Week 79: Step in the Arena, Just to Get a Rep

Step in the Arena: Is it me, or is this yet another Defenders TV series losing its stride when it has to pad the story to get to thirteen episodes? Little happens in the prison flashback that really needs to be dramatized. We already know that Shades Alvarez antagonized Luke Cage in prison, and that Luke met Reva Connors while still considered a criminal. The details about Luke being framed, having been in the army and police, and being raised by a reverend could have been introduced elsewhere with other expository dialogue. As neat as it is to get a joke about the classic 1970s outfit, as well as the callbacks to Reva's thumb drive from Jessica Jones and the "millionaire in the dungeon" Trevor Slattery (I told you Seagate would be revisited), they're not essential. The worst part of this waste of an hour isn't the severely unrealistic depiction of what it's like to be trapped under rubble (how is the air clear? where is the light coming from? how do they have so much room to move around?), or the laughably low-budget prison experiment room that looks like Winamp is running on the monitor. To me, it's the clichés in the writing, from the cruel racist prison guard, to the fist punching up through the rubble, to the hero who won't talk in therapy. Ugh. I really liked the distinctive characterization of Prison Luke as a man who cannot trust anyone, which is understandable given his backstory, but it scarcely feels like the same Luke that we see in the present day. (4/10)

Just to Get a Rep: I give this hour credit for a great opening montage while Jidenna raps, some moral clarity from Misty Knight about the collateral damage that Luke Cage invites, a good scene about failed leadership in the ruined sports memorabilia store, the darkly funny introduction to the Judas Bullet, and the welcome return of Claire Temple, a familiar face much missed. The rest of this hour is meh (two uninspiring funeral speeches, IAB intrigue at the police station that produces zero excitement) to actively bad (Luke hypocritically acting morally superior to Aisha, the oblique references to the "green monster" and "guy with the hammer" that are getting very annoying). The worst moment in the episode is Cornell Stokes suddenly murdering one of his own men for suggesting an alternative strategy regarding Luke, which is bad enough as a cliché but also impossible to believe wouldn't lead to all of his men defecting. The men who had to stop at home to wash their colleague's blood off of their faces should have immediately packed a bag and gotten on the first flight out of NYC; there's no amount of money that Stokes could be paying them to make that kind of job condition tolerable, as if Stokes had money to pay them anyway. I hate that scene so much. Is anybody else as bothered as me by that scene? (5/10)

Step in the Arena
If I hadn't recently been introduced to the 70's costume Luke Cage I would have completely missed the reference. It gave me a little chuckle. It was good to see the backstory of how Luke became Luke, and while I hate to keep referencing X-Men, this felt very Wolverine-like in how he came to be.

The rest of the story, to your point Scott, is "meh". But I do appreciate origin stories, since we've had Luke on a couple occasions now mention that he's not like the other inhumans we've met.

Just to get a Rep
The opening sequence and the amazing performance by Jidenna was phenomenal. 10/10 for whoever is in charge of music for this series.

I was wondering if we were ever going to get to Pop's funeral. I feel like most shows end one episode with the death and start the next with the funeral. We've been building up to the funeral for a while now, I feel.

Scott, that scene bothered me, as well. Several things stood out to me:

1. When did that dude find time to read a book, and just happen to have it with him?
2. Cornell is broke. He can't afford to pay his crew. Maybe this is just his way of downsizing?
3. To your point about how much they're being paid -- This always feels like such a glossed-over part of any gang operation portrayed in film or television. I know that there's money coming in, but to have cops on payroll and an army of henchmen, it just feels like the books wouldn't add up.

Agreed all around, especially about the outstanding musical selections in this series. As I mentioned the last time we had a conversation off-site, the speech that gets the henchman shot feels like the writers cramming in some historical information that interests them without regard to its fitness for the scene, especially since the way they adapt the phrase "benign neglect" to apply to Luke is a huge stretch.