A Good Superhero and an Appreciated Departure from Cliche Town For me, it feels like Luke Cage tries to go old school and avoid a lot of modern cliches in a bunch of different ways. In some of these ways, it hits the mark spot on, and in others it does tend to miss a little bit, but not in a way that kills anything. Some examples:
Music - It seems like Luke Cage tries to showcase music from different parts of black history specifically. In chill moments, this is great, but in really big action sequences, they miss the mark sometimes. I appreciate that they didn't overdue it with rap/hip hop because that's not to my taste, but have to admit that might have been more appropriate at some points then music chosen.
Story - No one is really trying to take over the world. A lot of the characters' pursuits are personal, basic, often vain, sometimes even silly... much like real life people.
By the end of season one, I was less than impressed with the villains, DB was waaaay not impressive and just seemed silly. This was done better in season 2: the new guy, the BM, was a good bad ass, and MS comes out of nowhere to all of a sudden write the new book on being an evil bad ass Beech.
Some new super hero productions morally weaker than they have a right to be. Luke Cage, main character and story, are morally sound, and it's appreciated.
Final Note: Women that want to play tough characters have a good act to follow in this show, Mariah, Misty, Claire, etc... great characters, enjoyable on screen and tough in their own right, not tough-by-comparing-to-someone-weak tough.