Final episode of Summer Glau's The Cape airs tonight - Cast&Crew

Who owns the DVD rights? There's bound to be money made by whacking on a sticker that says "featuring an unaired episode!".

Simon | March 01, 00:09 CET

Universal, a cynical person might suggest NBC Universal not scheduling could be related.

gossi | March 01, 00:11 CET

I hate when networks do that. I mean, air the darn thing. I gave up after episode 2, but air it for those handful of hardcore fans that stuck with it. Air it on Saturday, or Tuesday afternoon, or put it online. Might as well do something with it.

Jelly | March 01, 00:13 CET

That cynical person would probably be right, gossi and Simon. Gonna be a nice bump in those dvd sales by having an unaired episode. Or there will be if they decide to release it at all. Not a forgone conclusion anymore.

Jelly, if ratings are that bad, then it is actually creating negative ad revenue for NBC to air the last ep. I expect they are seriously negative with the show right now. Shows get cancelled when they are causing the network to lose money every time they are aired. The network saves money (or creates less negative revenue) by not airing it.

I realize that isn't intuitive. Ad revenue is sold up front (and checks are cashed) and the network promises to deliver a certain number of eyeballs or rating points. When those eyeballs aren't delivered, the network either has to give money back to advertisers or air ads for free on higher rated shows (losing money for those shows). Make sense?

NBC is already out money for the show. Why should they purposefully lose more?

[ edited by IrrationaliTV on 2011-03-01 00:24 ]

IrrationaliTV | March 01, 00:18 CET

It's all about initial sales, Jelly. Especially if they think it has a large cult following, release a DVD with unaired episodes gives fans a reason to buy. Par example, Dollhouse S1 DVD with Epitaph. And had they put the original pilot on there too? I would have had a reason not to just rent it from Netflix. The Firefly complete series did the same thing.

rocknjosie | March 01, 00:19 CET

Not only are the current ratings awful, but I have to wonder how badly it's hurting Harry's Law right now too. Sounds like leaving the episode unaired is a win-win for the network. Kind of surprised they didn't do this sooner.
Hopefully the DVD's will have a lot of extras for the fans of the show...

F_TB | March 01, 01:18 CET

I didn't like it, but I stuck with it, being the blind optimist I am and yeah, I feel a bit cheated. It's like they're Happy Towning us again, except worse! At least i could download Happy Town when it was supposed to be on. At least put it online for those of us who ENDURED the rest of it. A little pay off would be nice.

BlueSkies | March 01, 01:54 CET

Was the final episode actually completed? I got the impression that they stopped in the middle of *filming* Episode 10, which would mean it doesn't exist in final form to air. I could be misinformed, though.

Shapenew | March 01, 02:27 CET

BlueSkies, does the show air in your area? Or are you upset that it won't air or be online in the US so that someone can pirate it onto the Internet and you can download it for free? This show you didn't like. I'm confused.

[ edited by IrrationaliTV on 2011-03-01 03:12 ]

IrrationaliTV | March 01, 03:12 CET

Was the final episode actually completed? I got the impression that they stopped in the middle of *filming* Episode 10, which would mean it doesn't exist in final form to air. I could be misinformed, though.

It seems like they'd at least finish out the episode. I mean, everything would've already been paid for at that point, right? All the production costs and whatnot. So they might as well finish it up. But I dunno.

sumogrip | March 01, 04:03 CET

That's about the worst possible place to leave off the series, unfortunately -- (SPOILERS for episode airing 2/28/11) Poor Orwell shown sitting around looking all nuts and in a wedding dress after her encounter with the Lich :(

KingofCretins | March 01, 05:10 CET

Yep. Just after she'd officially entered the loony bin, too. Major bummer.

brinderwalt | March 01, 06:48 CET

rocknjosie: the original pilot was actually on the first season DVD of Dollhouse, so there's a good reason to buy it.

On the main thread, though: If the companies thought ahead a little bit, they should still show the final episodes of a show's season somewhere (not on prime time), to give some closure to the fans of a show. I don't think I'm the only one who has given up watching new shows (except Joss' of course) because they may suddenly end right in the middle of events.

OldSwede | March 01, 07:06 CET

There's bound to be money made by whacking on a sticker that says "featuring an unaired episode!".

Heh, the idea that people are going to be enticed to buy the DVD because there's more of 'The Cape' on it made me smile so cheers for that ;).

I stopped at episode 5, did it become less bad after that ?

(not glad it's canned cos you haveta feel for the show's fans but upside, at least Summer's free to do something else)

Saje | March 01, 08:27 CET

@IrrationaliTV having a US social security number and bank account from my time living and working there allow me many benefits, such as US itunes account. I PAY for the cape, I don't steal it so try not to accuse every non American of being a criminal, it's a tad racist.

Back to the thread, I thought they were shut down after completing the episode so i figured they'd air it or put it online. I mean with the bad critical reception and really low ratings I doubt DVDs would be a huge money spinner with or without an unaired episode.

BlueSkies | March 01, 09:17 CET

I didn't like it, but I stuck with it, being the blind optimist I am and yeah, I feel a bit cheated. It's like they're Happy Towning us again, except worse! At least i could download Happy Town when it was supposed to be on. At least put it online for those of us who ENDURED the rest of it. A little pay off would be nice.

As I understand it episode 10 wasn't written as a season finale let alone a series finale so I don't see it would have particularly been a 'pay off' for anyone.

helcat | March 01, 09:20 CET

Yeah, it wasn't. It didn't even have the title Endgame, I think.

gossi | March 01, 09:23 CET

Nope, they found out their order had been reduced to 10 as they were wrapping up the 10th episode so it'll still just end, it'll just just end in a different place.

