NBC's 'The Cape', while not a bad show by any measure, raced through its first two episodes at such breakneck speed that it was a little difficult to take it all in. There were some awesome ideas, and it was lovely to see a God-honest superhero show that didn't try to dress it up as some sort of 'ability' metaphor (like another recent NBC superhero show did to the point of annoyance).
The first episode alone would have nicely fit a two parter, giving more time to understand who Vince Faraday was, why the city was corrupt and why the carnival has a magic cape that can swipe glasses. Within the first 10 minutes the big chase was on from Ark, and though it was a cool sequence, I had to keep trying to think why they were there in the first place. I'm not saying I need the show to be 'Breaking Bad' slow, because it's not that type of show, but there were many opportunities for the characters to stop and take a breath which were either in the script but got cut or ignored altogether. For instance - I would have much rather seen the relationship between Faraday and his son explored a little longer. In every scene they had a father/son cuddle as a way of saying, 'Look! They love each other!' It felt off though, because I could tell they were using the hugs in place of Faraday actually talking with his son.
We raced through the set up of the big bad (with a rather patronising flashback when Chess appeared three minutes after we met his true identity) and then it was into the action sequence. I liked the action, by the way. Can't fault it. They were choreographed well and I liked the use of the cape itself as a way of disarming enemies.
I'm also not massively fond of David Lyons as Vince himself. He comes across a little bit rigid and that's absolutely not what you need from a leading man of a campy superhero story. Much better was Keith David (who I only recognised as 'The Arbiter' from the Halo series) as Max the ringleader, who provided my favourite bit of the two episodes in Max's disappointment that his inspiring speech weren't actually his last words. Summer Glau as the blogger/crime-fighter Orwell is definitely the most interesting character at this point. I'm a sucker for impossibly barmy technology, notably Orwell's holographic computer (Honestly, I get a semi every time I hear the words 'Zoom and Enhance!'). I was also pleased that though she has some element of mystery to her, that was created through genuine intrigue rather than the lazy option of simply having a character say 'I can't tell you that yet'.
I thought the second episode improved on the first, and gave us a hint of how the show could work on a week to week basis. The 'Tarot' society intrigues me and I'm quite looking forward to seeing how that pans out.
The Cape has the potential to be an excellent show. Right now it has some real growing pains, but I'm willing to stick with it for the time being because I like the premise and most of the cast.
What did everyone else think?
The first episode alone would have nicely fit a two parter, giving more time to understand who Vince Faraday was, why the city was corrupt and why the carnival has a magic cape that can swipe glasses. Within the first 10 minutes the big chase was on from Ark, and though it was a cool sequence, I had to keep trying to think why they were there in the first place. I'm not saying I need the show to be 'Breaking Bad' slow, because it's not that type of show, but there were many opportunities for the characters to stop and take a breath which were either in the script but got cut or ignored altogether. For instance - I would have much rather seen the relationship between Faraday and his son explored a little longer. In every scene they had a father/son cuddle as a way of saying, 'Look! They love each other!' It felt off though, because I could tell they were using the hugs in place of Faraday actually talking with his son.
We raced through the set up of the big bad (with a rather patronising flashback when Chess appeared three minutes after we met his true identity) and then it was into the action sequence. I liked the action, by the way. Can't fault it. They were choreographed well and I liked the use of the cape itself as a way of disarming enemies.
I'm also not massively fond of David Lyons as Vince himself. He comes across a little bit rigid and that's absolutely not what you need from a leading man of a campy superhero story. Much better was Keith David (who I only recognised as 'The Arbiter' from the Halo series) as Max the ringleader, who provided my favourite bit of the two episodes in Max's disappointment that his inspiring speech weren't actually his last words. Summer Glau as the blogger/crime-fighter Orwell is definitely the most interesting character at this point. I'm a sucker for impossibly barmy technology, notably Orwell's holographic computer (Honestly, I get a semi every time I hear the words 'Zoom and Enhance!'). I was also pleased that though she has some element of mystery to her, that was created through genuine intrigue rather than the lazy option of simply having a character say 'I can't tell you that yet'.
