Rachel Bellwoar reviews the second episode of Powerless…
That big idea for a product that was so elusive in ‘Wayne or Lose?’ Well, the team at Wayne Security has been hard at work since we last saw them and ‘Wayne Dream Team’ starts with them not only nursing their next big idea, but having it green lit and ready to go into production. It’s an improvement over last episode’s smell detector, too. Smelly left too many questions about collecting smell samples, and reliability. Whatever truth there is to the claim nobody has thought of an umbrella that repels rubble before, the Rumbrella delivers thanks to its stinging marketing.
In most other ways ‘Wayne Dream Team’ is a step backwards towards generic, workplace comedy. Set in a world where superheroes exist, Jack O’Lantern drops by for a hot minute in the tag and that’s it. The smell detector was invented with his smell in mind but I guess nobody’s wearing those, and his appearance is completely telegraphed. Emily remarks about how she finally made it to the front of the baked goods line. Jack O’ Lantern appears. Cue table of baked goods on fire. No baked goods for Emily.
No baked goods for Jackie, either. Somehow roped into being Emily’s permanent sounding board, anytime Emily wants to vent, she finds her way next to Jackie. While it would be absurd to complain, because it means more Christina Kirk, there needs to be a more natural way to develop Emily as a character.
The same goes for Van. While the A-story is the team dealing with a premature deadline assigned to them by Emily (a deadline that would be more sympathetic with a concerted effort to meet it), Van is upset about getting cut out of a photo. Not terrible for a B-story, but instead of letting viewers discover that Van has a sweet side on their own the show panics and starts listing his good deeds, to make people put up with him at work.
Punchlines are conscious, or come out of nowhere. Wanting to buy a shark remains random the second time you hear it, and the joke about the head of HR not knowing what his job responsibilities are is more horrific than humorous, when the company dream team’s exclusively white and male. If Powerless truly wants to soar to great heights, it has to stop relying on diluted office humor and lean into its heroic niche.
Rachel Bellwoar
Originally published February 10, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
