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Luke Cage "S1E1 Moment of Truth" - Review: You Will Feel The Power!


Luke Cage "S1E1 Moment of Truth" - Review: You Will Feel The Power!
9 out of 10

The 2014 debut season of The Flash won a lot fandom and critical acclaim because, quite frankly it was awesome (that finale will make me cry for the rest of my life) but in some ways, it had an unfair advantage over its rivals. That was having its principle character launched on its parent show, Arrow, 6 months prior. It gave the show a running start as many fans walked in already invested in Grant Gustin as a likeable hero, allowing the show build itself up quicker. So in that respect, Luke Cage’s feature series drops with no shortage of expectations. The prior Netflix Marvel ventures have already shown they don’t have a head start, a helping hand or really anything at all to make them a success because their sheer quality alone has been momolithic.... yet for the first time, they have one. Mike Coulter’s Luke Cage was a significant feature and genuine highlight of the Jessica Jones series. Even fans that have never picked up a comic book will commence their binge with a real sense of familiarity to its titular star. Does that give Luke Cage the potential to yet again raise the Marvel/Netflix ceiling? Well from its first episode, it’s certainly possible because this Power man take the spotlight with no shortage of style.

Moment of Truth – After the events in Hell’s Kitchen made the super powered Luke Cage a fugitive, he’s been lying low in Harlem, struggling to get by on cash jobs all while behind its scenes political and criminal powers are fighting of control of the district. An incident close to homes looks to get Luke back in the hero game.

In many ways, this is comparable the beginning of Jessica Jones. The episode serves to transition from someone hiding from their powers to being moved into action just as Jessica was by learning about a new Killgrave victim. It’s a familiar beginning that comes at risk of cliché but the character and world-building elements it delivers along the way keep it fresh and interesting. Luke effectively gets an “Uncle Ben” moment of realization as he witnesses the fatal consequences of his inaction. Yet the episode takes its time build the emotional ties before landing the blow such as the lengthy barbershop opening establishing scene or Luke’s exchanges with its proprietor Pops, an early likeable favourite as a reformed gangster-turned community figure. It doesn’t overdo the ideals of moral righteousness, merely showcasing Luke living in an environment that needs a hero. We meet Harlem’s principle public force for good in the gentrification battling politician Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard – 12 Years A Slave) as having unwelcome and unwanted ties to her cousin and criminal club owner Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali – House of Cards) to achieve her goals. 

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Although he does make a good debut, the jury is well and truly out on whether or not Ali’s Stokes will be worthy of standing aside Fisk and Killgrave in the villain ranks but his character does gift the episode's best scenes courtesy of his lavish jazz nightclub location. The production design is gorgeous as Stokes conducts his business from the balcony while the glamorous patrons mingle bellow. It looks set to be a staple location of the series and that’s a very welcome thing. It also serves as our introduction to Misty Knight (Simone Missick – Wayward Pines). Missick and Coulter immediately show some great chemistry, which looks set to continue in both work and play.

Already, we get some fun MCU references and tie-ins. Pop’s hilariously refers to Jessica Jones as Luke’s “rebound chick”. Yet it’s his notions about Luke helping people, “like them other fellas down town” that really sparks the interest. Obviously, one of those fellas will be Matt Murdock dispatching his blind justice, but this is likely also a reference to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man fighting crime in Manhattan (is that downtown?... I don’t know New York) as witnessed via viral videos in Civil War. Wilson Fisk gets a drop of a cautionary tale for the would-be criminal mogul too, and fellow jailbird Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2) even gets some product placement. It’s all nice little touches that keeps the show feeling within the bigger picture. Then to top it all off, we even get someone flogging bootleg footage of “The Incident” on the street corner, which things back to a central theme of the entire Netflix/Marvel project, showing New York from a more personal perspective in the aftermath of The Avengers events. The final scene is certainly a comics name drop to the “Hero for Hire” publication but whether or not the series will take that route remains unclear.

As you’d expect, there are plenty of teases towards exploring Luke’s past, his superpower origins. In Jessica Jones, we just got a one word explanation,” experiment” but already, we have a connection towards expansion via Theo Rossi’s (Sons of Anarchy) slick criminal Shades. Similarly, we see that Luke is still troubled by the death of his former wife with Parisa Fitz-Henley reprising her role as Reva in flashbacks. Overall, the episode ends out clear messages that we will be meeting the man behind the unbreakable skin.

So Moment of Truth (fun fact – all the episode names are Gang Starr songs) hits all the right beats. It sets all the pieces into place. It introduces us to a pool of likable supporting characters taking the pressure of its titular hero, and most importantly of all, it gives us a reason to keep on watching. Those offended by it should know that the N-word is used but generally with context and one character even voices by much, they hate it. That aside, Luke Cage has arrived and it brings the power.

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