The Cape - season 1 (1 Viewer)

[dmiller68]

Well I have a mixed reaction to it... I wanted to like it... I think it would have to grow on me.

 

[Vaughan Odendaal]

"I agree with Joe; what were you expecting exactly"?


A well executed superhero series (or at the very least a well executed pilot).

 

[TravisR]

I only watched the pilot (or first hour) but I didn't think it was very good. That being said, pilots aren't always indicative of how good or bad a show will become so I'll stick with it for a couple more episodes at least. And I dig Keith David and James Frain so it'll be cool to see their work on a weekly basis.


After all the laughably overly-serious superhero movies that they've made lately, I do like the more light hearted tone of the show. On the negative side, everything moved way too fast. It was like I was watching a recap show where a bunch of things have to be distilled into 40 minutes rather than a story where things unfolded at a natural pace.

 

[alphind]

I liked it. Yes, it had plot holes. Yes, it had eye rolling moments. I don't care. I like it for what it is: decent popcorn entertainment. I also like it for what what it isn't: yet another cop/courtroom/medical drama, or Heroes season 2-4. I will agree that it progressed too fast, but that is thanks to today's short attention span mentality.

 

[Will_B]

Horrible. Just awful. Ended up watching most of it at 1.5x to make it go away faster. Plus I wanted to see Summer Glau. But she couldn't save this mess of different styles.


The Tick did the humorous parts better.

Movies from the early 1970s did the action better.

And Carnivale did carnivals better.


This show doesn't have the chops of any of those shows. It won't last 6 episodes.

 

[Jason_V]

I certainly think the second hour was stronger than the first. Way too much exposition and setting up the series in the Pilot while the second hour felt more like a "normal" episode. Pilot could very easily have been spread out over at least two episodes, if not three. Not great television, but I do think there's promise if the elements can be straightened out.

 

[MikeFR]

My pvr was pretty much empty so I decided to check this out,I wasn't expecting much, but this is about as bad as scripted television can get. Who greenlights this crap? It's fine to do something light and mindless, Human Target & The Good Guys pull it off, but I've seen saturday morning cartoons which are executed better than The Cape. The pilot had a half season's worth of content/character development crammed into it.


The scene where Chess reveals his identity sums up how bad this show is. After he takes off his mask they cut to an earlier scene of the head Ark dude just to unnecessarily remind the audience who he is. TV audiences are generally pretty dumb, but they're not that dumb.


This shouldn't get a pass just because it's a superhero show.

 

[Bob_S.]

I thought it was ok. I was really excited about it after watching the promos but was a little disappointed. I really hope it gets better. I'm a sucker for any kind of live action super hero series. Didn't care much for Heroes or Smallville, though. I'm more of a Batman fan which this show seems to resemble. I enjoyed Birds of Prey but that only lasted a season.

 

[Will_B]

Originally Posted by Bob_S.

I thought it was ok....I'm more of a Batman fan which this show seems to resemble....

Well yeah, it seems the only reason they named the character "The Cape" was to be as generic as possible so that the Batman folks couldn't sue. But "The Cape" is clearly a vigilante of justice, a cause for hope, etc. All the usual Batman stuff. If they'd named his character "The Utility Belt" it would have been too clear that it is a Batman ripoff. So they went with the most generic attribute that any superhero has: a cape.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I thought it was all right. The transition with the Circus of Crime seemed more than a little abrupt to me, but then again, comic books tend to have serious pacing issues. Presenting the show as a series of chapters seemed like a good trick to me.

Originally Posted by LarryH

I think it could fly, with a dollop of salt, but to be true to it's comic-book aspects, in my opinion, the production and photography should be more stylized. Watching it in video-realistic high definition just doesn't seem compatible to me. They should spend a bit more on post-production.

Were you watching the same show I was? I mean, yeah, they didn't shade it all into primary colours with hard outlines, but the atmospherics, the colour schemes, &c were definitely oriented toward creating an effect.

