THE CAPE | “Pilot” & “Tarot” (Jan. 9) *Spoilers!*

[Chick_McGeester]

Oiy Vey...
CRAP...

[Agent Richard07]

The Cape had some interesting caricatures and I loved the superheroics and training with the way they mixed illusionist tricks with crime fighting. For that alone I'd give it a "Good" grade. The rest, however, was unremarkable. One big weak spot was our lead guy not being able to see his wife and kid. Despite a seemingly credible threat from Chess, the whole thing came off as contrived and unnecessary. We also have him working with some criminals who suddenly become crusaders with the bank robberies swept under the rug. What?! But I did like those circus folks anyway. Another thing I didn't like was them making The Cape a guy imitating a comic book hero. The Cape should have been an original creation on the cop's part.

And what was up with Chess's eyes? Why were they lighter in some scenes? They almost looked like the eyes of a cat or a reptile.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Let the bashing begin forthwith!

I wouldn't call it a Batman ripoff. I mean other works are allowed to show crime fighters and even their training, nobody owns that, but it did seem to take a few scenes right from Batman Begins. One was when the hero was poisoned and had to be rescued and driven away. Another was when the hero confronted Richard Shiff's character in his office without full garb.

[TemporalFlux]

Watched it off and on for the two hours, but I think I got the gist of it. There are many obvious differences, but the "feel" of the series reminded me of the original Malibu Ultraverse Night Man comic (not to be confused with that horrid television series Night Man which shared little with the comic).

The element I enjoy (and what the Night Man comic had) is the hero being a work in progress. This kind of character is a hero who barely has a clue what he's doing, but he's trying really hard to learn as he goes. In contrast, a character like Batman does not feel like someone unprepared even when he is unprepared; he comes across as just making mistakes. With Night Man and The Cape, I see it as a surprise miracle that they survived the night.

Anyway, I'll keep tuning in. It's not a show worthy of high praise, but I enjoyed it.

[Mr. Adventure]

Like TF, I was watching this off and on and I see what they're going for but I'm not quite sure about the execution. I need to watch it off the DVR with full attention though before really judging it. I kind of liked the look of the characters though, it was outlandish yet looked more "real" somehow than you normally see.

The carnival stuff reminded me of Heroes as well but I think Heroes did the carnival atmosphere better.

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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And what was up with Chess's eyes? Why were they lighter in some scenes? They almost looked like the eyes of a cat or a reptile.

They were contacts with chess pieces for pupils.

[Aragorn]

WTF? I guess it's good not to be Heroes super slow, but The Cape moved way too fast. They took a two-hour pilot and condensed it to one hour, and took out a lot of common sense and character/plot development so that it could fill those 43 minutes.

[Guy Gardener]

it took Bill and Ted 18 months to learn how to play guitar but this guy learns how to be a superhero in days, maybe hours...

His kid has ONE comic.

ONE comic.

That he reads over and over again, and when a paedophile shows up dressed as that comicbook character he's on the verse of having a psychotic break like that time Boone from Bones met Stewie from Family guy.

The kids slow right?

Now Parker Lewis's sister worshipping Thor, that made sense because she was 5.

Do you think Ben Aflek goes to Halloween parties dressed up as Daredevil?

Cape.

Fuck the "cape" you idiot, if you want to save the day get a gun.

Cheap rip off of the Hood anyway.

He just stumbles across Eyes on the docks? I mean: Orwell.

She's either the bad guys daughter, little sister or childbride sold to him by the Russian mob.

Stupid, stupid stupid.

[Checkmate]

I liked some of the ideas, but Jesus the execution was utter shit. It was just so... rushed. They couldn't even do a decent montage of his training. Just... wow.

[Roger Wilco]

That was fucking awful. What braindead executive thought that was worthy of being put on air?

lol that anybody still thinks Vinny Jones could be an actor though.

[Guy Gardener]

Cape makes Condorman look like Brians Song.

[Jax]

Just watched the pilot, not sure I want to watch the 2nd episode because FUCKING HELL that was piss poor. It needed a 2 hour pilot not a rushed 42 minute opening episode though I doubt that would of saved it...

ZERO character development, massive pacing issues and the most poorly structured thing I've seen on TV in years. The training bit should be the most important part of the birth of the hero but was over so quickly with no answer given on how much time has passed and then all of a sudden were taking too the boat docks where he fights Vinnie Jones character...HOW THE FUCK did they know about the boat shipment ? Also I can't take the use of a cape seriously as a weapon.

