The Cape-Love it or hate it
- Thread starter Mistral
- Start date
I like it, don't love it. A better lead might have helped.
I find it inane. The lead actor is too bland to carry a series. James Frain is a hoot as a supervillain and if the story were him and Orwell's daddy issues, I might be more inclined to watch.
J
Jetfire
Guest
Love it! The show gets better with each ep.
Just a heads up, it's pretty much already dead. They've stopped production.
J
Jetfire
Guest
I'm in the middle, but voted love it since I lean more that way. I like that it's not afraid to be somewhat more fantastical & 'comic booky' with villains like Scales. I like Keith David, and love Bear McCreary's score. There's room for a show like this that's a bit different, but too bad that it's all but dead.
Heroes season one was actually pretty good.
The Cape has been a disaster from the start.
I don't hate it but I don't like it much. I won't miss it when it's gone.
Compared to the rest of Heroes, maybe, but not compared to any show I like.
And I still think it beats the hell out of Heroes. Of course, I also liked the Bionic Woman remake, so take my opinion with as many grains of salt as you like.
It's so horribly cliched and generic. I mean, it's even called "The Cape." Cuz, see, he has a cape. Cuz, see, he's a Superhero.
It takes all the trappings of the genre and has almost no substance. The noirish mood is the only good thing about it.
It takes all the trappings of the genre and has almost no substance. The noirish mood is the only good thing about it.
The poll is too binary. I enjoy The Cape, but it's harmless fun, not great TV. It reminds me of 1990's The Flash in its tone, its blend of lightness and seriousness, its stylization, and its music. The lead is bland but okay, the wife is bland, the kid is annoying, but Keith David is terrific, Summer Glau is good but underutilized, the carnival gang is fun, and James Frain makes a terrific, self-assured villain. I've seen better, to be sure, but I'm finding it one of the more entertaining network shows of the season, so I regret that it's almost over.
Really don't care, as I missed the first 2 episodes. Too lazy to play catch up.
I happen to like the trappings of the genre. I like seeing a good-ol' superhero battle every week cause it reminds of the good old days when the comics I bought were like that.
I don't care about "substance" because that usually just means everybody is whining about something.
Oh, but what's clever about it is that the cape isn't just a decoration, it's the source of his "powers." It's made of a miraculous material and can function as an extension of its wearer's body and function as a club or a rope or what-have-you, and it's superstrong and even weapon-resistant up to a point. Plus it has a complex and dark history behind it, and there have even been intimations of something mystical about it. So it's not generic at all.
And I don't find it cliched either. How many superheroes are believed to be dead and fighting to win back their life and reputation? How many adopt the role in order to convince their children that there's still good in the world? How many superheroes have criminal carnies as their primary allies (and landlords), creating an uneasy tension? A generic, cliched superhero has a normal identity he or she can retreat to, a normal job to use as camouflage or refuge or simply a way to pay the bills. Vince doesn't have that. He lives on the periphery and has to make deals with criminals because the forces of law and order are corrupt. Conceptually, it's actually pretty fresh and different, at least for television -- even granting that the execution has been less than ideal.
I think what crippled this show was its very weak pilot episode. I'd lay good odds that it was written as a 2-hour pilot but hacked down to 1 hour before filming. It's so cursory and rushed that it almost has to have been. So the show got off to a very bad start, and that doomed it.
I'm enjoying The Cape. I'll even buy it on DVD, as long as the story has some resolution.
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