swordznsorcery (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swordznsorcery) wrote2013-03-05 09:11 pm
swordznsorcery) wrote2013-03-05 09:11 pm
The Cape
Celebrate with me, for I have discovered New Television! Actually I haven't as such, as the New Television I have discovered has already been axed, back in 2011, because NBC really is as stupid as their recent reputation would suggest. And I'm digressing, I know. Anyway, what is this New Television, I probably don't hear you cry? It's called The Cape, and you want to see it. Yes, I know, I am very fond of watching television programmes that nobody else in the history of ever seems to appreciate. This time I mean it though. Come and have a look at what I have found.
Meet The Cape:
He's a superhero, although he's not particularly good at being a superhero. He keeps getting his ass kicked for one thing; but fair play to him, he does it quite stylishly, and in a nice cloak. Also he's only just become a superhero, so I suppose it's understandable that he needs a bit of practice. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here, have an explanatory video clip. I found this quite by chance, when I was playing with Iron Man trailers on You Tube - a trailer for a television show that looked like I needed to watch it as soon as possible. Fortunately, due to it being axed after only ten episodes, because NBC really is as stupid as... sorry, I think I covered that already... it's pretty cheap on Amazon. And it turned up in a nice envelope, and okay, I've only watched two episodes so far, and it could all go badly wrong with the remaining eight. But it won't, because it's far too nice for that. Look at the trailer. Look look look. This is everything that you need from your television. Almost completely, it's what you most want to watch. Honest.
It has its faults, I'll grant you. The pilot episode needs to be twice as long, because in its current format (I shall never forgive adverts for making an hour into forty-two minutes), it sucks as a superhero origin story. It's like you're watching in fast forward, although the bits that we do get to see are very good. The vibe is rather like the 1989 Batman movie, although it's clearly been heavily influenced by Iron Man as well. Everybody has a translucent floaty computer screen, for instance, operated by making wild sweepy gestures in mid air. Also there's quite a bit of DIY science and technology, whilst half-dressed in a poorly lit room. It has its own ideas too though. A broken down carnival, whose performers rob banks as a sideline, whilst training would-be superheroes after hours. An evil corporation bigwig stalking the city at night in fancy contact lenses and a leather mask, whilst plotting to take over the world. And, okay, Summer Glau. But you can't have everything.
I am very much loving this show. NBC are bloody idiots for axing it, but then we knew that anyway. Here, have an episode one photo story. I feel the whole thing needs celebrating properly, because clearly it wasn't loved nearly enough while it was alive.
First of all, marvel at the credit sequence. Or some bits of it anyway:
It's all comic pages, full of The Cape swirling about cartoon cityscapes at night, and jumping off stuff. Then the TV show itself is, not entirely coincidentally, full of The Cape swirling about cityscapes at night, and jumping off stuff. And being thrown off quite a lot of stuff as well. He does need to work on his superhero schtick, quite urgently.
Episode one, then.
In a city laid low by corruption, an heroic police chief declares war on dastardly policemen, and on the criminal mastermind who is apparently behind all of the dastardliness: a masked fiend known as Chess.
In a surprise to precisely nobody, the heroic police chief is then confronted by the very same masked fiend. And is promptly murdered.
Using a fabulous exploding gas that blows up pretty much the entire world, and causes Our Hero, honest cop Vince Faraday, to go surfing the entire length of the city on a car door. This is very probably not entirely believable.
Top city businessman Peter Fleming. Peter Fleming is trying to take over the police force, and run it as a private business. He's also trying to take over everything else in the city, because he wants to rule the world. Very obviously, he's Chess. Given that he's the only British cast member, this is even more painfully obvious than it might otherwise have been; and it's pretty obvious to start with. Fortunately they don't try to pretend it's a secret for very long.
Vince Faraday and his son, Trip. That's an actual name? Anyway, Vince is not only the perfect policeman, but is also the perfect husband and father as well, as they spend quite a bit of the pilot making agonisingly obvious. Here he's reading a comic book called The Cape to his son. It's about a masked vigilante, who is the lone force fighting to take his city back from the forces of darkness.
It might be easier to fight darkness in daylight, but apparently that's the sort of logical thinking that superheroes don't enjoy.
Acting on a tip off from a secretive informer known only as Orwell, Faraday zeroes in on a smuggled consignment of illegal explosives hidden in dolls. Unfortunately his partner is in the pay of Chess, and soon Faraday is in the clutches of the enemy.
The partner is the guy with his back to camera, and not the doll. Just fyi.
Chess gloats. Now he has Faraday, he can frame him for his own crimes, and present the defeat of Chess as a great victory for Ark, the private security firm owned by Peter Fleming.
Why, hello there. Peter Fleming gloats for a while longer, about how he can now take over the city, because everybody will love him for defeating Chess.
Faraday runs away. Naturally this leads to explosions. Faraday is now presumed guilty, and also presumed dead.
He's not dead though (surprise!). He's actually been found by the members of a carnival troupe. Here he is with the local body-builder.
Then there's the fire-eater.