 

[Citizen87645]

In case you haven't seen this already.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/207593/saturday-night-live-the-cape-promo



My favorite is the Smock.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's not exactly a shocker that Orwell is Chess's daughter, but I liked seeing how she fits into the picture. My favorite scene was Vince watching his wife get flirted on by her boss, and being helpless to do anything about it. This show is pulpy goodness the way the live action "Flash" show was in the early nineties.

 

[ScottH]

Okay, I think this episode broke the record for all-time cheesiness in a single episode of a TV show. It was like watching a parody of a super hero show that wasn't a parody of a super hero show (think SNL skit or Mad Magazine). That's probably it for me.

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

It's not exactly a shocker that Orwell is Chess's daughter, but I liked seeing how she fits into the picture.

Admittedly, I wasn't giving it 100% of my attention, but was this revealed? All I remember is the cheesy escape-artist dude saying she had daddy issues.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by ScottH

Admittedly, I wasn't giving it 100% of my attention, but was this revealed? All I remember is the cheesy escape-artist dude saying she had daddy issues.

It opened with a scene at the Big Bad's office, where his minions tracking his estranged daughter through Europe, only to have the trail go cold. It was immediately followed by Vince's Worst Best Friend EverTM reported that they'd finally traced Orwell's location, only to have it blow up minutes before they arrived. This, combined with his silence about her past, planted the not-so-subtle seed that Orwell is Chess's daughter.


I thought they'd drag out the reveal over several episodes, but it was confirmed with the closing scene where Chess watches the figurine of his daughter the ballet dancer inside the music box dance only to have it fade to Orwell dressed identically performing aerial ballet up in the ropes in Max's center ring.

 

[Greg_S_H]

JJ Powell ought to hook up with Dice (I'm sure he wouldn't mind), as their powers are at least visually almost identical. I liked that Faraday acted as an unexpected random, but the restaurant assassination was a bit hard to swallow, and the elevator assassination didn't seem to be expertly planned at all. It continues to be not great, but it's alright.


I'm glad Izabella Miko only has the tats for the show. She is quite nice, especially without them.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I wonder if the Cape will save his archenemy again next week. So far the show has been about building up its rogues gallery. Will the ratings allow it to survive beyond that stage? I'm not sure.


Things I like: the pulpy goodness of it. Scales and Dice are like villains from the 1960's Batman crossed with Dick Tracy villains. I'm consistently entertained. The actors playing them know just how ham-fisted the writing of their characters are, and act to that.


Summer Glau as Orwell. She's got a back story far more complicated that the Cape's. There's no easy fix for her like there is for him. At the same time, he's probably the first real confidant she's had in a really long time. Considering who her father is, it's fascinating to see a woman raised by a very bad man suddenly finding herself sharing a life with a noble and decent man. That has to have an impact.


The fact that Chess isn't just an alternate identity for Peter Fleming, he's a full-fledged alternate personality. Sybil, if Sybil was a psychopathic corporate titan who killed people.


Things I don't like:


The whole thing is ridiculous. As the show made clear, he's never been tried. If he just allowed Dice to kill Fleming, his family would be out of danger, and the D.A. would have a hell of a time proving that he was Chess. It's not an ideal solution, but it beats the hell out of letting your family think your dead.


Sloppiness in the writing and execution. If the show tried 20 percent harder, it'd be about 400 times better.

 

[Vaughan Odendaal]

This show is a joke. The writing is terrible, the acting is terrible, the CGI is terrible and execution of all these different elements is terrible. Oh and that autistic kid is terrible too. He even mocked his mother for her bad acting which I found rather ironic. The Cape can learn how to walk the tight rope in a matter of.......minutes ? The uber-villain this time around is known as 'Dice' ? 'Dice' tried to kill 'Chess' ? Goodness gracious me, how retarded.


I'm really happy that this show is getting canned.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, but


Checkers is the real kingpin!

 

[Will_B]

Whedonesque reports that The Cape shut down production this week. 10th episode will be its last, not 13 as originally ordered. Network asked them to please stop.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Will_B

Whedonesque reports that The Cape shut down production this week. 10th episode will be its last, not 13 as originally ordered. Network asked them to please stop.

It was pretty awful, but it could've been much better with better writing and direction.