“Fantasy, reality, blur, blur, blur”
“The comic book hero. This will be a fascinating study.” - Goggles
I have to wonder just how meta-minded the writers were when they thought up of Goggles. He has so many lines that seem to break the fourth wall, that it can't just be coincidence. On the other hand, the writers don't really seemed to be in tune with how reductive there show is to the superhero genre, so there's a good possibly that Goggles presence is ultimately an ironic one.
I bring all of this up because I have been wondering if any part of The Cape is meant to be a deconstruction of the genre. I get that this is a throwback show of sorts, and that all of the plot points we see are meant to echo widely known archetypes. But with how cliché this show makes these archetypes seem, I can't tell if this is all one big joke, or if the show really is taking all of this seriously. Either way, it is failing horribly.
I have no problem with shows that use rich archetypes. When you use them well, and inject them with the particular flavor of your show, you can create rich, moving stories. If you don't, and you just expect the archetypes to do all of the work on their own, that's when you get muddled piles of crap such as this show. Take, for instance, the idea that Vince is taking a “day off” from being The Cape. Now, superheroes shirking their duties is something that has been done many times before, most notably in the both the Superman and Batman cannons. In those instances, not only was this preceded by a instance of emotional trauma, but their was also much moral trepidation about the consequences of turning one's back on the moral obligation. Here, however, we get an en media res opening with Vince and his broken ribs, and just a few potshots from Orwell about how “heroes don't get a day off.” While the show could conceivably due a storyline like this, it needs to be done much farther down the line, and there needs to be much more build up. As presented here, is was just a lifeless distraction.
The failed archetype execution also applies to how the show is setting up the arch-rivalry with Fleming/Chess. Now every hero needs his villain. This is just the logic of the genre. Yet the show hasn't yet figured out how to play the antagonism between the two. Are they always going to be butting heads, like they did in the past few episodes, or is there going to be a wider gulf between them, like we saw in the pilot and again in this episode. Until the show figures this out, it can't really give us anything good and original about this setup, and it all appears like a half-assed version of what we've seen many times before.
The same could be said for the show's attempt to build up something akin to Batman's gallery of Rogues. Scale made his third appearance tonight, and while I like Vinnie Jones and the work he does here, we don't really get a sense of why he's the one villain that keeps popping up, other than that the show has contracted the actor for a particular number of episode. Again, there is no distinct relationship between the two, and there's nothing to suggest that these two should hate each other as much as they do, beyond the standard good/evil dynamic. The show has so much groundwork laid out for it already, that if is could just find the more human elements in all of its stories, this show could actually be good (or at least better than it is right now.)
What's really disappointing is that the one aspect of the episode I did like – Goggles and Hicks – isn't likely to make a return any time soon (though it is obviously left open to that possibility.) Now admittedly, there was some degree of cheesiness to their appearance, but I have no problem with that. I often feel that if the show would just embrace the cheese – just admit the fact that they are ripping off so many superhero works that have come before it – the show might be a lot less annoying, and a lot more fun. This just tends to happen when you wink at the audience, letting them know that yes, we do know how bad and hacky some of this sounds. But beyond this, there was something relatively clean and simple about Goggles and Hicks appearance tonight. There just trained assassins (let's forget for a minute that they're part of The Tarot), they're hired to kill The Cape, they fail, one of them gets sent to prison. In and out in an hour. No complications, no straining on the show's part. Just fun and simple superhero shenanigans.
What did everybody else think?
Additional Thoughts:
At this point, I'm just trying to ignore the Trip/Dana storylines, as I can't keeping complaining about them week in and week out. Until I say different, just keep assuming I think they suck.
“I'd rather have a dog.” Well, what a little shit.
“That's when this country started falling apart, when they took away Saturday morning cartoons.”
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