The Cape: Goggles and Hicks

I tried posting this yesterday but we kept losing power due to high winds. I think we're stable enough now for me to get this done.

During his last battle, Vince managed to break some ribs. Max wants him to take the day off to rest. Unfortunately, heroes don't always get a day off.

Vince tries to spend the day watching his son, Trip. Halfway through the day, He (and Orwell) gets attacked by Goggles and Hicks, a pair of assassins hired by Fleming to get rid of The Cape. Of course, Orwell and The Cape defeat the dastardly duo.

Meanwhile, Trip manages to make a new friend....even though the friend is a little on the weird side.

I found this episode to be fairly boring. Nothing new was revealed other than the fact that there are more members of Tarot. (um, duh.) I suppose Trip's new friend could be interesting. It'll definitely be better than his mom hounding him all the time about stuff.

I'm ready for the show to be better now....

The Cape: Dice

A new foe appears on the scene. But she's not quite a villain.

Flashback! Peter Fleming talks with ....a scientist? An engineer? I'm not really sure. They are discussing a young girl named Tracey. She is a savant who sees the world in probabilities, giving her the ability to basically see the future. She correctly predicts every throw of the dice, as well as predicting that Fleming will kill her father and she will kill Peter.

Fast forward ten years and Ark is about the debut a new type of artificial intelligence called T.R.A.C.E. (pronounced Tracey, of course). The device will give you the answer to any question you ask. If you ask "What color shirt will I wear on Tuesday?", it will calculate the probabilities and tell you that it will be "blue." Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch.

Now an adult, Tracey, going by the name Dice, shows up to assassinate Fleming. He barely escapes alive. Orwell and Vince watch the security tape from the event and Vince figures out the true identity of Dice. Together, Orwell and Vince go to her apartment to find out what Dice is up to. She finds the do-gooders and attacks. Vince chases her into the basement, where Ark's men pick her up.

Fleming, for some reason, is intrigued by Dice. Of course, she tries to kill him again. This time it is The Cape that saves him. Orwell pointed out that if Dice kills Fleming, there will be no way for Vince to clear his name. So now it's up to The Cape to protect Fleming from the deadly woman.

Orwell watches video of Dice staring at the Ark building for two hours straight. With the upcoming debut of T.R.A.C.E., Vince knows the party will be where her next attack takes place. Unfortunately, due to all of the attempts on Fleming's life, security will be on alert. He turns to the Carnival to help him. Ruvi the hypnotist and Raia the tightrope walker decide to help him learn how to tightrope walk from the top of one building to the next. When the time comes, he just barely makes it across the gap.

Dice has filled an elevator with gas and plans to use that to blow everything up. Again, The Cape saves the day. He gets all of the innocent people out of the way before saving Fleming's life once more. However, he does not save the T.R.A.C.E. technology. He blows that up himself. Meanwhile, Orwell handcuffs Dice to the handrail in the stairwell, effectively letting Ark capture her without being captured herself.

What to say about this episode.... It was OK. I thought Dice's visions were very well done. However, things were a little too convenient. Supposedly, Vince/The Cape wasn't in her visions. If she could predict the future so well, she should have known he would be there. Even when she found out about The Cape's existence, she never takes him into account. She watched him save Fleming at least once yet never tried to account for that in future plans. I think I'd like to see her again but only if her mistakes get corrected.

The Cape: Scales

Scales, one of the baddies from the first episode, is back. But is he as scary as he is ugly?

And why are evening dresses with feathery masks considered 'costumes?'

This episode appears to take place in one day - Vince's son, Trip's, birthday. However, an awful lot happens for one day.

Scales is working his schtick at the docks when an Ark flunkie comes to shake him down. Pissed that Faraday didn't come himself, Scales threatens to kill the flunkie later. The Cape watched this, of course, so now he knows that both Ark and Chess are taking money from the ugly baddie. Vince makes it his misson to tell Scales that all of his troubles are caused by Faraday in the hopes that the public will find out that Faraday is Chess.

For some reason, there is a costume ball on a train. Faraday shows up as a white-clad sheriff. Orwell is there in a pretty dress and a mask. (Really. This is such a lame attempt at a costume.) Meanwhile, the prison administrator guy from the Tarot episode is dressed as The Cape. And the Carnival of Crime is there to rob everyone, despite Vince's attempts to get them to help him.

Scales confronts Faraday, propositions the mayor with illegal goods delivered from his docks, and attempts to tell everyone that Faraday is Chess. Needless to say, the mayor rebukes him and then everyone laughs at the Chess revelation. In his anger, he steals everyone's money and jewels before holing himself up in the caboose. When he separates the caboose from the rest of the train, the brakes on the main part of the train stop working. (Who designed this thing?!) Faraday and The Cape have to work together to sever the brake line underneath the moving vehicle.

