With Heroes canceled, what is NBC to do? The answer, Dear Reader, is The Cape, the latest semi-superhero show ready to hit the air this fall.
“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape” his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands. Rounding out the cast are James Frain (“The Tudors”) as billionaire Peter Fleming – The Cape’s nemesis – who moonlights as the twisted killer: Chess; Keith David (“Death at a Funeral”) as Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus gang of bank robbers who mentors Vince Faraday and trains him to be The Cape; Summer Glau (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as Orwell, an investigative blogger who wages war on crime and corruption in Palm City; and Dorian Missick (“Six Degrees”) as Marty Voyt, a former police detective and friend to Faraday.
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I’m responding to this the same way I’ve responded to “Heroes” during its inexplicably long life – with painful, high-speed eye rolling. It lost me the moment it said that the son’s favorite comic character is the source of that so-generic-it’s-supposed-to-be-ironic name. Even if the cast is pretty solid, it just sounds very, very generic and so desperate to be taken seriously that it hurts. The sad part is, though, that like “Heroes”, the mainstream media will probably treat this as brilliant and revolutionary just because it’s not another CSI.
Meh… There is a lack of good writers for television these days. Okay let me rephrase. There is a lack of good writers with an affinity for comicbooks and superheroes. And I don’t know if I like “No Ordinary Family” and “The Cape” for keeping hope alive for a good superhero show…Or hate them for setting yet another mediocre precedence that might convince TV execs not to fund that Brubaker guys “Sleeper” property.
This is gonna flop SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bad! WHATTA JOKE!
Glad I’m not the only one who thought that looked ridiculous. “Heroes” was good at the start, but that’s only because they grounded the show in character (before abandoning that altogether as the series wore on). This looks like a pseudo-Batman that will “inspire” the people? No thanks….
I’m not so pessimistic about this. It looks a little wobbly, but it shows quite a bit of promise. It really all depends on how “fast” they get things to move. People complain about “slow moving” shows, but something that is so far removed from our reality (superheroes) takes time to build up and slowly stretch a viewer’s belief until they’re willing to accept this change to reality.
Comic books tend to do the other extreme, breaking a person’s sense of reality and putting its own in its place (it is incredibly hard to say the DC or Marvel universe is like our own). Both The Cape and No Ordinary Family are trying their best to move us into a world that is our own, with a story that is not our own. If they rush it, then they break it.
That was the major problem with Heroes. The writing “team” just wrote stories and put them in (they treated a weekly, one-hour drama like a monthly comic book franchise with its hundred of cast memebers, and thus tried to fit in a story for every character without the various “titles” to separate them out). There wasn’t a slow-moving build-up. They just kind of did things.
Lost has done the extreme of slow-moving for the past 6 seasons and, like it or love it, its paying off in dividends. We are in a universe that breaks almost every rule we come to accept and we’re okay with it because we were eased into it.
Fringe has been doing it as well, but recently screwed the pooch (not completely, but they could have done so much more with this). If anyone saw the latest episode, one could see that it was a major hiccup because (for reasons I can’t fathom) they added to, changed up, and subtracted from the status quo in huge ways that I, at least, was not able to quickly accept. They’re lucky I love the show and am willing to just “accept” this, but they’ve spent a lot of their trust credit with me and will need to build that back up.
The Cape could easily follow the path of Lost. Just be willing to keep the hero persona as a forshadowing for a few episodes as they slowly build up the credibility for him becoming a kick-ass superhero and our understanding and acceptance of this reality.
Though, to be honest, I don’t have much hope this will happen. I’m willing to bet we’ll be seeing David Lyons in the Cape suit at the end of the pilot episode, an awkward transition occurring over the middle half-hour that will have people reviewing it as “It’s not bad and shows a lot of future promise, but only time will tell if this is really the superhero show we’ve been waiting for.” I sincerely hope the crew is smarter than this, but I doubt it.
No Ordinary Family has a different dynamic all on its own. I’m more worried about the longevity of this thing. It seems to be Fantastic Four without the superheroics. It might be good for a kind of one season long show (something I think more producers need to be funding), detailing how a family tries to live an ordinary life with extraordinary powers, but unless they want to go the route of a kids show with every week being a new variation “about to be caught with their powers” (something I’m not picking up from the preview, thank god), then I’m not sure what they have planned for sustainability.
