Just saw the fourth episode. I'm pretty much watching the show on a one-week delay now, unintentionally. Anyway, IMO this episode started out with some of the best stuff that this series has done so far (not very hard), before sinking under the weight of bad writing.
I'm glad that they didn't introduce yet another villain, and decided to expand upon the two from the premiere. The idea of The Cape using Fleming's dirty dealing to create a rift between him and Scales was cool. It was good to see the hero with an actual objective and mission. But I have to agree with the person who said that The Cape just comes across like Vince Faraday in a mask. He had no presence or sense of power in that scene when he was revealing Fleming's secrets to Scales.
I also liked the family side plot. I thought they did a good job of integrating Dana's coworker Travis into the show. It was nice to see him trying to get on the son's good side (and inside the apartment), and funny how he was left out in the hallway with nothing but a Fruit Rollup after thinking that he had just turned the corner.
The "Carnival of Crime" was back to its old habits again, after it seemed like their criminal background was being swept under the rug in the previous episode. I'm divided about how this was done. I hated it when this subplot began, because the idea of the superhero fighting his own stupid friends, whose criminal tendencies shouldn't have tolerated this long to begin with, just seemed so lame to me. It felt like a distraction from the real villains.
And if Vince and Max were still buddy-buddy after this episode...thank God the ending seemed to show some actual emnity developing between the two of them. Suddenly we have an actual story. The "superhero" now looks less like a chump who's seemingly oblivious to his buddies' criminal activity, and more like someone who has to struggle with the inner conflict of whether or not to take down his "friends." Now they need to keep developing this and take Vince and Max toward an eventual showdown. If Vince just hangs out with the carnies again next episode, then all of this will look REALLY stupid.
So Scales tries to take advantage of Fleming's secret and get himself a nice fat business deal with the mayor. And boy does he screw it up. I'm sorry, but Scales just sucks. Despite beating The Cape in the premiere (and again in this episode), his physical threat is undermined by the fact that he got taken down by the damn midget. And here in this episode, we see that Scales doesn't have much in the way of brains either. Very shortly after the mayor showed a distaste for his dirty deal, Scales just loses his cool and starts making a total jackass out of himself. Oh yeah, that will sure win him over.
The fight on top of the train had a nice concept. With the wind blowing hard against him, Vince wouldn't be able to swing his cape. That's a neat idea, and gives us the chance to see the hero prove himself without the use of his signature weapon. But the visual effects were poor, the choreography subpar, and once again Vince got owned. I'm still waiting for this guy to show me that he's a superhero.
It was around that point when I really started to feel that this episode was too bloated. It seemed like the various plotlines were all fighting for attention, without any one of them really winning out. Was this episode about Scales and Chess starting a gang war? Vince trying to use that to clear his name? The Carnival's big heist? The train suddenly becoming a runaway all of a sudden late in the episode?
I don't know why Orwell felt the need to draw Fleming's attention, after initially looking like she didn't want to be noticed.
Chess didn't seem all that smart either. The guy has a gun when he gets the jump on Scales and his henchman. Why not just SHOOT them right there? Scales had already revealed himself to be a criminal; Fleming could just say that he killed Scales in self defense. He owns the cops anyway. But no, he gives Scales the chance to take a gun out of his henchman's hand, so that the two could have their big villainous face off with promises of future conflict. A face off is cool. Just set it up right.
I also didn't buy the idea of Fleming being the ONLY person who The Cape could hang out the side of the train in order to save everyone on it.
Did I mention that Scales sucks? He gets caged by the Carnival, and just loses his head (almost literally) by comically pounding it against the metal bars like some damn doofus. He looked like a total clown without any intelligence or self control. But after embarrassing himself for far too long, the cage suddenly breaks! Then Scales (bloody forehead and all) gets to kill some no-name henchman of Chess's. Too little too late. Also didn't change the fact that if Scales could smash the cage open with his head, he probably could have done it better (and safer) with his BODY.
Not as bad as the premiere, but this episode really screwed things up. Disappointing, after "Kozmo" looked like such a step in the right direction.
