All
of this to say, that as excited as I was for the premiere of Luke Cage, I found this first episode
extraordinarily underwhelming. “Moment Of
Truth” did a good job of building the world of Harlem with the ambitions for
this show on full display, but the execution is clunky and lackluster. Strap
yourself in, this is going to be a very in-depth review. Let’s take it from the
top.
First
off, I really enjoyed the Luke Cage
credits. It’s a small thing, but it tells us
right off the bat that this show isn’t just about Cage, but about Harlem and,
by extension, black life. Themes of black power and masculinity are interwoven
throughout the pilot, starting in the first scene, appropriately set in a
barbershop. For upstart customer Shameek, black power is about quick money and
violence. We later hear this idea echoed by crime lord Cottonmouth who calls
himself the n-word and says it’s violent people like him that keep his
Councilwoman cousin in office.
On
the other side of the fence, we have Cage and his belief in hard work and
incremental change. After his temporary promotion to bartender, I love how Mike
Colter makes sure to slide the lime all the way around the Cosmo before
presenting it to love-interest and detective Misty Knight. This is a man who
takes pride in doing a good job even if it’s
as a hair sweeper or a dish washer. Pop and the amorous Patricia also support
this view with Patricia saying “Nothing wrong with a black man working.”
However,
as much as I talked about black pride, black power and black masculinity, these
themes are not really fleshed out in the pilot. They tie into the heist plot
and Shameek’s violent death, but have no bearing
on Cage himself or the ending of the episode. Instead, the pilot indulges in
some very half-baked talk of responsibility and change.
This
conflict is also set up early on, with Pop telling Cage to get out there and
help people with his super powers and Cage responding that he isn’t ready. This material essentially boils down to “With
great power, comes great responsibility” and is not all that interesting
despite Herculean acting efforts from both Frankie Faison and Mike Colter as
Pop and Cage, respectively. We know that Cage is going to embrace his
powers at some point, so the tension isn’t there. If there was a reason why
Cage isn’t interested in being a superhero, it would be more understandable,
but instead the scene gifts us with a bunch of clunky backstory about prison,
his dead wife Reva, and an experimentation of some kind. This naked exposition
undoubtedly could have waited for another episode and only serves to muddy the
waters.
Later,
Cage has a chance to stop Shameek and his friend Chico from participating in a
heist but chooses to do nothing instead. After again standing by when he could
have saved Shameek, he justifies his inaction by telling Pop: “You live and die by your choices.” Pop disagrees, telling
Cage that he tries to get kids off the streets and into the barbershop where
they can be saved. Following this line of logic, doing nothing is almost as bad
as participating.
The
thing is, the episode itself disproves this. Shameek was lured into the barbershop and still
chose to kill quite a few people, including one of his partners, in cold blood.
Here, there could be an interesting discussion about whether Shameek could be
saved or whether he was worth saving. What is Luke Cage’s responsibility to
young men like Shameek, lured by the siren song of money, power, and respect
through violence?
The
episode chooses to not even touch these ideas. Instead, to get Luke Cage back
into fighting form, it once again retreats to the confusing backstory of prison
and Reva. After a, frankly terrible, speech from Reva about loneliness and
prison convinces Cage not to run away, he suddenly decides to save his landlord
from the Councilwoman’s group of extortionists.
Adding
to these under-cooked themes of blackness and responsibility are a mélange of
random ideas and scenes. It feels a lot like this episode just threw a lot of
things at the wall and saw what stuck for use in future episodes. First, the
sex scene between Cage and Misty Knight was hot but didn’t really add much to our understanding of the two
characters. Also, the introduction of Shades was ridiculous and added yet more
unnecessary exposition about shadowy things we don’t know and/or care about. To
make his presence doubly pointless, Cottonmouth’s underling later says that
Chico told them who his conspirator was with his dying breath, so Shades’ entire
reason for being there doesn’t make sense. It could be argued that the scene of
Cottonmouth playing soulful keyboard was an indication of his closeness with
Harlem through music, but I’m tempted to call it even more padding. Finally, the
Councilwoman’s motives were too obscured, coming off as a little too
hypocritical in needing the money but hating the business of getting it. The
dialogue was also all over the map, and I groaned at several lines (I have a
list, but the winner, or, more accurately, loser, was definitely “Everyone has
a gun, no-one has a father”).
I’m not saying all of these things to hate on the show, and
I actually enjoyed “Moment Of Truth” more than it may seem from this review. It’s
just that there is so much potential in this show. For one, the cast is
fantastic all-around. Frankie Faison as Pop is a wonder, and Colter plays Cage
with a marvelous world-weariness that can’t quite hide his innate pride. Mahershala
Ali is a great scenery-chewing villain, and he is legitimately terrifying when
he beats Shameek to death. We didn’t see too much of Simone Missick as
Detective Misty Knight, but she has a ton of chemistry with Colter and I hope
she turns up more.
I’m just slightly disappointed here because Luke Cage has a real opportunity here to
examine superheroes from a unique and unapologetically black perspective. All
the pieces are in place, and the talent is there. But for now, the ambition is
outstripping the focus and actual ground-level storytelling. With high
expectations must come high execution. I truly believe this show can be
something special and, despite my criticisms here, I know that I’m already
itching to watch the next one.
Grade: C+
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
•
The music was consistently fantastic
throughout the episode. I’m still not sure about intercutting the Paradise
concert and the heist, but nobody can deny that Raphael Saadiq kills it on stage.
•
I liked Mike Colter’s casual lifting
of the washing machine. His physicality and magnetism allow him to quietly
dominate any scene he is a part of.
•
I really liked Shameek’s little dance
after he murders the gunrunners. You can see all the terror and adrenaline and
bravado he has in that two-step. Also liked Shameek’s little goodbye wave after
Patricia leaves the barber shop. I can only hope that we will be seeing more of
Jermel Howard in flashbacks.
•
A moment I didn’t like was Cage’s “Impossible.
You stand out in any room you're in.” Indicative of the whole episode, saying
too much. Should’ve just went with “Impossible.”
•
Cage is packing “The
Invisible Man” by Ellison. Also, “Black Folktales”, “Attica”
and “Outliers”.
•
“I’m not for hire”
Photo Credit: Netflix/Marvel
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