The Cape - NBC's latest crime drama superhero series premiered over the weekend (and had an encore last night) and I'm still largely undecided. The cast itself looks solid especially James Frain as the gleefully evil villain Chess, Summer Glau as the Sydney Bristow-like Orwell, and Keith David as the intimidating circus ringleader Max Malini. I'm still a bit unsure about David Lyon's Vince Faraday or his titular alter-ego The Cape. I don't think the acting is what's wrong. I think it's more the writing didn't give him a time to breathe in the first two episodes. The pilot alone went way too fast for viewers feel any kind of emotional connection with him. As for the show itself, it's on the border of melodrama and camp which is not going to be easy to balance or maintain throughout the season. The cape, the metropolis, and the way the bad guys are shown to us, it all reminded me of something from Batman. Time will tell if it's more like Batman & Robin or The Dark Knight.
Shameless - It's the first Americanized British import to debut this month (Skins on MTV and Being Human on SyFy will premiere next week). I only saw the first season of the UK show so I suppose I *can* compare it with that, but honestly other than loving the adorkable James McAvoy in the original, I don't really remember much about the show. So judging Showtime's American version, I'll have to say it was good. All of the characters are definitely complex and I can't wait for more opportunities to look into their screwed up lives. If I had one complaint, I'm just not 100% sure they seamlessly adapted it for American audiences. It still felt a little too British to me, but maybe that's because the pilot did stay fairly in step with the pilot on the UK version. Looking forward to seeing how this show diverges into its own path.
Brothers & Sisters - Didn't get to talk about this last week, but most of the stories continued on last night's episode namely Kevin/Scotty's quest to adopt a child, Kitty's relationship with Seth, and Justin's relationship with Annie. The first storyline is being nicely handled, though other than tugging at our heartstrings a bit mostly thanks to the adorable Isabella Rae Thomas, there's not much to get really excited about. When news broke out that Kitty was dating Seth last week, it was fun to see it blow up momentarily and then to see Kitty have a talk with Seth's mom, the dean. Of course, it seems as if she essentially broke it off with him this week so she can go to a mysterious trip that forced her to leave her son with Robert's wife for some time? As for Justin/Annie, they're cute but a bit boring. There's a possible love triangle drama in the works that is not that exciting. Oh and Saul is getting his gay on, but hopefully more on that in future episodes. The biggest development though is Holly (and David) moving to New York to join Rebecca essentially leaving the show. She won't exactly be missed, but this show really is almost completely different now from where it was when it premiered.
The Cape - NBC's latest crime drama superhero series premiered over the weekend (and had an encore last night) and I'm still largely undecided. The cast itself looks solid especially James Frain as the gleefully evil villain Chess, Summer Glau as the Sydney Bristow-like Orwell, and Keith David as the intimidating circus ringleader Max Malini. I'm still a bit unsure about David Lyon's Vince Faraday or his titular alter-ego The Cape. I don't think the acting is what's wrong. I think it's more the writing didn't give him a time to breathe in the first two episodes. The pilot alone went way too fast for viewers feel any kind of emotional connection with him. As for the show itself, it's on the border of melodrama and camp which is not going to be easy to balance or maintain throughout the season. The cape, the metropolis, and the way the bad guys are shown to us, it all reminded me of something from Batman. Time will tell if it's more like Batman & Robin or The Dark Knight.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant to copy and paste your content as I'm writing my comment and accidentally pressed the button. Anyway, you already know what I think. Lyons is a decent actor IMO, but the writing could use some improvement. I'm willing to give this series a chance as it's got enough going for it to be entertaining. It's probably not going to be in the level of TDK but surely it's better than Batman & Robin!
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