The Cape – Unmasked Mistake

Among the new midseason shows starting up over the next few weeks is The Cape on NBC. Typically I do not go for these superhero type shows – I thought Heroes was an interesting concept and somewhat enjoyable to watch, but it just did not keep my interest beyond the first couple episodes and I did not continue to watch the series despite its time pairing with Chuck, which I am a devoted viewer of.

I think for fans of Heroes, this new show will probably be a great replacement, but it seems to me to be coming up empty in a few places. The casting of the heroes and villains within the show are well done (and I love the inclusion of Richard Schiff), but the family and friends are a bit weak.

David Lyons at The Cape works well because he has that average family man quality to him that will work well moving forward as the superhero forced to hide his identity/death from his wife and son, although he did not work well for me as a top-level detective in the beginning. James Frain is fantastic as the dual-role villain and Keith David is fantastic as the circus ringleader/criminal-turned-mentor Max Malini. In addition to seeing Schiff playing a key role in the early part of the series, it’s always good to see soccer player turned badass Vinnie Jones, who plays a villain. I’m still uncertain on Summer Glau as the smart and sexy technology savvy partner, but there is definitely a storyline down that path where her character will fill out, which is where she will have to shine. The development of his friend Marty (Dorian Missick), who is now trapped in employment of the bad guys, was not well done, allowing for little sympathy for what appears will be an ongoing storyline.

The big mistake of the debut, though, was the de-masking of the arch-nemesis villain’s true identity. I feel like so much of a potential major story ‘ark’ was completely destroyed with that decision. I realize it helps drive lead character’s choice to become The Cape and where he is directing his efforts, but I feel like it just gave away something that can’t be taken back.

Gonna give the show a few more episodes to sell me because it looks like the introduction of new sub-level villains each week may be interesting, but at this point my guess is that I’ll eventually drift away from watching it… at least on television anyway.