Binge Critic
After finally making my way through all 13 hours of the new Netflix TV show, Marvel’s Luke Cage, I have to say I’m impressed. This being Marvel’s third Netflix show, they continued the streak of excellence that can be found in their previous shows, Jessica Jones and Daredevil, or as I call them, “that purple show” and “that really black and a little bit of red show.”
“Luke Cage” centers around a man with extraordinary strength and bulletproof skin who is mixed up in Harlem’s criminal organizations and decides to shut them down to save Harlem. I give this show five out of five stars, but I do have some complaints with the show.
For starters, no one in the show considers the financial loss incurred through thousands of bullets fired at Luke Cage. Multiple times in the show the “bad guys” say, “Wow, that guy Luke Cage is bulletproof” and then proceed to fire multiple times at him. Not once does anybody say, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t shoot bullets at Luke Cage. Every bullet costs an average of 25 cents, and that adds up with so many of us shooting at him. By shooting at Cage we are wasting lots of capital that could be spent on other useful things for our criminal organization, such as a medical health plan for our families, or even donations to animal shelters around the city, so animals without homes can be kept in sanitary housing.” Completely unrealistic.
There’s also a lack of realism around Luke Cage’s character. While we do hear him talk about his past, and his actions concerning the crime boss “Cottonmouth,” we never get any real depth to Luke’s character. For example, we never hear Luke’s opinion on the Syrian refugee crisis. How am I supposed to believe him as a hero, if I don’t know his view on the socio-economic repercussions of closing or opening borders to refugees in Europe? It’s like the writers don’t consider the effects of geopolitical problems that affect everyone, including Mr. Cage. This can hardly be considered “good” writing.
Finally, I feel as if the title of the show is very misleading. Throughout the show there is a distinct lack of cages. While I understand “Cage” is his last name, having the last name “Cage” implies that he is influenced in some way by cages. Iron Man is clearly a man who has an iron suit, hence the use of the words “Iron” and “Man.”
But yet throughout the show we never see a full-fledged cage. Some might say, “But Leonard, Luke is in a prison at one point and there are very clearly jail bars and the like around Luke.” But those filthy ignoramuses are wrong if they think that fulfills the requirement set by the title for a cage! Jail bars do not constitute a cage! At most they can make up one side of a cage! This inconsistency is infuriating and ruined the show for me. One out of five stars.
