New comedies are always tough to sell to audiences at the start. Comedies don’t become popular for awhile until the news of how funny the show is spread. Shows like Parks & Rec and Community both had this problem where they found their audiences later on in the show’s lifespan. Powerless feels like it will be one of those shows but only if it lives until then. Based in the DC comics universe Powerless follows Emily, played by Vanessa Hudgens, as she begins work for Wayne Security making products to defend civilians from the danger caused by super villains and heroes. It is similar to the whole reason Bruce Wayne has a go at Superman in Batman v Superman except the two products are about as equally as ridiculous, except only show should be comedic like that. Powerless has a charm to it, ironic since it’s set in Charm City, it has the making of a binge-worthy show where you watch the whole season at once. It has a good line up of characters and the origins of what could be some really funny material to work with but it just isn’t there yet. So far with the first episode it gave me a couple of really funny moments but nothing more than that. This was the same for Community as the first episode had a lot of set up and then as the episodes kicked off you can really get into it. Powerless has that vibe of it could be great but it has two things going against it, 1. whether people can be bothered investing in it and 2. if it uses it’s material wisely and stick the superhero landing on more jokes per episode. I like the charm the show has and I will definitely keep watching it but I’m a biased superhero fan who has been looking forward to this show and loves the actors in the cast and basically this show is made for me. The question is will it hold back like Batman rule of not killing the joker or will it go full speed ahead like The Flash and hold itself up as a great comedy show and hopefully be like the great NBC shows we all know and love.
Expectation Level: High, new NBC comedy high.
Expectations achieved….for now.
Score: 3.5/5 – Powerless is a show that NBC needs to give time to evolve and become a hit show. What they have at the moment is a show that will be cancelled midway through it’s second season, at best, but giving this type of show the freedom to do it’s own thing and find it’s right audience would easily turn it into one of their classics.