The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s forays into television have certainly varied more in terms of audience reception when compared to the films of the MCU. The television programs have ranged from beloved hits (such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Netflix Daredevil series) to outright disasters attracting the ire of internet commentators (such as Inhumans or the Netflix Iron Fist series). With several television platforms now hosting these MCU shows, Marvel has found a way to utilize a popular set of their comic characters to a serialized adaptation reflective of the given platform’s other popular shows.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to imitate the crime drama series that flood network television, and the Netflix Marvel outings have meshed well with the hit bingeable drama series featuring morally complex protagonists found on streaming services. Now, Marvel is looking to enter the world of young adult cable dramas, and may have just found a way to elevate that genre like few shows of that ilk do. I was given an opportunity to attend a preview screening of the Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger premiere ahead of its release on Freeform on June 6th (check your local listings).

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger stars Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson/Cloak and Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen/Dagger. The Cloak & Dagger premiere adapts the comic duo’s origin story, with some significant thematic changes. Instead of meeting in New York as runaways, the show sets the pair as relatively settled in modern day New Orleans (most likely to differentiate the show’s backdrop from other MCU stories and to take advantage of those sweet tv production tax breaks). Another interesting change is the writing team’s choice to subvert the class demographics of the lead characters. Instead of Tandy being raised in a privileged wealthy family and Tyrone suffering from a speech impediment in the comics, the series presents Tyrone as having a fairly stable family life and Tandy dealing with drug abuse issues. While some comic purists may find trouble with these changes, they do certainly help to make this particular telling of the story more unique and more fitting to tell stories related to issues facing modern day young people.

The series was made in mind for Marvel parent company Disney’s Freeform television channel, and it certainly wears its influences on its sleeves. There are plenty of the tropes from other young adult drama shows to be found here, such as the rebellious teens sneaking to a party, the concerned parents worried that they are losing their kids, etc. There are some elements where the show does subvert these tropes against audience expectations that can be surprising, which help make up for the stereotyped choices.

One such dialogue exchange does nearly go a familiar route, but a brilliant delivery from E.R. and Mr. Robot veteran Gloria Ruben as Tyrone’s mom does well with it and it elicited a positive reaction from most of the audience in my preview screening. While the Cloak & Dagger premiere doesn’t delve as deep into issues such as race, class and justice with the complexity as the Netflix Marvel shows, keeping the focus on the two young leads does allow the show more time to tie these elements into their character development.

The Netflix shows also top Cloak & Dagger in the area of giving their lead characters a greater range of in-depth personality, but the slower presentation of scenes by director Gina Prince-Bythewood give them a cinematic quality. Tyrone and Tandy’s powers are barely touched upon in the first episode, and while most of the special effects are somewhat generic lighting effects, their presentation style does seem to leave itself room to grow in future episodes.

Bottom Line: The Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger premiere is good…for a Freeform series. While the pilot may not immediately hook fans looking for Daredevil-style action sequences or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s elaborate sets, it does find a way to fit a Marvel story within the young adult drama mold found on its home network, and elevate some of the familiar elements of the genre in bold ways. Fans of the MCU, Cloak & Dagger comics or shows similar to that found on the Freeform network may want to give the premiere a try before letting it slip back into Marvel’s hand and out of their own like Tandy’s daggers.

Final Verdict: 7.0/10

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