Luke Cage (2016)
It's the latest Marvel show on Netflix, and sure enough, it's great! It's quite a bit different to the previous shows, this one being considerably livelier, somewhat less grimdark, and in general much more at ease with its own inherent silliness - it's still capeshit, after all. That's not to say that there are no parallels to the real world here, as the characters frequently talk about black history, black culture, black music, etc., the setting of Harlem is extensively (and lovingly) showcased, and of course there's a ton of social commentary focusing on the central premise of a bulletproof black man. The characters are great, too, and I have to say that I think Luke himself was done a disservice by his early appearance in
Jessica Jones. Granted, that wasn't his show, so naturally it wasn't going to focus on him, but he's much, much more interesting and likable here as a sophisticated, intelligent man who's thoroughly and unambiguously decent, in stark contrast to Jessica's selfishness and cynicism and Matt Murdock's borderline-sadism. Misty Knight almost steals the show as a brilliant, though troubled detective with her own arc, and both Cottonmouth and Mariah Dillard prove to be solid antagonists, building on these shows' reputation for having the best villains of the MCU.
That is, until about halfway through the season, at which point they're both shoved to the side to make way for the main villain, Diamondback, who is easily the worst part of the show. I mentioned above that
Luke is more comfortable with its general capeshittiness, so to speak, than the previous Netflix shows, and for the most part, it makes that element work. With Diamondback, however, it goes too far. He's too, well, capeshitty. The actor plays him very broadly, hamming it up in almost every scene with lots of mugging, making every line sound as menacing as possible, etc. Adding to that, he even has a couple of stupid gimmicks, like constant monologuing and reciting random quotes from the Bible - and no, it's not like he's even religious or anything. He's a card-carrying villain, someone who knows that he's "the bad guy," and relishes it. If he had been in a network show, or even one of the movies, I might not be so hard on him, but this isn't what we've come to expect from these Netflix shows. It wasn't even what we were expecting from
Luke, given that, again, the first half of the season has a couple of complex characters played excellently by dramatic actors serving as the antagonists. What the hell were they thinking?
That flaw aside - and make no mistake, it's a major one - this is still a fun and enjoyable show.
EDIT:
An excellent article that summarizes my issues with Diamondback and the latter part of the show.