Of course, they save the day. Though it seems that Faraday recognizes Vince in the costume. Back on the now-stopped caboose, the Carnival faces down Scales. They steal what he stole and lock him in a cage. He breaks out of the cage by slamming his head against the bars so many times the hinges snap. And who does he happen to find there? The Ark flunkie from the beginning of the episode. Convenient.

I found this episode to be very lame. Scales is a terrible villain. He's entire character is based on the fact that he looks like an ugly snake. He doesn't even have snake-like powers. He's another ugly thug. Blah. Oh, and the storyline about Trip's birthday was boring. His mom had a bad day. She got stuck in traffic so she was late and her cell phone battery died so she couldn't call Trip to tell him that her co-worker, Travis, was coming over. He had to sit in the hall for the entire episode. As a result, the show was filled with more flashbacks of things Vince did with Trip on his birthdays. None of it progressed the story at all. C'mon writers, get with the program.

The Cape: Kozmo

The Cape has now moved to its actual timeslot of Monday at 9PM. It has the geek favorite Chuck as a lead-in so there is a good possibility the show will do well. As long as it doesn't turn into Heroes.

Remember, there are spoilers behind the cut!

I found this episode to be slightly informative, yet annoying at the same time. We learn a bit more about the origins of the cape. It has been handed down among master magicians who all turn on the persona of "Kozmo." Max Malini was the last official Kozmo. His apprentice was Gregor Molotov. Gregor did receive the cape as the new Kozmo but he used it to murder a woman. So Max took the cape back and Gregor traveled around various Russian prisons for 20 years. However, as an escape artist, Gregor managed to find his way out of every prison. This time, he has come back to the Carnival to retrieve his cape.

While at the Carnival, Gregor meets Vince and figures out that he is the one with the cape. At the same time, Ark is breathing down Orwell's neck. Ark raids her hideout mere minutes after she flees. Orwell turns up at Vince's door berating him for trying to shake down one of the members of Ark's police squad that set him up as Chess. Thanks to his shenanigans, Orwell has lost her hideout.

So now both Gregor and Orwell are at the Carnival. Gregor reads Orwell's palm and reveals a few tidbits about our unknown computer expert. Unfortunately, these aren't really informative facts. She's spoiled, has daddy issues, and she's been imprisoned. In all, it's pointing toward Orwell being Peter Fleming's daughter.

Of course, Gregor doesn't get the cape. Of course, Vince proves to Max that he is honorable enough to handle the cape without going to the dark side. Of course, Vince's wife, who believes he is dead, is starting to move on with her life. And, of course, this shows his tortured soul side.

I believe Scales is back as the Villain of the Week next Monday. If the show doesn't pick up the storyline a bit more, it will definitely lose the audience. I know this is only the third episode (the pilot consisted of two episodes) but people won't wait around forever.

TV review: The Cape

The 2-hour pilot for NBC's The Cape aired on Sunday, January 9 at 9PM. I've been waiting for this show to air for a long time. While I wasn't able to watch the show live, I did record it to watch last night.

Vince Faraday is a cop in Palm City. Many of the officers around him are corrupt and a mysterious blogger known as Orwell has been outing them. When the city's new police chief is killed by a masked criminal called Chess, Faraday sets out to make things in his hometown right again. He joins Ark, a private security company, run by Peter Fleming, on the edge of privatizing the police force.

Shortly after joining Ark, Orwell sends Faraday a message pointing him toward a shipment of a deadly toxin. Faraday and his partner, Marty Voyt, check out the cargo train delivering the shipment. Unfortunately, Voyt instead delivers Faraday into the hands of Chess, who is none other than Fleming himself. Fleming frames Faraday as the masked villain and sends his security force, armed with Nikon rifle scopes, to catch him. During the chase, the news helicopters above see him die in a large explosion.

However, Faraday is not dead. He is discovered by the Carnival of Criminals, a strange circus-themed group of bank robbers. Faraday buys his freedom with his Ark passcard. Soon, Faraday asks Max Malini, the head of the circus, to help him clear his name and get back to his wife and son. Max and the others teach Faraday hypnosis, cape tricks, and other skills that will transform him into the superhero known as The Cape.

As The Cape, Faraday goes after Chess and his henchmen. While on one such mission, he comes across Orwell trying to get the dirt on Chess. Quickly, Orwell and Faraday join forces to take back their city.

I had a lot of fun watching this show. My favorite character, by far, is Max Malini. He's not only wise, he's also funny and devious and just plain awesome. I almost wish he was the superhero! As for the rest of the characters, I am willing to give them time to grow. It seems like a lot was shoved into two episodes, almost like the audience missed a season and had to catch up to the storyline. I think that the writers should have kept the pilot as an origination story and kept some of the baddies for later. Hopefully they will not disappoint me. I want this show to be successful and, in order to do that, it has to be good.