Luke Cage - Season 1 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Creator: Cheo Hodari Coker
	Actors: Mike Colter (Million Dollar Baby, Men in Black 3), Simone Missick, Theo Rossi (Sons of Anarchy TV-series), Mahershala Ali (House of Cards TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: September 2017, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Luke Cage (Colter), a man with impenetrable skin who tries to live a discreet life in Harlem, cannot help but intervening when he sees how the neighbourhood is corrupted by the businessman called Cottonmouth (Ali) and his politician cousin.
Review: With this series I am now up-to-date on what proposes Netflix as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Luke Cage was already well-introduced in the first season of Jessica Jones and it also appears in the gathering of The Defenders. I wrongly watched Luke Cage after that one, but I can confirm that it doesn't matter much, except that it gives a bit more background on the character and allows understanding some more references. Note that the character of the nurse Claire played by Rosario Dawson (Deathproof, Clerks 2) is much more present that in other series of the Universe, and for a good reason when you see the growing relationship she has with Luke. Out of the four characters in The Defenders, Luke Cage is the one that fights injustice on the smallest scale: no super-enemies, no secret organization or global villain, but more crooks in the neighbourhood. Thus the series can be seen more as a Polar than a Super-hero adventure. The story is rather OK at first although slow, but then I found that after the semi-climax of Episode 7 The Manifest, things get even slower and both story and dialogs get poorer, to the point that I kept on watching just for completeness. It improves a bit towards the end of the season but it is mostly thanks to more Action. I criticized the story and fight scenes in Iron Fist but I found Luke Cage even worst. A few things I liked: the Origins story told on Episode 4 Step in the Arena taking place in the Alcatraz-like jail called Seagate and the actors playing the characters of Shades and Cottonmouth seen in respectively Sons of Anarchy and House of Cards.
Rating: 3 /10