CREATED BY Cheo Hodari Coker CAST Mike Colter, Simone Missick, Rosario Dawson, Alfre Woodard, Theo Rossi, Mustafa Shakir, Gabrille Dennis
PLOT After the deaths of Diamondback and Cottonmouth, Luke Cage (Colter) is now Harlem’s most famous man, expected to stop every crime. With Mariah Dillard (Woodard) even more powerful and a new enemy in town, can he be the hero required?
“IS IT EVER okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason?” That line, spoken by Misty Knight (Missick) in episode six, is the key to the excellent second season of Luke Cage. Every one of its major characters is playing a game without rules, a game to save the district of Harlem, and there’s no way to win by playing clean. The constant interest comes from watching how dirty they’re prepared to get.
After a strong start, largely focused on the very dodgy politics of a Harlem under the control of various high-class gangsters, the second half of Luke Cage’s first season lost its nerve and reverted to the comic-book standard. It brought in a boring villain, Diamondback, with a super-suit, and became a mundane test of who can punch harder. The earlier moral chess was largely forgotten. Season 2 has realised its strengths lie in its complicated characters, not in superheroics, and is all the more successful for it.
This story is from the July 2018 edition of Empire Australasia.
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This story is from the July 2018 edition of Empire Australasia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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