Powerless

Hudgens is delightful as a young woman determined to show she can make a difference in the world even without superpowers. Pierson is only listed as recurring, and she needs to be upgraded pronto for her heroic, hilarious meanness. Pudi can do great things — he proved that on “Community”--one can only hope the scripts will give him a chance to soar.

The workplace comedy will have to be dialed up in the long run to maintain interest. But with Pudi and Tudyk--and even Hudgens--at the ready, that shouldn’t be a superhuman feat for Powerless.

Funny idea that doesn’t quite attain the level of “funny show,” but a good cast along with a few good lines indicate this superhero sendup will eventually get there.

On the basis of its pilot--the sole episode available for review--it's a pleasant show, a little on the old-fashioned side formally. With a quality cast that includes Vanessa Hudgens, Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, Alan Tudyk and Christina Kirk, it seems crafted to sit compatibly alongside the returning "Superstore."

I've seen one only episode, so it's hard to say where Powerless is headed. It has a good cast, though, and for all its comic-book trappings, its effort to find some fun in a fickle economy could make it a good fit with its lead-in, NBC's already terrific Superstore.

One, the cast is strong. Hudgens is likable; Pudi and Tudyk have excellent timing. Two, the concept is promising. While I’m a little worried that Powerless will repeat jokes, I’m more hopeful that the world of superheroes will just become background to a clever workplace comedy.

There’s a light, nimble humor to the show’s treatment of superpowers and heroic antics--a much needed respite from the angst and self-seriousness of so many superheroes on the small-screen, who are all so fixated on saving the world.

Powerless wants to be more than a typical workplace comedy, but its own premise (hey, isn't superhero fatigue hilarious?) is its kryptonite. [Feb 3/10 2017, p.101]

As uniformly talented as the cast is, the characters feel quite thinly sketched at this stage.

It’s quirky and pleasant but not terribly funny, and the comic situations are standard office sitcom.

Powerless is silly and fun, and the setup of existing within the DC Universe but outside of Gotham City and other landmark towns keeps it from coming into contact with the comics’ better-known heroes and villains.

It’s a good cast--Hudgens is energetic and likable in the straight woman role, Tudyk can play this kind of obnoxious bro in his sleep, and Pudi and the others (including Christina Kirk as Van’s beleaguered assistant, Jackie) already have a solid handle on what differentiates each nerdy character from the others--and every now and then comes a scene or joke that lives up to the promise of showing an extraordinary world from the most ordinary point of view.

Powerless has a high-flying concept indeed. Too bad it fails to take off.

There's probably an actual working and perhaps even funny show lurking in Powerless. But we may not know that for five or six episodes, and NBC only made one episode available for review.

Based on the premiere, though, what could be an amusing look at the more grounded side of life among superheroes is a mere mortal when it comes to charm.

If Powerless intends to be an actual comedy, as opposed to a harmless way to wile away a half-hour, it needs to give them [cast] something to do that counts as funny. So far, whatever powers this NBC sitcom has on display, the power to make us laugh isn’t one of them.

Most of the jokes miss their mark; the show is at its best when it portrays the casual indifference that the citizens of Charm City have developed to their daily doses of chaos.

Tudyk camps it up as Van Wayne, sometimes amusingly so. A villain known as Jack O’Lantern also gets off a bit of a zinger while flying overhead. ... The opening comic book credits are pretty cool, too. Powerless otherwise is notably short on pop or long-term promise, with things staying pretty flat throughout Thursday’s scene-setter.

The problem, a large one, is that there are long dry stretches between the laughs. Too many of the punchlines land weakly or not at all. This may be the product of an abrupt and extensive makeover of the show at the last minute—Emily Locke was originally written as an insurance adjuster frustrated by the big payouts her company was making to innocent bystanders at superhero dust-ups. The vast horizon of insurance humor, alas, will remain unexplored.

There are moments of comedic relief, particularly thanks to Kirk’s just-the-right-amount-of-bitchy assistant character, but then there are times when Powerless feels like a total slouch. In terms of the set-up and payoff for each joke, visual gags, writing, directing, the works--the show is shockingly average.

Even their [the likable cast's] enthusiasm can't give life to the stale workplace humor and the half-hearted comic-book references.

The new show has permission from DC Comics to poke fun at DC superheroes, but what comes across more forcefully is a weariness with the superhero-overload in TV and movies right now.

If Powerless had been funny, the lack of big-name heroes would be excusable, but with not much to laugh at a viewer is bored enough to consider all the things this show could be, but is not.

It's a good premise, but it's almost painfully unfunny. This is super disappointing.