Luke Cage (Season 2)

 

Season two of Luke Cage picks up where season 1 ends. With Cottonmouth dead, Mariah Stokes (Dillard) is now fully in charge of the Stokes family business - selling guns. However, a person from Mariah's past shows up, fully ready to take on Mariah and rule Harlem. His name is Bushmaster, and he's all hyped up on Nightshade. From ChatGPT:

After clearing his name, Luke Cage has become a hero in Harlem, admired by the community but also pressured by the fame and expectations that come with it. While Luke tries to balance his public image and personal life, new and old enemies rise to challenge him.

• Mariah Dillard fully embraces her role as Harlem’s power broker, seeking to build a criminal empire with her partner Shades, but her brutal methods and family secrets start to unravel her influence.

• Bushmaster, a new villain with enhanced strength and a personal vendetta against Mariah’s family, emerges. He wages war on Harlem, forcing Luke into the middle of a violent conflict.

• Luke’s strained relationships with Claire Temple and his father add emotional weight as he wrestles with what it means to be Harlem’s protector.

• Misty Knight, recovering from the loss of her arm in The Defenders, rebuilds her career and identity with the help of a bionic prosthetic from Danny Rand (Iron Fist).

By the end, Harlem’s balance of power shifts dramatically:

• Mariah dies in prison, leaving Harlem’s Paradise to Luke.

• To protect Harlem, Luke reluctantly steps into the role of “the new King of Harlem,” blurring the line between hero and crime boss, and raising questions about his future.

Season 2 of Luke Cage is a decent gangster show, but is not a great superhero show. Initially it is a little unclear who the main villain of season 2 actually is, but as the season progresses it becomes clear that it is Mariah. Bushmaster is the new character, and he is not a great guy, but has legitimate reasons to be angry at Mariah and her family. I think Mariah not being a superhero herself as the main villain, and Luke being too nice of a guy, becomes an issue as the season progresses. Luke fights with Bushmaster a couple of times, but despite having opportunities to kill Mariah (or at least not help her in the fire), he doesn't harm her. I remember one scene where he and Misty are looking for Mariah, and she's at Harlem's Paradise (her club, which is basically where she's always located) the entire time. She never hides. Misty's actions as cop, then former cop, then cop again, as well as Luke's involvement with law enforcement are problematic as well, but that's a rabbit hole I won't go down here. Likewise, I don't know how much I enjoyed the Luke as a celebrity aspect of the show either.

Probably the best part of season two was the relationship between Mariah and Shades. Shades (played by Theo Rossi) is an exceptional character, and the dynamic between the two characters always grabbed your attention while they were on screen. 

Going back to the comment about season 2 being a decent gangster show but not a good superhero show, the reason why I said that was because I feel like Luke could have been removed from the story and it would have played out exactly the same. In the end, Mariah's daughter kills Mariah, not Bushmaster or Luke. Luke doesn't even eradicate Bushmaster from Harlem - he just leaves on his own. Luke had multiple opportunities to get rid of Mariah, but instead he bounces back and forth from wanting her dead to protecting her. Potentially Bushmaster would have succeeded in replacing Mariah as the king/queen of Harlem had Luke not interfered, but generally Luke could have been absent and the story would have been the same. This is a major problem since the show is supposed to be about Luke Cage. 

In the end, I suppose Luke succeeds and ascends to the throne as king of Harlem. But it's almost like he just falls into this position, as opposed to earning it through his superhero powers. I like Luke Cage, the character, but all of these reasons are why The Punisher has been the better show. On the surface, The Punisher is a character (and show) that I wouldn't be interested in at all. But one thing is for sure: You can't take that guy out of the show and have the same outcome.