I split up my viewing of NBC's latest bid to introduce new superheroes to our TV screens over two days, and I have to admit I'm glad I did as what one night was very disappointing was followed the next by what was a much more promising installation; the time to let the pilot settle in and my disappointment to fade gave me a more neutral ground to view the second episode, 'Tarot', which was by far the stronger of the two episodes.
I'll start off with the pilot, and a great place to start with the pilot would be the start, which was all very nicely set up. I enjoyed David Lyons on ER for the season and a half he starred before the show finished and throughout both episodes, especially the second he was the pick of the main cast; whilst his accent was a little shaky he found the right tone for his character and his alter ego and pulled both off decently. That being said, at times I felt 'The Cape' was a little weakly introduced, twice in two episodes he found himself nearly dead, once by drowning and the other by poisonous knife. If he keeps going on this rate he'll be dead by the end of season one, he's nearly used up all his nine lives.
So we were introduced to Vince Faraday, crime fighter and all round good guy, a loving father and a commited cop; We've all seen the guy before played by many actors with different character names and so I was initially impressed with it's fresh look and feel. It started by doing everything right, we got the family, we got the city and we got the hero, the only thing letting down a solid opening ten minutes was the all round disappointing Peter Fleming, average as the billionaire, diabolical as arch-nemisis chess. Every line uttered by usually decent actor James Frain felt awkward, cheesy and fake and the fact I found Chess so average a villain hurt my enjoyment of both episodes, more so the first as he featured more heavily. The only thing he had going for him was a nice evil set of eyes, the chess pieces of his transformed alter-ego the only menacing thing about him.
Looking back now, also I found the effects of the car explosion a bit over the top. Why not just have the car exploding; it's cracking up first had me cracking up in a different sense. Also at times the cape effects themselves seemed a little hard to see and a bit average. Still, I let it slide and sadly, so did the pilot.
Trying to decide whether it all went wrong when Vince got the message from Orwell or when the circus came to town is a tough call, as the episode decided to move through the plot so fast and with complete disregard for drama it was baffling. The entire origin story of Vince Faraday to 'The Cape' happened in thirty minutes, so few of the characters given motivations or understanding to why they acted a certain way that the rest of the pilot was reduced to a bunch of actors throwing each other around the sets. How can a TV series allow a story to feel rushed in it's pilot, it's unforgivable.
Cheesy dialogue became the main forte, the circus characters barring Max were below one dimensional to the point where they would have been better being erased entirely. Martin Klebba's Rollo was abysmally written, throwing out lines such as 'Cape, Max has been Kidnapped' as supposed moments of tension, but came across as high school budget theatre. And the less said about the woman in the high heels the better; on principle I refuse to even bother looking up the actress or the character name as she doesn't exist to me. The circus was a bit of a shambles, the only scenes winning any kudos were scenes between Max and Vince, but an awfully positioned joke where Max thought he'd died but hadn't was almost enough to make me go to bed early.
No offence to anyone who's a fan of Summer Glau, but her character felt really out of place in the pilot, (but I have more positives for her soon, so please read on!) and I had no idea what she was supposed to be adding to the story. Mysterious she was not... She did add such incredible dialogue as 'Cape, what were you doing, I thought we were partners!' Jesus, Did anyone really feel any sort of relationship or understanding between the two. Anyone?
Other parts of the pilot that grated me were Vinnie Jones as Scales, despite some nice effects/makeup on his face it was the same old Vinnie as always, big and boring. Also the moment where Vince watched his own funeral, an elephant with diarrhoea could have hidden himself better.
The positives I took were that Dana Faraday had a bit of meat to her character, and the slow pace of the Vince/Marty relationship felt real, and it will be interesting when the two former friends finally meet up.
I'll leave you, regarding the pilot, with two thoughts: Would trained cops really shoot bullets at a huge oil tanker; are people in Palm city that stupid?
I'm pretty sure the person three floors up from Trip's bedroom would have noticed that it clearly was his dad under that hood. As an audience I'm sure we could have worked out who it was talking to Trip by the fact we were watching a show called 'The Cape...
Pilot: 4.5/10
After waking up the next morning, and deciding it was time to try out 'Tarot', I was preparing myself for the worst, but the appearance of Richard Schiff shocked me into hope. I'm a big Schiff fan from 'The West Wing' and 'The Lost World' and I thought to myself if he was in the episode, at the very least there's gonna be one totally believable character here today. And it also made me more compelled in the storyline of the episode, ala saving his attorney, Patrick Portman.
However, my patience was tested early on in the episode when Vince managed to happily walk up an ark skyscaper with such ease, and the fact we had no reason to know what was he doing there to begin with. The writers can't just cover it up with a quick 'He's after Portman' and then the old Admiral Ackbar 'It's a Trap.' TV audiences who watch these shows want better than that!
Regardless, we met resident poisoner of 'The Tower,' an intruiging league of bad guys, Cain, who managed to poison our hero and a quick jump out of a 45th story window later and all was well again. cough.
Then the episode picked up by slowing the pace down; Vince found a place to set himself up, Max stopped clowning around and actually said something useful, Vince needs to sort himself out, and until then "no cape for Vince".
Orwell finally showed why she was useful, as she defended Portman from Cain's attacks and also said some dialogue worthy of being uttered by someone of Glau's quality. Up until then I could have donned a wig and pulled that off.
We also got more of the city, a wider vision of hopefully better times to come for both the citizens of Palm City and the audience who tune in.
Also, the show produced it's first laugh, Faraday, finally deciding to cover his pretty mug with a mask telling Portman 'I'm the Cape,' to which Portman replies 'The Cape? You aren't... wearing a cape.' It shows, pay for the better actors, and it pays off. Richard Schiff's Portman was a revalation in a show in need of some realism, adding a reason to care for the situation and in his few scenes, Portman owned them all.
Also pleasing was no Scales, minimal Chess & Rollo. Speaking of Chess, did anyone find the scene where Chess is staring at a hologram chess-board spinning round menacing at all? For a second I thought he was just hypnotising himself, so bizarre was the look on his face. Wierd.
All in all, 'Tarot' did a lot to restore the hope I'd lost that 'The Cape' could just, maybe, work. It was a million miles better than the pilot, it had tension, explained storylines and character motivations, less stupid villains. (I'm not against them, but they need to find a good one... soon! #coughThomasKretschmanncough#) Vince Faraday was fleshed out and much more defined as a character... & Richard Schiff.
So for an opening to what was at one point thought of as the next big thing, 'The Cape' has to be seen as having disappointed. Heck, for all Heroes failures, it at least started bloody well. But 'Tarot' gave itself the shot in the heart it needed to hopefully get the audience back next week to give it another chance.
When I was on the Thomas Wheeler (creator & executive producer) conference call, he said that 'Tarot' was the episode he most wanted people to see; I feel perhaps even he felt the pilot wasn't the story he wanted to tell in the way he wanted too, and that maybe he needed people to see there's more to the tale than the first 45 minutes.
For his sake, I hope so...
Tarot: 7/10
Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought.
Adam
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