Is this thing on?
Luke Cage love
After watching seven episodes I can say without a doubt that Luke Cage is the best Marvel show yet. It has fantastic, compelling villains, tons of amazing women characters and great dialogue. Plus, Mike Colter is a gift to the world, the show is gorgeously shot, and it doesn't suffer from the weird Netflix pacing that hampered both Daredevil and Jessica Jones, much as I like them both.
Just as it felt like the main arc of the first half of the show was winding down, we get hit with the whammy of Cornell being killed by Maria. It's genuinely shocking, because I'd assumed he was going to be around for the whole 13 episodes. It's also almost a shame, because Cotton Mouth is so complex and almost likeable even as he's murdering people.
I love the flashbacks in this show - getting the backstory on the beginning of Luke and Reva's relationship is so cool. I now properly love Reva and am gutted we probably won't get to see any more of her (although I guess there's still room for more flashbacks.) I also love what we get to see of Cornell and Maria's childhood.
Misty Knight is an absolute joy. I liked her friendship with Scarfe and wished it could have continued - I like that her sleeping with Luke so far hasn't been used to slut-shame her (although I'm a bit worried what will happen to her professionally if it comes out now that it seems he's going to be a suspect.)
I love the bits of the wider Marvel universe we're getting. In particular, black market weaponry from Chitauri tech makes perfect sense, and whatever the fuck was really going on at Seagate was cool and interesting without detracting from the overall realistic vibe of the show.
There are so many little things - I love Claire's mum phlegmatically arriving with her van and then telling Luke she'd kill him if Claire got hurt. Claire is still being used as a superhero sounding board a bit too much, but we're at least getting more of her personality in this one. It's beginning to seem like she might be the one to bring the Defenders together, which is cool.
Six more episodes to go and I have to know how it ends - I'm clearly not leaving the house for the rest of this weekend!