So I’m tentatively excited.
Wow, seems like the Hero based TV genera is just going into the crapper lately. I had hopes for this show when I 1st heard of it but now seeing the trailer I have many doubts. I will give it a try and hope it goes well. I am looking forward to see Summer Glau in a different roll than the emotionally challenged/issued characters she has played in the past.
This seems to be heavinly influenced by the recent batman movies.
Boy, you can cut the pessimism with a knife. Has everyone become so jaded that you can’t appreciate a superhero show that has an ACTUAL superhero in it? I’m not saying that it will tank or be really successful (I know better), but at least it’s an actual superhero and some teen heartthrob who has to have his shirt off every 3 to 5 episodes.
Jeez; “Grounded in reality” doesn’t have to mean “cemented into the floor”.
I don’t think the pessimistic are inclined to give this bonus points for having nobody shirtless or for including a straight-up Superhero. If it doesn’t seem to deliver quality writing, it gets the meh. And while I know you cant judge that well from a trailer…man this series just doesn’t look good. So for once I have to agree with the collective meh of the net.
I think when we criticize stuff like this we have to be careful not to come off as comic snobs and overly harsh skeptics. I think we should first get some perspective on the fact that where mainstream media (tv and film) are showing an interest in comics/superhero themed properties. Sometimes it will be corny, sometimes it will just be okay, but when they get it right it will sooo be worth it. Hell, this is how I feel about most of the comics out there today. But as the Godfather of Major Spoilers would say, “your mileage may vary.”
I’m not saying if this will be good or bad, but the comic fan in me will give it a chance.
Personally, I am hopeful. It sounds as though most of you just really hate comicdom and all things Superhero. I for one, being a fan since a small child, am excited to see mainstream media taking chances and trying to bring a passion of mine since childhood into the fore front. I think the biggest problem we’ve had with comic esque shows are that the studios were far too scared to go all in. It’s been 9 seasons now and we still haven’t seen Clark Kent put on a cape, or fly for more than a few seconds, and come on let’s face facts you can’t have Superman without a cape and flying, it’s kind of his thing. Now of course, “The Cape” probably won’t be the greatest show ever, but it will more than likely be the best in a long time. Come on kids what do we have to compare it to…Lost (what a joke), all 20 CSI’s, the biggest loser? T.V. has been in the crapper for years now, but I am celebrating for this one is a win for us who have been waiting for many years for a new superhero to come in and save the day. Heroes almost had it, if only the execs would have cut the writers loose and let them do their own things. The trailer looks decent, all the other fanboys out there need to get behind this one, don’t let another Firefly pass us by. Nuff Said.
Hey I’m hopeful as well, we might all be wrong..Its just a trailer. And you good sir bring up A LOT of good points, like the studios fear of going all in and give us a costumed superhero.
And I think we all agree with you here, because all the negative comments on the site are NOT there because “”most of you just really hate comicdom and all things Superhero”” The reason for our disliking is not even because this looks like another attempt at pulling in the geeks (The people who wont just watch a show but advertise it, hype it and write, vlog and rant about it..)
The reason for all these negative comments is likely just that this show looks(despite good production value, and kinda-clever casting) to be a show with Smallville/CSI..what other shows you mentioned quality of writing…Mediocre writing is what I’m getting at. And mediocre doesn’t cut it when you have to suspend disbelief..You just end up with cheesy.
We are all HOPING for a full-on superhero show. And when we see this we don’t just go ..well damn that doesn’t look awesome, oh well. No first we get all excited, “maybe finally we will see a good supe-show”. Our expectations go up. And then when we see this..We get pissy.
Oh and one thing makes me even more pissy ;) You are implying this show looks to be miles above what we have been watching like Smallville, Lost, CSI. And while I cannot speak for anyone else on the site I most certainly DO NOT Watch crap TV and TV these days has not gone to the crapper. I will have to give you some recommendations
Dexter, Mad Men, Supernatural, Californication, Eureka, House, Breaking Bad, The Office, Castle, The Wire… I won’t watch a superhero show just on the merit that it is a superhero show … But if its has the quality of any of the shows I’ve mentioned so far. I think I might enjoy it even more. I hope our nerd-rage makes more sense in this context :)