Cape, The

Posted May 25, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

After Palm Springs policeman Vince Faraday gets framed for murder and is believed to be super villain Chess, he gets presumed dead after a manhunt that ends with a tanker getting blown up. Vince, however, isn’t dead and he manages to reach the Carnival of Crime who take him in, believing he may come of use to them. The Carnival’s boss, Max Malini, has Vince recuperate from his injuries and convinces him to not reveal he’s still alive. Instead, he gives him a special black cape he can use to fight opponents with.

Faraday is presumed dead, but return to Palm Springs as his son’s superhero, The Cape, who fights criminals and has only one goal in sight: bring down Chess in a means to clear his name and get his life back.

Sound and Vision:
The image is quite soft and colors have a rather pastel palette, giving the series a distinct comic book style. The level of detail as a result isn’t so high, but it does fit the show nicely. The contrast and brightness also are a bit off, but again this seems to be done on purpose to heighten the comic feeling.

The 5.1 soundtrack does its job, but we’ve heard better. Overall, The Cape looks and sounds like a cheap superhero movie-turned-TV show, and that’s ok as that’s in fact what it is.

Extras:
None

Conclusion:
The Cape only lasted for one season on TV and it’s easy to understand why. While the cast is filled with “big” names like Vinnie Jones and Summer Glau, and guest appearances of people like Dayton Callie (Sons of Anarchy), Tom Noonan (Heat) and Netta Stilton (Goodfellas), lead actor David Lyons doesn’t quite manage to convincingly portray the “caped crusader”. In fact, compared to the rest of the cast, he’s quite the underperformer. Next to that, the storyline is quite shallow and the “personal” parts with the Cape’s son seem overly fabricated.

However, not all is bad. The series does feel a lot like a comic book and as such should easily appeal to kids that love superheroes. There are some nice action scenes, and the attempts to create depth – although not succesful – will be able to draw in youngsters.

As such, The Cape isn’t a total failure, it just lacks a decent lead and some more consistent scripts. As it is, we would consider this for kids that love comic books, but not for the rest of the world.

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