The Cape (2011): Review By SCREENWRITER

With the recent cancellation of "Heroes" and the last few episodes of "Smallville" coming soon, I was starting to worry that my dose of superhero TV would be ending as well. Then with news on NBC'S new superhero "The Cape" all over Comic-Con, I started to become more and more excited on the project. Finally, January 9th had come and the first episode has premiered. The "Pilot" episode of "The Cape" is no more than predictable, corny, but also, entertaining. "The Cape"('s) "Pilot" does a fantastic job grasping character build-up, story build-up, and loads of fun in just one episode. I'll probably stick with this.

"The Cape" focuses on a cop named Vince Faraday. He's a family man with one son and after being framed by the city's bad-boy Chess, who's got to be one of the corniest villains in history, but that's alright. Anyways, being framed as Chess, Faraday fakes his death and hides in the shadows hatching a plan to get his life back. Teaming up with the Carnival of Crime, a carnie group of bank robbers, they teach him the act of his life...becoming The Cape, a comic-book hero his son adores. Also: Faraday teams up with the mysterious computer-hacking wiz Orwell, whose pretty much Chloe from "Smallville".

The story for "The Cape" is entertaining and I found it deeply interesting watching this guy rise into an avenger fighting to get everything he loves back, but, my only problem with it was the main villain: Chess. Chess AKA. Peter Flemming, who is also the head of the police department in the city, is such a bore, cheese ball of a villain. He wasn't intense enough for me to be afraid for other characters, not like how Lex was in "Smallville" or Sylar in "Heroes". They'd both have in wonder for what they'd do next in each episode. This guy's lame alter-ego and British accent made it all the more terrible. I hope they kill him off and get a new villain in there because Chess is what'll bring "The Cape" down in the future.

The acting in "The Cape" isn't terrible but it also isn't great. The performance by David Lyons as Vince Faraday is pretty good and Summer Glau's performance is okay...but, I don't quite feel the chemistry between the two yet. But, the show just beginning, and them not having too many scenes together, that'll hopefully change. As for James Frain performance of Peter Fleming AKA Chess, well, you already know where I'll go with his performance. As for the acting on the series, well, it was CW TV worthy, not really NBC.

The visual effects were both bad and good. The fighting scenes looked fine, but, it was the explosions that had me laughing. The car explosion in the first five minutes almost had me switching the channel to a repeat of last week's "Jersey Shore". But, since it's a TV show, I won't go too hard on it. It was only the big stuff like explosions that looked bad, though. Everything else wasn't too bad.

Overall, "The Cape" for sure has its flaws. But, it was also a pretty entertaining, fun ride that I'll for sure tune into again next week. There's only been one episode, so, hopefully it'll grow into something much bigger.And better. Based on what I saw from the "Pilot", this show has potential and if the writer's work hard to fix some of its mistakes from the "Pilot", this show could be something great. Fingers crossed!