Powerless - New DC Universe based Sitcom

I hope Alan Tudyk was secretly embarrassed to film this episode. The scenes they gave him were incredibly cringe worthy IMO.

 

Ha! Alan Tudyk's character just named several office workers with the names of Firefly characters.

 

Well, this was a pretty funny one, which is a relief, since I realized this morning that the show to date had only three funny episodes and three meh-to-awful ones. So at the moment, good episodes marginally outnumber bad ones, 4 to 3.

And, yay, Natalie Morales is in a superhero comedy again! It's not The Middleman, alas, but it's something. And I'm glad they didn't put her in a mask. Come to think of it, she and Vanessa Hudgens resemble each other a little.

Is anyone ever going to catch Jack O'Lantern? And is he ever going to do anything villainous other than this Green Goblin act where he flies around and randomly tosses pumpkin bombs?

Yup. Although they fudged it a bit with "Kay" and "Lee" as separate, consecutive names, just so it wouldn't be too obvious (though it was very obvious).

Also, I think this is the first time it's been confirmed that Van Wayne's full name is Vanderveer Wayne, the name of an obscure cousin of Bruce's from a single 1962 comics story. As it turns out, they're actually basing his personality on aspects of the comics character -- a spoiled rich brat who had to be the best at everything and couldn't stand being shown up, as in tonight's episode, and who ended up impersonating Robin, which must've been the source of Van's Robin cosplay in the Batarang episode. That's actually kind of amazing, that they've drawn so much from a single one-shot guest appearance. (Kinda like how Agent Carter's second-season love interest Jason Wilkes was based on a one-shot character from a Marvel sci-fi anthology comic.)

 

So, according to the DVR listing the episode that aired tonight was supposed to be next week's. Tonight's was supposed to be about a corporate retreat. I wonder what we'll get next week?

 

They probably pulled "Emergency Punch-Up" from the schedule because it involved a toxic-gas attack on the city, which would've been in poor taste so soon after the chemical weapon attack in Syria.

 

What the hell did you two watch. Last nights episode WAS about a gas attack on the city AND a company retreat.

 

What time zone or country are you in? Maybe they showed different ones in different zones. Although it would be odd to show a different episode in the Eastern Time zone (where I am) and then switch back to the scheduled episode in a later time zone.

NBC's site shows "Van v Emily: Dawn of Justice," the episode I saw, as the 7th episode, and there's no sign of the company retreat episode "Emergency Punch-Up." Ditto for my On Demand cable.

 

I'm in NY.
Actually, I don't know what episode was broadcast last night as my viewing was via "alternative methods".
But they did broadcast the Emergency Punch-Up somewhere. I just looked again at the episode and did notice there were no bugs (network id) thru out the episode. Interesting....


ADDED: I just watched the Van v. Emily episode on NBC.com

 

"Green Furious" wasn't one of their better episodes, but it had its moments, and it was cool to see Natalie Morales getting a sizeable guest appearance. I guess her friendship with Emily, and maybe her business relationship with the company, is meant to open the door for a recurring role. I'm not sure if having an actual superhero in the cast really fits with the premise of a show that's supposed to be about the ordinary people in superhero world.

Aside from the superhero presence, it was mainly another episode that could've been in any office sitcom, with tireworn corporate-sexism cliches (which, okay, are still probably mostly true) and generally ordinary character-based stuff which was hit-or-miss to me. The stuff with Jackie, her daughter, and Wendy was ultimately okay, with a bit more humanization and nuance added to Jackie. And Van actually seems to be showing a bit more respect for Emily, however fractionally, which means they're actually developing his character too, at least a bit. But I'm really starting to dislike Teddy. I've never found anything to like about him, but I could've said that about Jackie and Wendy too, but they're starting to get marginally more tolerable while Teddy is growing more obnoxious.

 

By the way -- assuming anyone's still watching -- did anyone else find the plot of "Green Furious" derivative? I'm sure I've seen its plot before in some other sitcom -- a female character is pressured to do an objectifying commercial involving nudity, and her solution is to get a male character to do it instead -- but I can't remember where. I've complained before about the show too often doing generic sitcom plots with superhero elements tacked on, but if they're actually recycling specific sitcom plots, that's not a good sign either.

Speaking of signs that are less than good, I gather the show's prospects for renewal are slim at best:

http://www.cbr.com/gotham-shield-izombie-renewal/

Oh, well.

 

I don't think it's being promoted at all. I only found out about it here.

 

They did the nudity thing in FOX's The Pitch, where the female lead got her male teammates to pose provocatively like she had to.

It's good to hear that my instincts were right: to stop watching this show after the pilot. Ugh.

 

I've never heard of that one, so that can't be it. I'm thinking of something probably from a couple of decades ago.

I've found slightly more than half its episodes reasonably funny, though I like the concept more than I like most of the characters.

 

The episode in 2 weeks deals with the death of:

Spoiler

Lois Lane

 

Spoiler

She probably faked her death, it's a very Lois thing to do. Comedy hi-jinks will ensue about revolving door deaths.

 

Actually I read about the plot of this episode a while back...

Spoiler

IIRC, it's a riff on the ending of Superman: The Movie. They know that every time Lois Lane dies, Superman turns back time to save her, so that gives them license to do whatever they want for a few hours, since it'll all be erased.

 

To small of a percentage for me.

 

Well, they finally showed the gas-attack episode that was delayed two weeks ago, and it was pretty mediocre. The idea of it had potential -- an actual supervillain attack generating a situation that drove character interaction and comedy -- and it picked up toward the end when they were actually in danger and had to improvise solutions. But it never managed to be actually funny, and the first half was pretty lame overall. I guess it's partly that the characters just aren't all that good, so the humor derived from their exploration isn't very engaging.

 

Apparently, NBC has quietly pulled Powerless from their lineup, without fanfare. This leaves four episodes unaired, including one with an Adam West guest appearance that was scheduled for May 4. (Wow, deja vu. West was also going to be in the fourth episode of the 1987 superhero show Once a Hero, but it was yanked from the schedule after the third episode. I'm still frustrated about that 30 years later.) I hope they'll make the last few episodes available online, at least.

 

My DVR still shows it airing on May 4th.