Also a tattooed candy floss lady, and a mesmerist. He and Faraday have a bit of a thing for dressing each other in women's underwear. I have no idea if this is likely to be of later relevance, but it seemed worth mentioning.
There's an acrobat on stilts too, but I couldn't get a good picture of him, 'cause of the bouncing.
And the Ringmaster. He's quite keen on killing Faraday, but Vince tells him that he has lots of top security information, and can be quite useful.
Enter the Carnival of Crime, a steampunk bankrobbery outfit.
Faraday makes a deal with the carnival. He'll continue helping them to steal Fleming's money, if they'll teach him to be a superhero.
This involves learning how to be properly swishy with a funky cloak woven from spiders' silk.
And also learning how to fight with it.
And how to disappear in a puff of smoke. I don't know how long it takes to become a superhero, as we're not told that, but presumably quite some time. There's investigations, and he has a funeral, and Fleming strengthens his hold on the city. Finally, Faraday decides that it's time for The Cape to make his public debut.
Which leads us to Vinnie Jones. He's smuggling more explosives for Fleming, and Faraday sets out to stop him.
This does not go well. Fortunately he manages to escape, only 90% drowned, and starts again.
This time he meets Orwell, the secretive computer genius who first tipped him off about Fleming. They decide to form a crime-busting duo. In no way especially helped by having a secretive computer genius on the team, Faraday goes back to face off against Fleming.
That's not a laser pistol, it's just a machine pistol being funky.
Fleming, why are you dressed as Chess again? He's supposed to be dead. People are going to notice if you go rampaging around the city dressed like that.
Further stuff explodes. Also Chess gets away, which I supect he'll be doing a lot of. Faraday has managed to prevent the explosives smuggling though, which he seems to count as a victory - although given that the police force is owned by Fleming, I'm not sure who he's counting on to clear it all up. He can't dispose of an entire warehouse on his own, even with the Carnival of Crime to help out. Anyway.
Orwell toys with her floaty computer screens, as Faraday ponders her identity. She tells him she's nobody, but she has bags of massively expensive computer equipment, and she drives a Mercedes Coupe with gullwing doors, which cost a fortune. Presumably who she really is will crop up later in the season, if it lasts that long.
Temporarily sort of victorious, Faraday goes off to deliver a message of hope to his son.
Who I'm pretty sure is the kid from FlashForward, although that's probably irrelevant.
There then follows dramatic music, and an attempt to pretend this is Batman.
This is a fun show. It's borderline silly, but in a way that seems entirely intentional. Basically it's old fashioned comic book stuff, and on the basis of the first episode, it's got a lot going for it. The bad guys are schlocky, the good guys are entertaining, and The Cape's antics are well done. There are only ten episodes, but I am optimistic about the rest of them.
Provided there aren't too many fillers. American TV is horribly bad about those.
Meet The Cape:
He's a superhero, although he's not particularly good at being a superhero. He keeps getting his ass kicked for one thing; but fair play to him, he does it quite stylishly, and in a nice cloak. Also he's only just become a superhero, so I suppose it's understandable that he needs a bit of practice. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here, have an explanatory video clip. I found this quite by chance, when I was playing with Iron Man trailers on You Tube - a trailer for a television show that looked like I needed to watch it as soon as possible. Fortunately, due to it being axed after only ten episodes, because NBC really is as stupid as... sorry, I think I covered that already... it's pretty cheap on Amazon. And it turned up in a nice envelope, and okay, I've only watched two episodes so far, and it could all go badly wrong with the remaining eight. But it won't, because it's far too nice for that. Look at the trailer. Look look look. This is everything that you need from your television. Almost completely, it's what you most want to watch. Honest.
It has its faults, I'll grant you. The pilot episode needs to be twice as long, because in its current format (I shall never forgive adverts for making an hour into forty-two minutes), it sucks as a superhero origin story. It's like you're watching in fast forward, although the bits that we do get to see are very good. The vibe is rather like the 1989 Batman movie, although it's clearly been heavily influenced by Iron Man as well. Everybody has a translucent floaty computer screen, for instance, operated by making wild sweepy gestures in mid air. Also there's quite a bit of DIY science and technology, whilst half-dressed in a poorly lit room. It has its own ideas too though. A broken down carnival, whose performers rob banks as a sideline, whilst training would-be superheroes after hours. An evil corporation bigwig stalking the city at night in fancy contact lenses and a leather mask, whilst plotting to take over the world. And, okay, Summer Glau. But you can't have everything.
I am very much loving this show. NBC are bloody idiots for axing it, but then we knew that anyway. Here, have an episode one photo story. I feel the whole thing needs celebrating properly, because clearly it wasn't loved nearly enough while it was alive.
First of all, marvel at the credit sequence. Or some bits of it anyway:
It's all comic pages, full of The Cape swirling about cartoon cityscapes at night, and jumping off stuff. Then the TV show itself is, not entirely coincidentally, full of The Cape swirling about cityscapes at night, and jumping off stuff. And being thrown off quite a lot of stuff as well. He does need to work on his superhero schtick, quite urgently.
