In the aftermath of season one, the cast of characters are all contemplating their personal histories, the history of their communities, and their responsibilities toward said communities. It’s a season that, more so than in its debut year, tries to be about things - many of them compelling. In its second season, Luke Cage gets more ambitious but also messier. Photo: David Lee/Netflix/David Lee/Netflix It’s a powerful image, but one that the show undoes after a few episodes by introducing super-bullets. Still, the most damning choice Luke Cage makes in its first season is its reversal of its central metaphor: a hero who is a bulletproof black man in a hoodie. Unfortunately, the season slowly undermines everything it has going for it, most notably by pushing aside Stokes in favor of a far less compelling killer named Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey). He’s just a big, indestructible dude, casually wrecking stuff without any grace and finesse because he doesn’t need any. Mike Colter plays Cage with a stoic confidence, and the depiction of his powers is consistently fun to watch. It’s initial villain, Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes is played with casual aplomb by Mahershala Ali, and its emphasis on music - both the score composed by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and the lineup of performers who regularly show up in Stokes’s Harlem Paradise nightclub - give it a vibe that easily stands out from most other Netflix shows. It’s nine passable episodes in the service of a legitimately interesting finale, but that doesn’t change the fact that this season could’ve started in the exact place it ends.Ī hip-hop Western with a well-defined sense of style, Luke Cage - the first modern Marvel property with a majority black cast - makes a strong first impression. The degree to which season two commits to asking this question is fascinating, but the leeway it leaves itself to potentially undermine its answers is frustrating. If you do watch, you’ll see Iron Fist interrogate the very premise of its first season, stopping again and again to consider if Danny Rand should even be the Iron Fist. It doesn’t feel like a chore to watch the way the first one did, but it also assumes you’re interested in seeing the show improve, which is a tall order in a field this crowded. Among the first tweaks you’ll notice is length: Although its episodes still clock in at 50 minutes on average, season two is only 10 episodes long and feels much better for it. It’s a season that seems less like it’s trying to tell a story of its own, and more like an urgent attempt at course-correction. Photo: Linda Kallerus/Netflix/Linda Kallerus/Netflix A plot like that should be loads of fun (again: undead ninjas!) but The Defenders is strangely listless and uninventive in its fight scenes - a reminder that, no matter how different each of their individual series are, the Netflix roster of Marvel heroes mostly consists of people in regular clothes punching harder than the average person. As fun as it might be to see all four heroes together onscreen, any levity is undercut by an excessively dour plot, as The Hand, a clan of undead ninjas, makes its power play to take over New York. Although it’s the shortest of the series at just eight episodes, it still suffers from not having enough plot to carry it through - and it’s further hamstrung by how much of that plot is shouldered by Iron Fist, its least interesting character. But where The Avengers succeeded in its mission following years of buildup, The Defenders is a disappointment. Marvel’s Netflix lineup was largely inspired by The Avengers, and uses the exact same playbook: Introduce four heroes in solo outings, and then have them team up in one big crossover feature.
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