Marvel's Luke Cage Reviews: 10 Early Reactions You Need To Know
Netflix and Marvel deliver another knockout.
Marvel's Luke Cage isn't going to hit Netflix until the end of the month (September 30, to be precise), but we are now starting to get the first few early reviews for the series.
US critics have had the chance to view the first seven episodes, and word coming back is extremely positive, which is something of a relief. Marvel and Netflix knocked it out of the park with Jessica Jones and both seasons of Daredevil, so expectations were flying high for Luke Cage, which is one of the most anticipated TV series of 2016.
With that came an air of trepidation, a feeling that this could be the one they drop the ball on, because it has to happen at some point, right? Wrong.
Whether Marvel and Netflix do eventually make a slip-up with one of their upcoming series will be seen with Iron Fist and The Defenders next year, but going by the reviews Luke Cage delivers another knockout.
Picking up after the events of Jessica Jones, and shifting the focus to Harlem and Mike Colter's titular character, the series is set to be the latest great instalment in Netflix's corner of the MCU, or so word on the street says anyway.
10. The Music Is Great
One of the big things that's repeatedly been stated about Luke Cage is that music will play a big part in the series. It's something that was evident when Ol' Dirty Bastard's 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya' played over the trailer, and again when it was revealed that every episode would be titled after a Gang Starr track.
Given showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker is a former music journalist, it should come as no surprise that music features heavily, and equally that it works superbly within the show:
"Oh, and the tunes! The glorious tunes! ... Music plays the most active role in a superhero production since Guardians of the Galaxy. The show’s mix of rap, R&B gems, and deep blues cuts is tremendous (John Lee Hooker’s I’m Bad Like Jesse James is quietly used to extraordinary effect in one scene). Equally impressive is the original score by Adrian Younge (the Black Dynamite soundtrack) and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, which adds a perfect veneer of 70s style to the proceedings." - Den of Geek
411 Mania adds that music plays a "major part" in crafting the series' identity, helping it stand apart from its superhero peers.