Luke Cage stars Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, and Alfre Woodard.

For those of you not familiar with Marvel’s Netflix shows, Luke Cage is the third show out of four introducing one of Marvel’s “Defenders”. “The Defenders” is a group consisting of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist who fight to protect Hell’s Kitchen from various enemies. The Defenders will be getting a show (of the same name) sometime next year.

In Luke Cage, Mike Colter stars as the title character living in Harlem. Fighting to bring down a corrupt politician and a crime lord, he must face racism, violence, and moral conflicts. Luckily for him, due to an experiment gone wrong, he is bulletproof.

The action in the series, while not the main focus, is quite outstanding. The effects associated with his bulletproof state are fantastic. Things around him explode as the bullets ricochet off of Luke, and the holes that are ripped in his clothes are quite realistic. The stunt work is realistic and quite fun to watch as Cage throws people across rooms and knocks people out with the smack of a metal-like hand.

One thing that surprised me was the comedy in the show. While still a dramatic show, this proves to be more light-hearted than Jessica Jones or Daredevil. Lots of tension is released with each joke or quip told to lighten the mood. Because these instances are frequent, it provides the viewer with a fun show to watch and get excited for as it moves on.

While I really applaud the character development and the overall story, when the show hits the last four or five episodes, it loses a lot of its steam, and kind of seems pretty lazy towards the end. By no means is it bad, but it just doesn’t feel like the writers really had a good way to keep the viewer interested, and therefore the last couple of episodes feel disjointed and lazy.

Another disappointing aspect was the series’ lack of connection to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe. While they do name drop characters like Iron Man and Captain America, reference “The Even” from The Avengers, and have some cameos from characters prevalent in other Netflix Marvel shows, I was really hoping to see an inclusion of Daredevil or Jessica Jones in some way, considering his connection to these characters.

Overall, Luke Cage tells a great story and introduces some fantastic characters that you can get attached to quite easily. While the plot loses its drive in the final five episodes, Luke Cage provides its viewers with an entertaining show that’s extremely fun to binge watch. If you haven’t seen Netflix’s Daredevil or Jessica Jones, I implore you to do so as they give you more insight into the world that Netflix is creating to go along with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I am really looking forward to what comes next, and hope to see more of Luke Cage soon.