Luke Cage: Season 2 Review

Over July 4th & 5th I watched Luke Cage Season 2. It was really good. You remember in my Jessica Jones post I asked when is season 2 ever better than season 1? Well, this might have been the season.

Spoilers Below!




I found this a much tighter and better plotted season than the first, avoiding the mid season change in badguy. And Mariah makes for a fantastic villain. Not only because she’s such a complex character, but because everything she does, she does for both a love of Harlem, and to legitimize her family name.

Shades was a surprising character for me this season. I remember not really liking him in the first season, and felt he was unnecessary overall, but in season 2? He was one of my favorites. Watching him and mariah interact, watching how he felt as she delved deeper and deeper into… insanity? She was certainly delusional by the end.

I appreciated how this season played with rules and rule breaking. Shades was, in spite of the awful things he did, a lawful character. Mariah had a strong shift toward chaos, and Shades couldn’t abide it. The two of them made a compelling pair.

Bushmaster was a less complex character, yet he still had an interesting story arc of his own. And I really appreciated that he wasn’t particularly interested in Luke Cage, but was completely focused on Mariah Dillard Stokes.

Misty Knight faced her own questioning of her place on the law vs chaos axis, along with dealing with the loss of her arm last season. She had help dealing with that from The Night Nurse Claire, as well as from Colleen and Danny.

And speaking of Danny Rand, he makes an appearance and is blessedly far less obnoxious. It might just be the fact that it’s only for one episode, or it might be that hanging out with the other Defenders (and getting made fun of by them) toned him down some.

The end of the season I think was the best ending of any of the Marvel TV shows to date.