Subscribe to get a recap of the days posts & never miss the latest breaking news or exclusive content.
NetFlix Original Series
Season 1, Episode 3: Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?
Air Date: 30 September 2016
Starring: Mike Colter, Frankie Faison, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Frank Whaley, and Alfre Woodard
WARNING: SPOILERS – review written for those following the show who have watched episode three through its completion!
The road to avenging Pops’ death is officially underway in this episode. Luke, after a brief talk with Fish, played by actor Ron Cephas Jones, who puts in almost as poetic a performance as Frankie Faison, determines to hit Cottonmouth hard. In the wallet. Obtaining intel from Chico on Cottonmouth’s money safehouses and the specifics on the Crispus Attucks facility, Cage takes it hard to the man. Luke drives the mobster to enact his Fort Knox protocol and move all of his available funds to the Attucks center, where Power Man busts the piggy bank wide open. However, the cost is in firmly arousing the suspicions of one Detective Mercedes “Misty” Knight. We get more of Misty’s history, and are briefly incentivized to take a shine to her partner, Detective Rafael Scarfe. Until his own dark secret is revealed.
This episode is better than the premier, but also takes a couple of steps backwards. First and foremost, Alfre Woodard’s dialogue is again relegated to an almost teenager-like, and inauthentic
On the other hand, Frank Whaley’s Scarfe kind of came into his own this episode. In his discussion with Knight at the precinct as photos and evidence of the Cottonmouth money hits have started to come in, Whaley comes off sounding like the kind of cop you want in this world; one who is willing to accept the help of the capes. It works especially well as a foil to Knight, who embarks on the cliche-like “vigilantes are not authorized to take the law into their own hands” shtick. As he leaves the station, I’m finally up on Scarfe, as I have felt that Whaley’s acting talents have not been put to particularly special use so far in the series. I was thinking “this guy is either going to get killed or turn out to be on Cottonmouth’s payroll.” Of course, we learn minutes later that it is the latter. And while not engendering me to the character, it’s still a good twist that adds a useful element to the story.
Some of this might just be nerves and some learning curve in executing and shooting fight scenes. But I worry that the show’s production staff, coming from the school of more realism in fights from their Daredevil pedigree, may not have fully committed to the concept of rendering on-screen what a being of Power Man’s might would really be like in an effort to give him some vulnerability.
Overall, “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” is a weaker episode than “Code of the Streets”. We’ll see how episode four trends when I review “Step in the Arena”. More to follow.