The Continuing Adventures of NBC’s “The Cape” - Razor

“Razer” is a lot more straightforward than the last two episodes. Gang warfare has escalated between Scales and Fleming, with a shootout taking place right in Trip and Dana’s neighborhood. Scales is trying to muscle in on Max’s territory, Trolley Park, by beating up Rollo and hiring a mysterious Australian bomber named Razer to flush Max out. Nobody in Scale’s gang had ever seen him face to face, so Faraday and the gang intercept Razer’s car, kidnap him, and replace him with Faraday. This means that half of the episode is Faraday undercover and speaking in a hilarious Australian accent.

The Continuing Adventures of NBC’s “The Cape” - The Lich

So far, The Cape has been all over the place, quality wise. It’s run the gamut of “so bad it’s good” “so bad it’s embarrassing” while occasionally dipping into “legitimately entertaining.” I’m a bit behind on my The Cape watching, so today we’ll look at “The Lich” parts one and two, and tomorrow we’ll look at “Razer”

Part 1 begins with a tall, creepy man in a fedora spraying powder on a woman in a truck rental lot. After the credits, Rollo and Max find Faraday to ask him for his detective expertise. Janet, the woman from the rental place and an old friend of Rollo turned up dead, was buried, and her body was exhumed. Faraday inspects the grave and finds that she wasn’t exhumed, she clawed her way out. Zombies? Oh, I hope so.

The Continuing Adventures of NBC’s “The Cape”

This week we’ll be looking at episode 5 and 6, “Dice” and “Goggles and Hicks.” Overall, these were good episodes, but The Cape is still having problems with scenes and lines that just don’t make any sense.

In Episode 5 “Dice,” Flemming is targeted for assassination by a savant named “Dice,” who calculates probability on the scale of quantum mechanics. Real science is hard, but pseudo science is fun, and easy! This leads to some pretty cool visuals while Dice is analyzing probability.

NBC's "The Cape" - Second Impressions

Episode 3 “Kosmo” starts out with an unidentified man making a spectacular escape from a Russian prison using a lock pick made from one of his teeth and contorting through a sewer drain. Roll credits! Meanwhile, Trip is having rouble fitting into his new school because some mean kids put a bunch of chess pieces in his desk. 

NBC's "The Cape" - First Impressions

I believe that NBC was intentionally distributing absolutely terrible and misleading promotional material for The Cape, promoting it as a gritty and dark superhero drama. I’m happy to say that despite having a cape, using a cape as a weapon, and being named “The Cape,” The Cape has a lot more in common with campy pulp action heroes than the cape wearing “fights and tights” comic book super-heroes, and that’s a good thing.