Episode one, then.
In a city laid low by corruption, an heroic police chief declares war on dastardly policemen, and on the criminal mastermind who is apparently behind all of the dastardliness: a masked fiend known as Chess.
In a surprise to precisely nobody, the heroic police chief is then confronted by the very same masked fiend. And is promptly murdered.
Using a fabulous exploding gas that blows up pretty much the entire world, and causes Our Hero, honest cop Vince Faraday, to go surfing the entire length of the city on a car door. This is very probably not entirely believable.
Top city businessman Peter Fleming. Peter Fleming is trying to take over the police force, and run it as a private business. He's also trying to take over everything else in the city, because he wants to rule the world. Very obviously, he's Chess. Given that he's the only British cast member, this is even more painfully obvious than it might otherwise have been; and it's pretty obvious to start with. Fortunately they don't try to pretend it's a secret for very long.
Vince Faraday and his son, Trip. That's an actual name? Anyway, Vince is not only the perfect policeman, but is also the perfect husband and father as well, as they spend quite a bit of the pilot making agonisingly obvious. Here he's reading a comic book called The Cape to his son. It's about a masked vigilante, who is the lone force fighting to take his city back from the forces of darkness.
It might be easier to fight darkness in daylight, but apparently that's the sort of logical thinking that superheroes don't enjoy.
Acting on a tip off from a secretive informer known only as Orwell, Faraday zeroes in on a smuggled consignment of illegal explosives hidden in dolls. Unfortunately his partner is in the pay of Chess, and soon Faraday is in the clutches of the enemy.
The partner is the guy with his back to camera, and not the doll. Just fyi.
Chess gloats. Now he has Faraday, he can frame him for his own crimes, and present the defeat of Chess as a great victory for Ark, the private security firm owned by Peter Fleming.
Why, hello there. Peter Fleming gloats for a while longer, about how he can now take over the city, because everybody will love him for defeating Chess.
Faraday runs away. Naturally this leads to explosions. Faraday is now presumed guilty, and also presumed dead.
He's not dead though (surprise!). He's actually been found by the members of a carnival troupe. Here he is with the local body-builder.
Then there's the fire-eater.
Also a tattooed candy floss lady, and a mesmerist. He and Faraday have a bit of a thing for dressing each other in women's underwear. I have no idea if this is likely to be of later relevance, but it seemed worth mentioning.
There's an acrobat on stilts too, but I couldn't get a good picture of him, 'cause of the bouncing.
And the Ringmaster. He's quite keen on killing Faraday, but Vince tells him that he has lots of top security information, and can be quite useful.
Enter the Carnival of Crime, a steampunk bankrobbery outfit.
Faraday makes a deal with the carnival. He'll continue helping them to steal Fleming's money, if they'll teach him to be a superhero.
This involves learning how to be properly swishy with a funky cloak woven from spiders' silk.
And also learning how to fight with it.
And how to disappear in a puff of smoke. I don't know how long it takes to become a superhero, as we're not told that, but presumably quite some time. There's investigations, and he has a funeral, and Fleming strengthens his hold on the city. Finally, Faraday decides that it's time for The Cape to make his public debut.
Which leads us to Vinnie Jones. He's smuggling more explosives for Fleming, and Faraday sets out to stop him.
This does not go well. Fortunately he manages to escape, only 90% drowned, and starts again.
This time he meets Orwell, the secretive computer genius who first tipped him off about Fleming. They decide to form a crime-busting duo. In no way especially helped by having a secretive computer genius on the team, Faraday goes back to face off against Fleming.
That's not a laser pistol, it's just a machine pistol being funky.
Fleming, why are you dressed as Chess again? He's supposed to be dead. People are going to notice if you go rampaging around the city dressed like that.
Further stuff explodes. Also Chess gets away, which I supect he'll be doing a lot of. Faraday has managed to prevent the explosives smuggling though, which he seems to count as a victory - although given that the police force is owned by Fleming, I'm not sure who he's counting on to clear it all up. He can't dispose of an entire warehouse on his own, even with the Carnival of Crime to help out. Anyway.
Orwell toys with her floaty computer screens, as Faraday ponders her identity. She tells him she's nobody, but she has bags of massively expensive computer equipment, and she drives a Mercedes Coupe with gullwing doors, which cost a fortune. Presumably who she really is will crop up later in the season, if it lasts that long.
Temporarily sort of victorious, Faraday goes off to deliver a message of hope to his son.
Who I'm pretty sure is the kid from FlashForward, although that's probably irrelevant.
There then follows dramatic music, and an attempt to pretend this is Batman.
This is a fun show. It's borderline silly, but in a way that seems entirely intentional. Basically it's old fashioned comic book stuff, and on the basis of the first episode, it's got a lot going for it. The bad guys are schlocky, the good guys are entertaining, and The Cape's antics are well done. There are only ten episodes, but I am optimistic about the rest of them.
Provided there aren't too many fillers. American TV is horribly bad about those.