continues to be Luke’s lawyer when he needs one, Misty goes to Colleen both for physical post-injury training and to confide in, and Danny Rand shows up when it makes sense that he would, reminding me that not so coincidentally his best scenes in Defenders were with Luke and demonstrating that the actor when given a better script and direction is apparantly fine. Oh, and Claire remembers belatedly what her Matt Murdock experience has taught her re: dating a certain type.

But. On the spoilery downside, there’s our central character, Luke Cage, and what the show does and doesn’t do with him. I’ll get to what under the cut. Let me just add that imo, the season is the story of the three villains – Mariah, Shades and new character Bushmaster/John McGyver. They and their conflict are what is driving the overall story, and it only intermittently involves Luke. If you want a show to be protagonist-driven, that’s a bit of a structural problem right there. Now, onto spoiler stuff.
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