1x03 Who's Gonna Take the Weight?

8.3/10. If this show was nothing but scenes of great singers performing onstage spliced together with scenes of superheroes getting into fights, I'm pretty sure i'd still be on board. It's a recurring motif for the show, and it works beautifully. Hearing and seeing "Aint It a Sin" play while Luke roughs up Cottonmouth's local storehouses was classic. And his assualt on Cottonmouth's central bank, featuring the sheer tank-like strength and prowess of Cage was a highlight, with some great cinematic direction and bloodpumping action that lives up to the great sequences in Daredevil and Jessica Jones.

I also enjoyed the showdown between Cotton Mouth and his counterpart over the arms deal gone wrong. There's a continuing sense that Cottonmouth has gotten in over his head here, and despite the bravado he projects, there are concerns and forces that threaten to overwhelm him before he can secure his empire. To the same end, the reveal that Scarfe, Misty's partner, is on the take and working for him is an interesting twist. Scarfe's little speech about how their jobs don't matter when there are gods and superheroes flying around is one of the more interesting bits of philosophy in Marvel's Netflix outings, and suggests there's something to explore there beyond his sniveling turncoat qualities.

We also get a kind of tired setup where Misty blames Luke for all that's gone wrong, (rightfully) connecting him to everything from the arms deal to Pop's death. Setting the pair up as an antagonistic to one another, especially with Misty blaming him for Pop's death, feels pretty perfunctory as they'll inevitably be on the same side. There's also a lot of hamfisted dialogue here, from Misty's basketball backstory to the conversation between Cottonmouth and Mariah (the two best actors on the show thus far) having to repeat cliches about their differing viewpoints on what constitutes success once more.

Still, it's a thriller of an episode, that sets up a simple idea -- Luke hurting Cottonmouth without getting near him to get revenge and prop up Pop's shop at the same time -- and explores the various things that connect to it, like Chico being inspired by Luke standing up for Pop and suffering for it. The ending of the episode feels a little too cheesily big for such a semi-realistic, street-level show, but we'll see how it's handled in subsequent episodes.