TV Review 031 Luke Cage Series Premiere

please listen to my conversation with my friends on relationship!

Luke Cage s01e01 Moment of Truth
{Netflix} (Marvel) [100116] 80%

Representing the culture in the Harlem wonderfully, the barbers and the customers talking passionately on a sport that has a prevalent effect on their community, as one of the latter's mother's approach on Luke forced him to about it with Pop, the owner of the shop. What he experienced, framed and beaten, he ultimately gained the extraordinary abilities (impenetrable skin and superhuman strength) although without his consent and the father figure tried to encourage him to use them to the betterment of the hood but to no avail.

"Forward, never backwards. Always."

When he bumped into Chico and Shameek from earlier in the morning carrying a gun, he made a halfhearted attempt to ask of it but brushed away just like that as Cage had to rush to his next job to the dislike of Pop. He stopped by a newsstand to buy a newspaper and had a friendly small talk with the blind worker there as his warning of the landlord, Connie, was wasted as he ran onto her and had to pay the rent that was ten days late and even short at that. 

The owner of the Harlem Paradise, Cornell Stokes, was talking business with his sister, Councilwoman fsf, discussing on the matter both legal and illegal in their respective career with the latter depended on the former's monetary prowess to strengthen her run for the reelection although still trying to distance herself for her politic's sake. The start of a partnership with Dominique Colon was mutually agreed upon by both party and agreed to be done as soon as possible, but the transaction didn't went as planned as a couple of unknown guests came to hijack the trade, as the three lethal assailants were revealed to be the two youths from earlier and Dante, the third one was killed by Shameek just to prevent his snitching.

Candace, one of the waiter had Luke accompanied her up to get inadvertently more closer to the bosses upstairs, doing his best to not be as inconspicuous as possible, but it was starting to turn against him as the man he replaced on the bar, Dante, before his last breath managed to call Cottonmouth's right hand man on their inside job. Getting off work, Cage stumbled into the woman in blue dress that he catered to before and managed to connect with her and spending the night or at least a bed together. 

The aftermath of the incident was felt by the polices on the scene as the woman was revealed to be in the force herself while Cornell had to right the wrong with the deal gone south outside of his control while the dealer himself, Diamondback, sent Shades, who was mentioned in Luke's sleep, to be his eyes on the ground and making sure everything was going smooth. Pop, being the godfather of Harlem, knew straight away who were involved there as his attempt to be a safe place for kids to hang out crumbled right in front of his eyes while Cage pondering what he saw the other day kept it to himself and minded his own business.

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It was business as usual for madam Councilwoman who was on her campaign run by putting on a likable face in front of the camera and rather pandering to the community, whether she was genuine or not, while her cousin tried to get the handle of the situation. With him putting on more money up for the capture of the remaining two runaways, the careless spark plug, Shameek, got snitched in the end as he's spotted spending his bounty at a strip club. Strapped for cash, Luke was again doing the dishes the next day but as he saw the kid with his cut of the cash on tow, he was pushed over the edge when he saw Shades, a man from his past in the prison, coming back into his life.

"I slapped you like a little b*tch ... now I can hit you like a man."

Being a hands-on king of his own kingdom, Cottonmouth wanted to lay down the beating himself as he unleashed upon Shameek with pure adrenaline-fueled power and bloody result after he didn't get what he wanted when he tried to play nice. Feeling his world was closing in on him, he wanted to get away as he packed his stuff but as he looked upon his collection of books, he began to recollect how he got the book from Reva, his late wife, back in the Seagate Prison and he finally calmed down and try to keep true to his words for her. Even though the body of the boy was left at the side of the road, Misty concluded that he was beaten to death and she reluctantly accepted that she might need to talk to that replacement bartender. The thugs that has been spreading love for the counsilwoman Mariah Dillard in the morning were getting a little more physical when they tried to coerce the Chinese couple, Luke's landlord, to 'contribute' to her cause but he came to the rescue just in time, standing tall despite the threats and letting them landed the first blow, which was unfortunate for the attacker as he crushed his hand into the solid skin of Luke and he proceeded to throw a couple of them through a window and to the wall, catching a Revolver in his hand and even the bullet in his palm as he threw the shooter down into the ground. The remaining thug was scared because of the sudden upturn and fled the scene as the hero of the day apologized for making a mess as he promised he got their backs if they ever came back.

"I'm clear. I'm focused. I promised, baby ... I'm ready."

- 8.0 {s01e01} - wikia {s04e01} - 8.1 {season} - wiki - official -

- Synopsis {s01e01} - 

With tension building in Harlem, thanks to a ruthless club owner known as Cottonmouth, Luke has a difficult time living a quiet life.

Cast

Mike Colter - Luke Cage

Mahershala Ali - Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes

Simone Missick - Misty Knight
Alfre Woodard - Mariah Dillard
Frankie Faison - Henry 'Pop' Hunter
Theo Rossi - Hernan 'Shades' Alvarez

...

(13 Episodes, Release 092016, Duration 55 mns, Rating TV-MA, Genre - Action, Crime, Drama, Harlem, Marvel Cinematic Universe) 

+ Highlights:

basketball talk and culture conversation, swear jar, his past life coming back to affect him with the pacing and the trauma, the nickname "Bulletproof" and callback to his origin 'Power Man', callback to Jessica Jones, the Incident callback of the Avengers, heartwarming friendship with the blind guy, atmospheric ambiance in the club and beautiful music, charismatic and full of swagger Cottonmouth, tease of Justin Hammer weapon technology, the shootout coupled with the live concert, chemistry between Luke and the Misty, the nightmare of his beating in the prison, the two-face councilwoman, the beautiful playing of the piano, the shot of Cottonmouth with a perfect placement with Biggie's crown, the bone-crushing beating, nicely seamed in flashback scene, giving literature a heavy role in his journey, friendly banter between the partners, the slow-motion crushing of the hand, callback to his comic book origin 'Hero for Hire'

? Points of contention ?
the mother showing interest on him just to show his physical attraction, the yellow tint on the window of Luke's room

- Lowlights:

stereotypical bad guy syndrome of wearing sunglasses inside, is it too sexy or not enough?