The bit where he breaks out of the chains underwater GIVE me a fucking break and the people who train him are criminals so why the fuck should I care about them ?

Also the smoke trick pisses me off because its such a fucking cheap CGI deux ex crap for the writers to use, that old guy goes from a chair to upstairs on the other side of the room in mere seconds, give me a break.

This show will tank.

[Mr. Adventure]

Aragorn wrote:

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WTF? I guess it's good not to be Heroes super slow, but The Cape moved way too fast. They took a two-hour pilot and condensed it to one hour, and took out a lot of common sense and character/plot development so that it could fill those 43 minutes.

Maybe that was trying too hard to avoid becoming another Invasion/Caprica/SGU/etc. that may have taken too long to get off the ground?

[Lunarflower]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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She's either the bad guys daughter, little sister or childbride sold to him by the Russian mob.

Stupid, stupid stupid.

I saw the pilot at Comic-Con last year. It was something that was in that pilot, but cut out (though will probably show up later). Orwell is Peter Fleming aka Chess' daughter.

[Caliburn24]

The show was all over the map in terms of pace, tone and direction. And the pilot should have been two hours, it was really rushed to get it into an hour. All the stuff with illusions and hypnosis, the cape etc. is pretty silly, but I'll let that slide, every show gets a gimme gimmick.

But it has some ambition, it moves fasts, and I think it might be able to hit a nice stride as it keeps moving.

Oh, and Bear McCreary being cut loose to find his inner Danny Elfman was pretty good, at least he gets to compose some music for this, unlike the pretty much nothing he did for Walking Dead.

[23skidoo]

Man, what a tough crowd. I'm sure glad the Adam West Batman series and the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series never debuted in today's era, otherwise we'd never have either to look back at fondly.

I found the first episode (I consider it a single 2-hour episode because that's how it aired in my part of the world) a great throwback to the older style of action hero shows. It was a little slow for the first 10 minutes - as is the case with most pilots these days - but it picked up pretty quickly. I immediately got a 1960s Batman vibe from the Circus of Crime group, and they were my favorite part of the show.

Well, until Orwell came along. Although the Oracle comparison is obvious from the start, Summer Glau's character steals the show, and of course we're left with a mystery as to who she really is and why she's able to do what she does. I'm guessing she's the bad guy's daughter, too. It makes sense, although she acts a bit too surprised to find her suspicions about him being confirmed. But, let's be realistic here, what other options might there be? Surely Orwell isn't some stranded alien or a time traveller. Or just some girl doing this because she's bored and can't find a boyfriend. I mean, to those calling the possibilities stupid, exactly what possibilities wouldn't be dumb on some level?

The only weak link I find in the series is with the wife and son. I get what they're trying to do here, but frankly they should be very much in the background, though the wife started to finally show some spark when she gets her law job (though I hope they continue to play with the stigma aspect a bit more). However, this show is about The Cape, Orwell his sidekick (who goes undercover and rescues him from scrapes while looking incredibly hot and keeping her own secrets) and Max and the circus (who can be seen in part 2 as falling into the "they have the Cape's back" category), and together the three are going after Kobra...er...the big bad. If they make it too complex than that, the show will become just another Heroes.

My first impression coming out of this initial pilot is this is what Heroes should have been like (and yeah, I remember the fact Heroes brought in a carnival). Hopefully it'll be able to maintain its concept long enough to tell at least a complete story arc before its cancelled. But with one website already calling V doomed after one episode and Fringe doomed before it even returns to TV, we're entrenched in such a "kill it while it's being born" mentality that I'm not surprised that the networks would rather fill their airwaves with American Idol and Extreme Makeover Home Edition than invest in shows that get pissed on so quickly.

Alex

[JD]

I thought it was alot of fun. Sure it wasn't it wasn't the deepest thing ever but I had a good time watching it and really, to me, that's all that matters. I really wonder what the hell people are expecting when something like this comes on the air, I mean come on it's not meant to be some deep philosophical examination of what it means to be human, it's about a pissed off dude using a cape to beat the crap out of criminals. That was what I was expecting, and that was exactly what I got. I really think when it comes to stuff like this people really need to learn to turn off their brains and go along for the ride.