Here are my first impressions of Sunday’s two-hour premiere of “The Cape,” which will switch to its regular timeslot, at 8 p.m. Central Mondays on NBC, starting next week.
1. Summer Glau is onboard here in all her Summer Glau-ness. I was a bit worried that — after complex roles in “Firefly” and “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” — she’d just be sitting in front of a computer in “The Cape.” I shouldn’t have worried. Although Orwell, Palm City’s resident underground blogger, does sit in front of a high-tech, 3-D computer screen and serve as the Eyes Only to The Cape’s Max (“Dark Angel” reference), she can also hold her own in the field, as shown when she rescues The Cape and later goes undercover as a food critic. Kudos to “The Cape” for recognizing Glau’s versatility as an actress and action star.
2. Former police officer Vince Faraday (David Lyons) — a.k.a. The Cape — misses his family. That would be a cue for yawning or groaning, except that the scenes of him reading the “Cape” comic book to his son are really cute. So the show actually earns the cliché.
3. The first two hours introduce three villains. Chess is like Palm City’s version of “Star Wars’ ” Senator Palpatine, manipulating the pieces so he’ll gain more and more power. We see him manipulating icons on a 3-D computer, which shows that he literally thinks in this fashion; his company, ARK, has already taken control of the city’s police force. Cain is Chess’ sidekick, a French hitman who specializes in poisoning people. And Scales is known for the scales on his face.
4. “The Cape” doesn’t feature superpowers (in that sense, The Cape is like Batman), but it does feature magic. Vince meets a troupe of underground carnies, led by Max Malini (Keith David), who teaches him how to use an old magician robe to fight crime. Also, there’s a little person thug and a hypnotist — in a training montage, we see that Vince masters hypnotism because he manages to dress the hypnotist in women’s underwear. Also part of the troupe is a girl who thinks Vince is cute; we don’t know much about her yet.
5. “The Cape” is visually dark, but it has a warmth to it because Vince Faraday is not as lonely and isolated as Bruce Wayne. Rather than relying on a private fortune and retreating to a mansion, he relies on friends (although both Orwell — who is thrilled to have a crime fighter to work with — and the bank-robbing circus clan do seem to have a lot of dough) and retreats to an abandoned apartment building where he has set up shop. With the way Chess is cleaning up Palm City, that seems a little risky (couldn’t he stay with the Malinis, or perhaps Orwell has a spare bedroom?).
6. Next week’s episode will feature Mena Suvari, who I liked about a decade ago in movies like “American Pie” and “Loser.” It’ll be nice to see her finally return to acting.
Verdict: Although there is a “Yet another superhero show” vibe hanging over the proceedings, “The Cape” still worked for me. Take Summer Glau out of the equation and I might not be saying that, I admit, but I like the other characters too. Between “The Cape” and “No Ordinary Family,” this TV season has featured a mini-resurgence of a seemingly played-out genre. I’ll definitely be tuning in for a while.