PILOT REVIEW: The Cape

THE CAPE

Starring: David Lyons, Keith David, Summer Glau, James Frain, Jennifer Ferrin, Ryan Wynott, Dorian Missick, Martin Klebba, Vinnie Jones
Created by Tom Wheeler
Written by Tom Wheeler, Directed by Simon West

NBC's new superhero series The Cape is not quite like anything else on broadcast TV right now. When Vince Faraday (David Lyons) is framed for murder and called "Chess" and supposedly killed by the real bad guys, he takes on the guise of his son's (Ryan Wynott) favorite superhero The Cape to go back and fight crime and corruption in the fictional Palm City. Left behind are his son and wife (Jennifer Ferrin) who can't know that he is still alive. Assisting The Cape is a band of bank robbers running a circus led by Max Malini (Keith David) who help train Faraday into becoming the superhero and a tough blogger (Summer Glau). The villains are the actual Chess (James Frain) and the mysterious Scales (Vinnie Jones).

The Cape had the potential to be embarrassingly bad but that did not happen. It's certainly campy and plays like a mediocre action movie in terms of quality, acting, effects, etc. But it's not terrible. The setting of Palm City plays much like Gotham City in the recent Batman movies - full of corruption and cartoonish characters but still somewhat believable. The whole series plays a lot like a comic book and fans of that genre would be better apt to judge its quality in that regard. The cast hasn't been spectacular yet. David Lyons didn't do too much to establish himself as the central character and too much time was spent in the bizarre circus training. The two villains (Frain and Jones) are interesting for now and could develop into strong opposing forces.

Basically, if you like the comic books or comic book movies, this show is worth a shot. If you don't, it's probably too high on the camp level to be enjoyed. The action scenes are nothing that hasn't been seen before and the cast is nothing spectacular. But again, this could have been absolutely terrible and it's not. It's just ok. At least they're trying something different.