Powerless - New DC Universe based Sitcom

I think there is a good idea buried somewhere in this show. The premise of a comedy about the normal people reacting to the craziness of superheroes is a promising one. But the show is really failing to deliver. Instead of focusing on making a parody about superheroes, the show is just a subpar "office" sitcom. None of the actors really stand out and the jokes are poor. Basically, I think the show should be more like the opening scene where Emily is on the train that gets derailed from the superhero fight but everyone on the train treats it as normal and less like the scenes with the HR guy.

 

That was the same problem I had with the first live-action The Tick sitcom. Only three or four of its episodes had plots actually driven by aspects of a superhero universe; the rest were just knockoff Seinfeld plots about four losers sitting around talking about sex, except that the four losers happened to be dressed as superheroes. Just like this, the idea had great potential that was rarely explored, because the execution was too routine. It's a mistake to give a show like this to conventional sitcom writers and tell them "Give me a conventional sitcom that happens to be in a superhero universe." Because then you'll just get one more cookie-cutter sitcom dressed up in a cape.

 

That's a perfect description of this show.

 

To be honest, and I've only watched the pilot, but I think it is worse than that. The acting and the style of the show are really a turn off. It seems like the writers are going for the feel of sixties Batman but even falling short on that level. Actors that are otherwise decent elsewhere are hamming up there lines and facial expressions so that, rather than being a parody, it comes across as amateur. My kids watch shows like Lab Rats and Mighty Med and the acting and writing in those shows is actually superior to this. Perhaps the people that make those shows should have been pulled in to do this.

 

Your use of the present tense makes me unsure if we're talking about the same The Tick. I'm referring to the short-lived 2001 FOX network series with Patrick Warburton, David Burke, Liz Vassey, and Nestor Carbonell. There's a brand-new, very different version whose pilot premiered on Amazon Prime last year, starring Peter Serafinowicz and Griffin Newman and taking a darker tone. Which one are you thinking of?

 

That's because I hit reply to the wrong person--sorry.

 

Oh, you were talking about this show. Yeah, I did find the acting very broad and forced in the pilot. I remember thinking that was strange.

I think the reason a lot of fantasy/SF sitcoms have failed over the decades is because they make the mistake of treating their own setting as something to be mocked and ridiculed. So there's a certain distance and contempt toward the very world the show is set in, and that necessarily extends to the characters and the situations. And that's a problem, because the key to a successful fantasy/SF universe is engaging the audience, making them willing to buy into the fanciful premise. A genre show that doesn't respect its own reality won't be able to earn that audience investment.

Certainly there have been successful sci-fi sitcoms set in silly and often parody-based realities, like Red Dwarf and Futurama, but they've worked because they still approached their characters and their stories with sincerity -- because they told actual science fiction stories with interesting ideas along with the humor, rather than just tossing in mocking references to familiar sci-fi tropes. They respect their genre even while lampooning it. Now, arguably Batman '66 was made with the intent of mocking the superhero genre rather than respecting it, but in its weird way, it adapted the tropes and conventions of the genre with such deadpan accuracy that it actually worked as an adventure story. The best spoofs and satires are those that are done with as much care and earnestness as straight treatments of the same genre. Like how Young Frankenstein is such a great Frankenstein comedy because it's a great Frankenstein movie, period.

But Powerless has the feel of being made by people who don't respect what it's about and thus think they're entitled to lower their standards, so the result is slapdash. I feel that Gotham has the same problem in its own way.

 

Alan Tudyk Suits Up as Robin

In next Thursday’s Powerless episode, Wayne Security employees Van (Alan Tudyk), Teddy (Danny Pudi), and Ron (Ron Funches) set off on a mission to locate Batman (a.k.a. their boss and Van’s cousin, Bruce Wayne) after they find one of his Batarangs. Somehow, their quest to find the Dark Knight leads to Van indulging a superhero fantasy and dressing up as Batman’s sidekick Robin, as you can see in exclusive first look images above and below.​

 

The show still isn't very good but at least episode 3 did a decent job of integrating DC lore into the show so that it's not just an office sitcom with the occasional DC reference. Atlantean business men, Van pretending to know Aquaman, one of the cast revealing themselves to be an Atlantean and the gang speculating that one of their co-workers is the Olympian because he keeps disappearing when the hero shows up. A step in the right direction.

 

I wasn't even going to watch until I read your review, and I agree -- this is an immense improvement. I hardly chuckled at all last week, but I laughed plenty this week. I loved the bit about Ace Chemicals (and falling into open chemical vats being the leading cause of clown-based villains) and other throwaway bits like the news caption "Black Manta batters, fries Atlantis." Even some of the office humor (though not all) and the "Van is a rich, spoiled idiot" stuff was funny for a change. And they even let Van show a degree of competence at something in a weird sort of way, with his Sinking Day scheme actually paying off, and added some nuance to Van and his relationship with Emily. (And Vanessa Hudgens is a pretty good singer. Didn't she get her start in some Disney Channel musical or something?)

The subplot about the team suspecting their coworker of being a superhero was a subplot in the original pilot. I wasn't crazy about the execution here, though. Too much crude humor. And in general, the show kind of overdoes the racial-insensitivity jokes, though it's a nice touch to bring in a fantasy element by making Ron Atlantean.

 

I haven't seen the second one yet, so I don't know how much of an improvement this one was, but I did enjoy it.
We got some good DC stuff this week with Ace Chemicals and all of the Atlantis stuff. I got a big kick out of the one guy revealing he was Atlantean.
The storyline with the Olympian was OK, some of the stuff was good and some of it was annoying.
Van got some pretty good stuff in this one, with all of the stuff with his father.
And @Christopher, Vanessa Hudgens breakout role was as the female lead in the High School Musical franchise.

 

Don't bother. It really was crap. But, yeah, Sinking Day was a big improvement.

 

I am nerding out just a little. In the pre nu52 era of DC Comics, the Olympian was powered by wearing the Golden Fleece. It gave him the powers of Hercules and other heros who sought the Fleece in legend.

I didn't see the Earth-P Olympian wearing the Fleece, but this one could have been powered by his helmet. The co-worker getting whacked by a chair would not have ruled him out ruled hom out.

I think they could get more mileate out of the joke if it became a running gag (better written of course).

 

Showed ep 1 to my wife last might and she hated it. Combined with my so-so reaction, that keeps it off our watch list. Oh well.

 

But...but...Vanessa Hudgens...looking super-cute...that's gotta count for something!

 

Take a picture. Then you don't have to sit through the insufferable.

 

What is your opinion on Son of Zorn? Its another mash of fantasy and traditional sitcom, but uses its fantasy elements a lot more, as the basis for most of the sitcom elements.

 

Never watched it.

 

Well, this is the second fun episode in a row, which is a good sign. Also good is that its plots specifically arise from the ramifications of living in a superhero universe -- dating a henchman, finding a stray Batarang, the general public's perception of Batman, etc. It was a bit odd that Batman and the Riddler were operating in Charm City, though. And odd that Batman was right nearby when the Riddler's goons were robbing Wayne Security, but he apparently wasn't there to stop them? Why else would he have been in town?

Also, it's a pretty poor class of henchmen that just scramble for the exits when they glimpse "Robin." True henching professionals would've started a fistfight with plenty of written sound effects.

That was Major from iZombie as the henchman Emily was dating, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure, but it's been so long between seasons that I've almost forgotten what he looks like.

 

When they heard Batman's voice and it turned out to be Van with something in his throat, I actually laughed.

Who was the green-haired guy supposed to be?