Episode Title: Wayne or Lose
Original Airdate: 2-2-17
It feels like I’ve been away from this site for way too long despite the fact that when I stopped watching the shows I was covering, I was fully enjoying them. But the concept of Powerless, and the fact that it’s a half hour comedy has brought me back. I hadn’t watched any of the trailers and barely knew who was in it, but when I saw that it was premiering yesterday, I decided to check it out and see what it had to offer. While there wasn’t a whole lot to it, and it stuck with random superheroes and villains plus a couple Batman references, it was funny and I mostly enjoyed it, despite having some concerns over the directions when reading up on the differences between the original pilot and this one that actually went to air. Notably the fact that they dropped a large number of general DC universe references in favor of sticking Batman in yet another DC property because they just can’t get away from Batman.
One of the best things this show has going for it is Alan Tudyk playing an ass as Van Wayne, the lesser known cousin of Bruce Wayne. He doesn’t get a ton of screen time in this pilot, but he makes the most of it. Vanessa Hudgens plays the optimistic and naive lead well enough, though this kind of role seems to have been done to death in sitcoms. How many more times do we need to have an optimistic, perky young woman get a new job in the big city surrounded by jaded people? I suppose it’s because it works better than most anything else. The tension in the workplace does make for some decent comedy, I especially liked the antagonistic relationship between her and Jennie Pierson’s Wendy. The biggest bonus slash biggest complaint is that the opening credits make a big show of letting us see the big named DC heroes in cartoon form, but since this show takes place in Charm City, when we get to see heroes and villains, they are going to be complete randos. And once again, I’m going to make the complaint that there is just too much Batman. It does make sense that they are in a Wayne owned company, but it was everything Batman. I just hope that they toss in some other DC references in future episodes, like the running joke that I read about in the original pilot where they thought one of the workers was actually Green Lantern. Just anything besides more Batman.
Channel: Superhero 