What I’m Watching: The Cape (Last Episode?)

The Cape: Season 1, Episode 9 “Razer” (F)

If this show had impressed me considerably more than it has, like another NBC series unceremoniously ousted from the airwaves this past fall, I might be more upset about its impending demise and the fact that its story arcs wouldn’t come even close to being completed. I don’t feel that way, however, because this show has repeatedly failed to live up to its potential, succeeding in only one area: the incorporation of its main title theme music into the scene that leads into it. Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with the show’s creative quality. There is little I hate more than when a show conveniently makes it so that its lead character can speak in the native accent of the actor portraying him for no real reason at all. Another NBC show that met a speedy demise did this a few years ago, and it bothered me just as much this time. David Lyons isn’t terribly capable of playing a badass either, and that doesn’t help matters at all. On top of that, the entire plotline is completely incoherent, and there are way too many confused and divided loyalties with Ark, the Carnival of Crime, Scales, Orwell, and the Cape. Max Malini’s version of “Don’t you tell me what I can’t do” is nowhere near as affecting or powerful as John Locke’s from “Lost,” and the similarity just underlines how poor this show is. It’s making way next week for the return of the equally quality-deprived “The Event,” and only one episode in addition to this has been filmed, so this may well be the last we ever see of this show. The doctor’s efforts to get Chess to keep a secret from Peter are intriguing, though I wouldn’t be terribly upset if we never find out.