Luke Cage: Season Two Review

"I am Harlem, and Harlem is me."

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this season. Or rather, I don’t know how I feel about where Luke Cage is going next. I’d been along for the ride for the first 12 episodes, but the finale left me dumbfounded. So, I will do something a little unorthodox. I’m going to review the first 12 episodes as one unit and look at the finale separately. Let’s see how this goes.

Needless to say, there will be spoilers.

Mark's Best of 2016

Seasons greetings, faithful readers, and welcome to my look back at the best that the idiot box had to offer us in 2016.

Luke Cage: You Know My Steez

“Sometimes backwards to move forward. Always.”

I’ve got a friend who’s a fight-scene snob. Don’t even get him started on Buffy. Suggest Daredevil—maybe that hallway scene, eh?—and he guffaws. “Americans just don’t know how to do fight scenes,” he says. (He’s American.) And now, whenever I watch a Big Fight Scene Moment, I think of him: how would he say it measures up?

Luke Cage: Soliloquy of Chaos

"You got this all figured out, huh?"
"No... actually, I don't."

Going into the finale, not having everything figured out is the best place to be. Anything can happen.

Luke Cage: Now You're Mine

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis?"

Luke Cage does Die Hard in a nightclub with a superhero.

Luke Cage: Take It Personal

"Get your Sharpton on. Make this moment all about you."

Luke struggles to survive while Claire searches for a cure. Meanwhile, Mariah takes advantage of the tensions in Harlem to scrabble for power.

Luke Cage: DWYCK

"Sweet Christmas."

This was mostly a really strong episode. That is, until the last few minutes, when it became a horror show.

Luke Cage: Blowin’ Up the Spot

“Can you dig it?”
“What the hell?”

After a shocking twist and a shocking cliffhanger in “Manifest,” the eighth episode of Luke Cage resets all of our narrative expectations.

Luke Cage: Manifest

"I'm sending you to jail."
"No, I'm sending you to jail."

"Family first. Always."

We finally got to know Cottonmouth, his past as his grandmother's victim, and discovered that it was even possible to empathize with the guy.

Luke Cage: Suckas Need Bodyguards

"Yeah, I'd rather be a smart ass than a dumb ass."

Me too, Misty. Me too.
We spent a lot of time looking at characters for who they really are and comparing it to who they think they are.

Luke Cage: Just to Get a Rep

"You can't control what people say. Just be the best man that you can be. And always make sure they spell your name right."

Harlem has a new hero. No, not Luke Cage, dummies. I'm talking about Claire "Boy did that guy pick the wrong purse to snatch" Temple!

Luke Cage: Step in the Arena

"Slavery was always a good offer... to a master."

While Luke Cage struggles to rescue his friend from underneath the dark cave of a collapsed tenement, we begin to untangle his mysterious past.

Luke Cage: Who's Gonna Take the Weight?

"It's like a beehive of misery. That place is a suicide mission, for real."

From the chaotic cold open to the explosive final moments, this was a big episode.

Luke Cage: Code of the Streets

“The best black hero this side of Shaft.”

In a recent interview with the LA Times, showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker discussed his vision for Luke Cage: “Harlem has always been the nexus of music, politics, culture, criminal figures... Every place that you walk on the streets, there's this history... You feel that culture and that vibe. We were able to use Harlem for Harlem.”

Luke Cage: Moment of Truth

"I've got you."

Luke Cage. What a guy. Tall, handsome. Indestructible.

Luke Cage

Season 1 | Season 2 |
Related Links | Cast |

Luke Cage (2016-2018) is the third Marvel Cinematic Universe entry on Netflix, this time centering on the bulletproof bartender previously introduced as Jessica Jones' love interest, and his emergence as a superhero fighting crime in Harlem.

The Agents of Doux covered Luke Cage with episode reviews for season one, and a season review for season two.

Season One

1.1 Moment of Truth
1.2 Code of the Streets
1.3 Who's Gonna Take the Weight?
1.4 Step in the Arena
1.5 Just to Get a Rep
1.6 Suckas Need Bodyguards
1.7 Manifest
1.8 Blowin' Up the Spot
1.9 DWYCK
1.10 Take It Personal
1.11 Now You're Mine
1.12 Soliloquy of Chaos
1.13 You Know My Steez

Season Two

Season Two review (reviewed as a full season instead of individual episode reviews)

2.1 Soul Brother #1
2.2 Straighten It Out
2.3 Wig Out
2.4 I Get Physical
2.5 All Souled Out
2.6 The Basement
2.7 On and On
2.8 If It Ain't Rough, It Ain't Right
2.9 For Pete's Sake
2.10 The Main Ingredient
2.11 The Creator
2.12 Can't Front on Me
2.13 They Reminisce Over You

Related Links

Our Marvel Index includes links to every Marvel movie and TV review on Doux Reviews

Cast

Mike Colter (Luke Cage)
Mahershala Ali (Cornell Stokes)
Simone Missick (Misty Knight)
Theo Rossi (Shades Alvarez)
Alfre Woodard (Mariah Dillard)
Frankie Faison (Henry 'Pop' Hunter)
Frank Whaley (Detective Scarfe)
Darius Kaleb (Lonnie)
Erik LaRay Harvey (Diamondback)
Jaiden Kaine (Zip)
Justin Swain (Bailey)
Deborah Ayorinde (Candace Miller)