A Man. And His Blog.

Pilot episodes like this let me almost wonder why networks aren’t into two-hour-pilots anymore. Instead of investing more time into character development, everything has to be rushed to wow the viewers, and everything has to happen in the 45-minute-long pilot. That the writers completely neglect to pen some character development, seems to be the usual thing now. While the pilot could entertain with those “events”, the character development sucked balls.

I wasn’t expecting much from the series. NBC has some bad reputation these last years, and the series arc, as well as the Summer Glau casting news let everybody believe that THE CAPE won’t see a third season, or maybe even not survive the 2011 upfronts. And just for the sake of letting writers, producers, and network execs think about the problems in today’s production of television shows, I wish for THE CAPE to fail. Something needs to change, before NBC orders a spin-off from JERSEY SHORE, and I don’t think that THE CAPE will change it. (Except the series is an unexpected ratings hit, and the writers learn to bring more sense and mythology into the show, without repeating the utter mess called HEROES). But I don’t wish for THE CAPE to fail, because the pilot was bad. Despite the missing character moments, it was actually pretty entertaining, when you get over thinking that it is just a darker, quieter and more dramatized version of BATMAN FOREVER. And when Summer Glau stars in something, I’m always up for it.

So, the episode basically brought the origins story to the viewers. The only thing is: Getting through the origins story in not even ten minutes is pretty lame. NO ORDINARY FAMILY did the same mistake and therefore sucked, and I hope some series will survive for a second year, just learn from this mistakes (but seriously: They must have seen HEROES, yet they still do the same mistakes over and over). At least the episode took more time than I would have anticipated, though it couldn’t have hurt to see more from the training. After all, Vince Faraday (David Lyons) was learning all about magic, illusions and tricks, and I can’t buy that he was learning all of it in a five-minute scene. Moreover, the writers could have explained the magic illusion a bit – how the cape actually works, and how the vanishing trick works. With it, THE CAPE could have gotten a bit more realistic, and the episode doesn’t look like it has real superheroes with powers. Because that what it looks like after 45 minutes: Vince has superpowers, instead of understanding the magic of illusion. All the scenes with the cape are just the perfect example for it.

The story was okay. It was good to establish Chess (James Frain) vs. The Cape in the pilot, and Vince even got two more enemies in this episode he could be fighting, before the season finale is bringing on round twelve of Chess vs. The Cape. Furthermore I liked the comic look, and that every act resembled a new comic from a big arc. It’s like watching every edition of a comic series, collected in one band. I hope the future episodes will keep that element – it looks kinda cool, when you have five minisodes in one 40-minute episode, though this way of storytelling could backfire (like: beginning and finishing a storyline in less than ten minutes – it means that THE CAPE could be fast-paced all the way, but ridiculous too). The background story involving the police corruption, and how Chess is trying to win power over Palm City seems alright at first, reminds me a bit of the new BATMAN movies, and could even go a bit darker in the future, when the producers are leaving the comic genre for an episode, and write a real 40-minute thriller.

The introduction of all the characters was lame though. I don’t know Vince so far, despite him being the title character; I don’t care about his family, and the scenes with his son Trip (Ryan Wynott) are really ridiculous (he wasn’t even happy to see his comic hero come to live and fighting crime – some kids really can’t act); and Orwell’s introduction was really lame. Meeting on the ship, realizing that both work for the same team, and suddenly Vince has Orwell’s back. Since this was part of the origins story too, I ca say that it went way too fast. Even faster than the NO ORDINARY FAMILY pilot – that was really not good.

The action seemed good, the effects looked a bit cheesy (the car explosion during the teaser, and almost all of the cape-effects), and the comic look seems to kill the thrill of the show. A bit less of it would be good. Other than that I have to ask: Is nobody recognizing Vince in the hoodie, especially after he was outed as Chess in the news? I would have expected for the store owner to realize that he was just saved by “Chess”, but nothing happened. Hopefully the series will mention it in later episodes.

Yeah, I liked it. I liked BATMAN FOREVER, when I was a kid, and THE CAPE looks like an adult version of it. And I’m an adult, so… Yeah, I liked it. Despite all the cheesiness. I was expecting worse. 7/10

The birth of a superhero: Vince tries out the cape

DO NOT! underestimate this dwarf