And non-American isn't a race ;).

Saje | March 01, 09:24 CET

Oh well that sucks! I think I may just stop watching new shows completely now just like OldSwede and wait for a complete season set from now on.

Saje, it kinda looked like it may get better, but it still mixed the cheese with the serious and it was kinda awkward, although Summer's character was getting alot more attention in the past two episodes.
And we're not a race? Huh, now you've blown my mind...and made a mess!

[ edited by BlueSkies on 2011-03-01 09:40 ]

BlueSkies | March 01, 09:39 CET

You're probably the same race as most of my ancestors, BlueSkies (but not all unless you are inexplicably native american), so not sure how I can be racist. People outside the US complaining about not being able to download US shows? Not really a stretch to think they are stealing if you've seen the figures. Glad you are completely honest and legal 100% of the time on how you acquire your US programing.

IrrationaliTV | March 01, 09:54 CET

@IrrationaliTV now you've just given me too much credit cause I did steal Mortal kombat the tv series one time. It was so bad that I figured it was my karmic reward for stealing and decided to never do it again! Lesson learned. I think all thieves should endure that as punishment. (and I'm only 15/16 caucasian, I think, maybe 7/8 can never figure anything beyond grandparents out, but can I be my own race now?!)

And someone on imdb, that overly reliable source, said that it'll air on NBC. So maybe they'll put it up in a few weeks, again I reference Happy Town.

BlueSkies | March 01, 10:06 CET

I sure hope you watch every advert in its entirety when you watch US TV IrrationaliTV, otherwise you're effectively doing exactly the same thing as those evil "thieves" (unless you buy all your episodes too of course).

...it kinda looked like it may get better...

In fairness it did get better Blueskies, in just 5 episodes it went from pretty terrible to the heady heights of mediocre ;)

(IMO, obviously)

Saje | March 01, 10:16 CET

If posters want to have a go at each other/have personality clashes, they should have the courtesy not to do it here. Try Twitter or LiveJournal instead. Otherwise I'll just delete posts, void accounts etc.

In the meantime, if we could get back to discussing The Cape that would be super.

Simon | March 01, 10:20 CET

Saje, if you wanna see the leaps and bounds it took, just watch the last two that aired; Litch pt1&2, they were actually almost alright! Plus a lot more Summer which is always a step in the right direction! It really had so much potential, if only they could figure out what to do with it all...

BlueSkies | March 01, 10:26 CET

Even with something I don't rate I couldn't do that BlueSkies (too much of a ~~mentalist~~ completist) but I may go back and watch the ones I missed and then watch the last couple, dunno, depends on spare time (my left knee's making me start to wonder about my whole "Immortal until proven otherwise" stance so maybe everyone else is right and life really is too short ;).

Still, Summer's the main reason I watched and if there's more of her in the last couple...

Saje | March 01, 11:11 CET

Saje, just watched what may just be the final episode if 10 doesn't air and it got considerably better! There's only 4 episodes left for you to catch up on so if you want a big disappointment knowing that there'll be no pay off then absolutely watch the remaining 4!

BlueSkies | March 01, 12:55 CET

Fyi seems that they're intending to air the last filmed episode as an online exclusive.

brinderwalt | March 01, 13:19 CET

Flash: The creators of The Cape are prepping an exclusive episode just for online fans! Keep watching this site in the days ahead to see a full-length special episode.

Hmm, slightly dubious wording there, I mean, they'd already made it right ? And isn't it only "special" cos it's the last one ?

(course, there's no truth in advertising so I guess it's not particularly surprising and at least fans won't have to wait long to see the final one, maybe even this week by the sounds of 'days ahead'. Well, 'online fans' anyway ;)

Saje | March 01, 13:37 CET

Well spotted brinderwalt, I've added to the subject. Translation: they plan to stream episode 10 online. Nice for fans. Also means they can keep the sticker on the DVD should it get released.

gossi | March 01, 15:13 CET

Ooh goody, sorta, does that make it itunes available?

BlueSkies | March 01, 15:16 CET

Nope, not necessarily (they may just stream it through their site).

Saje | March 01, 15:51 CET

So is summer still on track for stardom or derailed?

DaddyCatALSO | March 01, 21:34 CET

Nobody is going to blame the failure on this show to launch on Summer.

gossi | March 01, 21:45 CET

Sadly, I think 'Nobody' is giving the internet too much credit. Hopefully not enough nobodies to count though.

Saje | March 01, 22:13 CET

Summer didn't get half as much attention as her character deserved. She did really well with the material and they were just starting to make her character more than the mystery genius, giving her a more substantial subplot. The problem was the ridiculous guy in the hoodie! His character should have been done away with and they should have called it Orwell and the Circus of Crime. Terrible name, that's why i don't write TV.
But she can't be blamed for her 2 mins of screentime every week, they were the best 2 mins to not have Keith David on there!

BlueSkies | March 02, 01:03 CET

Chess in an attempt to kill everybody, kills Fleming. Cop proved innocent...goes back to wife and son.

Orwell becomes the Cape.

She battles Future Willow at some point. You know the Cape is magic...or magik...

Anonymous1 | March 02, 05:58 CET

Orwell doesn't need the cape, I think it makes all its wearers somehow incredibly idiotic and two dimensional! But I liked the rest Anonymous1!!

BlueSkies | March 02, 08:15 CET

March 01 2011