I thought the second episode improved on the first, and gave us a hint of how the show could work on a week to week basis. The 'Tarot' society intrigues me and I'm quite looking forward to seeing how that pans out.
The Cape has the potential to be an excellent show. Right now it has some real growing pains, but I'm willing to stick with it for the time being because I like the premise and most of the cast.
What did everyone else think?
Nice review Joseph.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you said. I enjoyed the 2 episodes, although the pacing as you said felt a bit rushed at times, although I suspect the network might have had something to do with that, in this MTV age.
I'll give it another episode or 2 to see how things pan out.
I'd give it 6.5/10 at the moment and it shows some promise.
(Honestly, I get a semi every time I hear the words 'Zoom and Enhance!')
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought I was the only one ... thank god I'm not.
I did watch The Cape and I thought it was very well done. The first hour moved at a very good pace. Lots of things needed to be established. The second hour was a bit slower - as expected - and lent itself to developing the major players. I thought the casting was fantastic. A good mix of old and new and I liked the fact the casting included minorities and - don't laugh - a midget other than Vern Troyer. There was plenty of action, laughs, cars, magic and that fat guy from BORAT even had a role and one of the best lines in the two-hour show
ReplyDeleteI actually loved it. I am a big comic fan so maybe I am partial to it, but I liked it very much. I think the script was good and things were explained properly...
ReplyDeleteI like the guy and I like the fact that this is not targeting some retarded 15 years old audience.... which seems to be the primary concern to everybody else nowadays...
love love love it all my children were loveing it. Something new is allway's good. My son's 7,10,12,14 really loved it they found a new super hero. it's more of what we need.they recorded it and even whachted it again and again.Remmber it's not only adult's whaching also kid's my kid's so thank you for putting up something different something that my kid's enjoyed.hopefully those who think different eaither don't have kid's or are not a kid at heart. Remmber batman,spiderman,superman, what ever happend to those super hero's it's about time we seen a new one.
ReplyDeleteThat is brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI would say Batman, Superman and Spider-Man were all still pretty much in the spotlight. :P
ReplyDeleteI agree that the origin story should have been told over the full two hours at a reasonable pace - by reasonable, I mean, NOT slow, but not breakneck as it was either. This was clearly the major flaw of the premiere.
ReplyDeleteI think Lyons will turn out OK as the actor for this character. The first episodes of any series are going to be "shake downs" for how the characters turn out to be portrayed later. Take a look at the original Star Trek pilot to see significant differences in how Leonard Nimoy played Spock in it vs subsequent episodes.
According to interviews with Summer Glau, her character has a lot of layers yet to be revealed, and Orwell's relationship with Farraday is, in her words, "complicated". So I think we have a lot to look forward to there, considering that according to Lyons there can't be any actual relationship between the two. It's possible Tom Wheeler intends the relationship to be one-sided which would provide some more depth to Orwell.
The Tarot reference clearly shows that Wheeler was laying the first hints of a more complex situation than just Chess vs The Cape. Wheeler has been pretty clear in interviews that Peter Fleming has ambitions beyond just Palm City.
The two main problems for the show are the not terribly high ratings for the premiere, and also the number of haters who appear to have cropped up, possibly disgruntled "Heroes" fans.
The ratings were 2.6 in the critical 18-49 demo, not bad, but not great (except for NBC whose shows are mostly low rated). The Monday re-air picked up another 3.6 million viewers, of which hopefully most were new viewers. The important ratings will be next week's episode. If it doesn't drop to a 2.0 or more, the show will have a chance at survival. If it drops 30-35% or more, and drops any further in subsequent episodes to less than 2.0, it will probably be doomed. It needs to stay north of Chuck's ratings to survive. The next six episodes will tell the tale. If it doesn't perform at a 2.0 or higher through those episodes, it probably won't survive.
As for the haters, this appears to be a show that people either love or hate, no middle ground. And there are a number of people who really viciously hate this show, denouncing everything and everyone connected with it. I've rarely seen this degree of invective for a show after just the premiere. People on the forums need to remind potential new viewers that the show is just starting and we won't really know the quality for a couple more episodes. And we need to stay away from lowering ourselves to the status of the trolls spewing their hate.