TV Review - The Cape
Jan. 17th, 2011 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatHave today off, which I'm quite happy about. Leaving around 2pm to look at flats again with realtor.
It's cold, it's gloomy, the sky has this dull yellow-grayish light, reminding me once again why I dislike January.
Just finished watching the new mid-season show The Cape - which has promise, but isn't quite there yet. It feels too much like too many other superhero series that I've watched recently to hold my interest. Had to keep rewinding, because I kept wandering off to do other things during it - surf the web, make lunch, knit, untangle yarn, putter. In short - it has a few intriguing ideas, but the execution is sorely lacking. Ah execution, very important, or so I'm learning. Been having that problem with a lot of things lately - great idea, really bad execution.
Simple enough plot-structure, unlike Heroes, which had a complicated plot-structure. Cop gets framed, is believed to be dead, family thinks he was a dirty cop and dead - he takes on a new identity to fight to a)clear his name, b) defeat the guy who framed him and c) clean up his city (some fictional place in the US). He falls in with a bunch of carnival folk who rob banks as a sideline. Luckily all the banks are run by the villain, Chess, so it's not that big a deal morally speaking to rob them. Chess is the big bad corporate honcho who has taken over town and privatized the police force. Yes, it's another libertarian fantasy/nightmare piece about the evils of lobbyist supported centralized government, which most likely means it won't have much appeal outside the US of A.
He takes on the identity of The Cape (which everyone jokes about, including him), and is helped by a girl named Orwell (who I'm willing to bet is Chess' daughter - because that's usually the case in these sorts of set-ups). With an ex-illusionist and head carnival broker named Max - who acts as his Mentor. (This makes me want to rent HBO's series Carnival, all of a sudden.)
What is interesting about the story is the carnival setting and his interactions with the carnival people. What is yawn-worthy is the set-up. But since this is only the pilot, and let's face out all super-hero origin tales tend to be a bit cliche anyhow...we could move past this soon and move deeper into the carnival world. Plus, Mrs. Faraday, his wife, has taken on the job of Public Defender - hoping to defend folks like her husband. This means she's not just going to sit around moping or be forgotten, or get involved with the villain right off the bat - like they usually do in these things.
The hero decides to visit his son as The Cape - so now his kid believes that the fictional super-hero they've been reading about is real and is driving his mother batty, hanging out on fire-escapes late at night watching for him. Way to go Dad.
The villain is mildly interesting - he falls under the brainaic category as opposed to the brawn category. Although he has brawns working for him.
Outside of that? It's okay. Nice atmospheric bits here and there. Some nice special effects. A bit cheesy, but all these things are. Works hard, like Heroes before it, to stick to the graphic novel format, complete with chapter headings. But not overly memorable.
I'll most likely give it a few more episodes, before I decide to keep or kick the thing to the curb.
Probably not a good sign that I'm finding No Ordinary Family more entertaining.
Rather snarky mood this weekend for some reason, I blame the weather. ;-)
It's cold, it's gloomy, the sky has this dull yellow-grayish light, reminding me once again why I dislike January.
Just finished watching the new mid-season show The Cape - which has promise, but isn't quite there yet. It feels too much like too many other superhero series that I've watched recently to hold my interest. Had to keep rewinding, because I kept wandering off to do other things during it - surf the web, make lunch, knit, untangle yarn, putter. In short - it has a few intriguing ideas, but the execution is sorely lacking. Ah execution, very important, or so I'm learning. Been having that problem with a lot of things lately - great idea, really bad execution.
Simple enough plot-structure, unlike Heroes, which had a complicated plot-structure. Cop gets framed, is believed to be dead, family thinks he was a dirty cop and dead - he takes on a new identity to fight to a)clear his name, b) defeat the guy who framed him and c) clean up his city (some fictional place in the US). He falls in with a bunch of carnival folk who rob banks as a sideline. Luckily all the banks are run by the villain, Chess, so it's not that big a deal morally speaking to rob them. Chess is the big bad corporate honcho who has taken over town and privatized the police force. Yes, it's another libertarian fantasy/nightmare piece about the evils of lobbyist supported centralized government, which most likely means it won't have much appeal outside the US of A.
He takes on the identity of The Cape (which everyone jokes about, including him), and is helped by a girl named Orwell (who I'm willing to bet is Chess' daughter - because that's usually the case in these sorts of set-ups). With an ex-illusionist and head carnival broker named Max - who acts as his Mentor. (This makes me want to rent HBO's series Carnival, all of a sudden.)
What is interesting about the story is the carnival setting and his interactions with the carnival people. What is yawn-worthy is the set-up. But since this is only the pilot, and let's face out all super-hero origin tales tend to be a bit cliche anyhow...we could move past this soon and move deeper into the carnival world. Plus, Mrs. Faraday, his wife, has taken on the job of Public Defender - hoping to defend folks like her husband. This means she's not just going to sit around moping or be forgotten, or get involved with the villain right off the bat - like they usually do in these things.
The hero decides to visit his son as The Cape - so now his kid believes that the fictional super-hero they've been reading about is real and is driving his mother batty, hanging out on fire-escapes late at night watching for him. Way to go Dad.
The villain is mildly interesting - he falls under the brainaic category as opposed to the brawn category. Although he has brawns working for him.
Outside of that? It's okay. Nice atmospheric bits here and there. Some nice special effects. A bit cheesy, but all these things are. Works hard, like Heroes before it, to stick to the graphic novel format, complete with chapter headings. But not overly memorable.
I'll most likely give it a few more episodes, before I decide to keep or kick the thing to the curb.
Probably not a good sign that I'm finding No Ordinary Family more entertaining.
Rather snarky mood this weekend for some reason, I blame the weather. ;-)
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Date: 2011-01-18 05:50 pm (UTC)Hmmm...network genre shows? I admittedly enjoy Vampire Diaries.
(But I think, no, I know you'd hate it.) While Fringe - I gave up on after six episodes (which apparently wasn't a good idea, because it got much much better in the second season, but hey, too late now.) I'm guessing that happened with a lot of people.
The better genre shows are off-network or cable, partly because cable can do more with them and has more time to build them - I think. Network tv is rather limited in it's resources and has to cater far too much to ratings and advertisers, while cable
has greater flexibility and is happy if they hit the right demo.