“Powerless” (8:30 p.m. Eastern, Thursdays, NBC) – about ordinary people living in a superhero world – taps into an inevitable genre of humor in the peak of the comic-books-to-the-screen era. And it’s a pretty fun branch of humor. “Powerless” has “half a season before it’s canceled” written all over it, perhaps because it’s created by hard-luck Ben Queen (“Century City,” “Drive,” “A to Z”), so I don’t feel like I’m making a long-term commitment. I’ll keep it on my DVR for those times when I want 22 minutes of mindless chuckles.
An official DC project
Essential for “Powerless” to take flight, it is an official DC project; as such, it can make explicit references to the wider universe of superheroes and supervillains. While Charm City is a new invention for this series, Bruce Wayne’s cousin Van (“Firefly’s” Alan Tudyk) comes from the comics (granted, from a single issue in 1962, but still …). The background fight in the first episode is between hero Crimson Fox and villain Jack O’Lantern; both are obscure DC characters.
One of the successful inventions of the Research & Development branch of Wayne Security, overseen by Van, is Joker Venom – if someone is a victim of the Joker’s laughing gas, they can inject themselves with this epi-pen-like device. Among the not-so-successful inventions is Kryptonite glass — this will allow Superman to bounce off the windows of office buildings rather than smashing through them; unfortunately, it also stops him from getting inside if people need help.
“Powerless” (2017)
Thursdays, NBC
Creator: Ben Queen
Stars: Vanessa Hudgens, Danny Pudi, Christina Kirk
Those smart references to comic lore make up about a quarter of the jokes. The rest are standard sitcom fare. In a “Police Squad!”-style gag, Van notes that he’s a “big-picture guy,” then references a large photo of himself on his office wall.
A bubbly lead
The characters are utterly familiar, although for a lovably enthusiastic lead, you could do worse than Emily Locke (“High School Musical’s” Vanessa Hudgens). Teddy (“Community’s” Danny Pudi) and Ron (Ron Funches) are the stereotypical geeks, Jackie (Christina Kirk) is the disillusioned secretary, and Wendy (Jennie Pierson) is the bluntly selfish lab tech.
In broad strokes, this is the same cast breakdown as another workplace comedy, “No Tomorrow,” but the humor in “Powerless” doesn’t land in the same rapid-fire manner; it doesn’t catch me off guard as often. Still, the sci-fi bent helps a little, as with a gag where Ron, carrying a box of mangled girl-robot parts, notes that the sex robot isn’t ready for mass production just yet.
“Powerless” stands on a less serious branch of a genre that is often hard to take seriously to begin with — in a broad jab at the Marvel and DC screen universes, Van notes that superheroes and supervillains often fight for “vaguely defined reasons.” It’s fairly fun because of the backdrop, but the workplace comedy aspects are rather down-to-Earth after one episode.
Main image: NBC publicity photo