Luckily for our hero, he is rescued by members of a special circus. It's here that Vince meets the ringleader, Max Malini (played well by Keith David). Because this isn't an ordinary circus, Vince soon finds himself in possession of a magical/mystical cape. With this cape and basing himself on his son's favorite comic book hero (conveniently known as The Cape), Vince is on course to fight the evil that has tarnished and turned his life upside down.
Sound cheesy? Let's be honest, most superhero descriptions do. The real question is, how was the execution of this show?
== TEASER ==
I had low expectations before watching the pilot episode. That being said, the show wasn't as bad as I feared. The problem is, at this point, I can't say I really care for the main character's plight. He was framed, everyone thinks he died, his wife and son have to deal with everyone thinking he was bad, he can't contact them or their lives would be in danger and so on. Sorry but all that wasn't enough for me.
Where the show does get a little interesting is in the supporting cast, mainly Keith David and some of the members of the strange circus. They're not your typical superhero sidekick characters. The Cape wants to be a noble hero doing the right thing and these guys sometimes have their own agenda. If taken in the right direction, these characters could add some interesting layers to the show.
How is the show overall? As I mentioned, it was better than I feared. There is some potential. The concept is a little cheesy--a magical cape to fight crime. I like the aspects of finding out where the cape came from and what are the true intentions of the circus rather than seeing Vince try to solve his personal mission. The name is also a little weak. There was too much of a coincidence that his son's favorite comic book happens to be The Cape and he gets rescued by Malini, who happens to have this cape sitting around gathering dust. The show does seem a little ambitious in terms of shooting locations used. I do worry that the show could end up being costly to make which will cause problems later on in production. That was one problem HEROES faced before.
At this point, I'm not ready to commit to the show. I will check out the next episode to see how the flow of a regular one is compared to this two-hour presentation. The show needs to figure out what direction it wants to take. We have the family aspect but there are darker tones in the show. Compared to No Ordinary Family, this obviously is taking the genre a little more seriously despite being about a guy with a magic cape. We don't have a lot of shows in this genre on right now and hopefully this one will overcome its kinks and fill the void that HEROES left (when it was a good show). Bottom line, I liked the show a little bit but was far from loving it. Check it out for yourself and let me know what your impressions were.
Here's the opening credits (that weren't on my screener copy).
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