Finally got through the entire first season.
What I liked:
1. I liked that it was different than DD or JJ. 80%, maybe 90% of it was totally different. It felt like a totally different story about totally different kinds of people in a totally different place that just happened to exist in the Marvel Universe. Did I like it as much as DD or JJ? Probably not, by a small margin, but that's a personal preference thing. But it was a different series appealing to different tastes in different ways. This is important for Marvel to continue to expand the big tent of the Marvel Universe without running into what some people call "superhero exhaustion."
2. I liked that it was pinned to a real place: Harlem. While JJ is strongly set in Hell's Kitchen, not a lot of it seems to relate to things distinct to Hell's Kitchen except for people calling it that. Luke Cage felt like it was set in a real place that was unique.
3. I liked that the fights were not as choreographed as in DD. DD is about a trained fighter fighting other people many of which are in some ways trained fighters. Luke Cage is about a guy who mostly plows through people because he knows he is invincible and fights people many of which are mostly used to getting their way shooting at people, or grew up street brawlers. In many fights Luke Cage actually expresses incredulity that the people he fights don't just run away. I think showing how Luke Cage has become almost resigned to his invulnerability was important as a contrast to when that invulnerability was challenged.
4. I liked how the story wasn't about just one villain. It almost seemed to be about how there's always going to be this place for someone to step up and be the bad guy, and you can't just fix things by beating the bad guy. You just leave a vacuum for the next bad guy that wants to step up. And I liked how it showed how bad guys aren't necessarily born bad guys. Sometimes they evolve into bad guys just like the good guys evolve into good guys. Sometimes they drive themselves there Fisk-style like Diamondback, and sometimes they fall to temptation.
What I didn't like:
1. I didn't like the fight at the end. I'm not saying I didn't like that there was one, but something about it felt out of place in Luke Cage. There was some hints of it leading up to it, but I don't think they set it up well. It just seems to come out of nowhere.
2. I didn't like the way they tried to explain Luke Cage's powers. I did like some of the elements of that, including the mysteries surrounding Riva. But the science-y parts also seemed a bit out of place. It would almost have been better if they just hand waved it away as being something they just didn't understand, at least to me.
3. Pacing. Pacing felt uneven. A lot of it was set up to be sure, and maybe it was necessary. But it didn't feel as tight as DD did in the first season, say (not that DD season one was perfect either). It felt like they had to spend a lot of time introducing a lot of characters. If this was a 22 episode normal television show season, ironically that might have been paced out better. But in a 13 episode show it felt very front loaded. But this is a minor knock, and didn't hurt my enjoyment of the show overall.
Overall:
Initial rating: 8 out of 10. My only other comment is that ironically Luke Cage felt so much more like a complete story (even with its hooks) that I am not as anxious for the next season as I was for DD or even JJ. That's not a knock: I'm not saying I'm tired of it or don't want more seasons. I'm saying I'm satisfied with the story as a complete story. DD season one felt like the introduction to something. JJ felt like more of a complete story but also felt like it was setting up something potentially completely different with the dispatch of Kilgrave. Luke Cage doesn't feel to me like it needs more. It could easily do more, and season two could be even better. But for me, I felt like this was a great overall story, and now its on to the Punisher and the Defenders.