Summary
Chad Powers is conventional, perhaps to a fault in its premiere, but it’s also oddly charming and very funny, so the potential is definitely there.
I can totally see why someone might not like Chad Powers, the Hulu comedy co-created by Glen Powell and Loki’s Michael Waldron that relies on a latex mask and a bad wig for a good percentage of its laughs. But as of Episodes 1 and 2, uncreatively titled “1st Quarter” and “2nd Quarter”, it’s the heart I’m more interested in. And despite being about a very determinedly unlikeable protagonist, at least in his original, undisguised form, I do think that heart is there, nestled away in the chiselled chest of a man who doesn’t know who he is without the sport – and the persona – that gave him purpose in the first place.
This is the hook of Chad Powers. Powell’s square jaw plays Russ Holliday, a superstar University of Oregon quarterback who is on the cusp of the national championship-winning touchdown when a mistake costs Georgia the game and Russ his reputation. A ridiculous follow-up outburst sends a grown fan, his cancer-stricken son, and the kid’s wheelchair toppling to the ground, and thus torpedoes any hopes of redemption Russ might have. His public image as a handsome star athlete morphs into a ridiculous cliché of a once-great jock, driving around in a Cybertruck, bragging about his crypto wallet, and assuring everyone that his return to the spotlight is just around the corner.
But it isn’t. Early in Episode 1, a celebratory brush with Haliey Welch – the Hawk Tuah girl – on account of an eight-year-later return to pro ball takes a downturn thanks to resurfacing scandal, and Russ is left forlorn and adrift, forced to work for his obviously long-suffering, award-winning Hollywood makeup artist father, Mike.
While delivering some high-quality latex masks and wigs to a studio lot, a billboard featuring the late Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire gives Russ an idea. The South Georgia University Catfish team is hosting open tryouts after losing their top two quarterbacks to transfers, and Russ decides to disguise himself – badly – and attend. All the comedy lives in the fact that the disguise doesn’t look remotely authentic, Russ hasn’t developed a believable – or even feasible – character to go with it, and the plan hasn’t been thought through whatsoever.
Entirely by chance, Russ runs into the Catfish mascot, Danny, who immediately buys into Russ’s scheme in the hopes of a redeemed football star hopefully one day owing him a favour. Danny helps with the hair and makeup and tries to coach Russ through the outlines of a silly southern character he names Chad Powers, but Russ’s constant improvisation keeps wildly overcomplicating his backstory and giving him an air of what becomes, across Episodes 1 and 2, a kind of eccentric rural folk-mysticism.
The disguise is enough to convince the Catfish quarterback coach, Coach Hudson, and his daughter, Ricky, a former track star written off as a nepo baby, with whom Russ seems to be developing something resembling a romantic connection. I’ll be the first to admit that the vast majority of the humour in this two-part premiere revolves around Russ trying to keep the disguise up by avoiding getting wet, clutching his wig while he runs, and improvising absurd justifications for why he doesn’t have a student ID (or birth certificate), why no highlights of his career exist online, and why he exclusively conducts himself in the manner of someone suffering from a serious head injury.
It’d be fairly easy to pick holes in all this if you were so inclined. Nothing Chad says makes sense as something Russ would come up with, at least not the version of him we’re introduced to in these first two episodes. But there are flickers of a more thoughtful guy beneath all the showboating and latex. There’s an understated moment where Russ, while flirting with Ricky disguised as Chad, spots a couple of deer in the distance, and is dumbstruck by an almost childlike fascination with them. The laugh comes when he tries to justify a supposedly southern man’s surprise at seeing deer – “I was just thinking we should eat them” – but the moment’s there for a reason, and hints at a tenderness to Russ that might be fun to explore.
I also think that the father-daughter relationship between Coach Hudson and Ricky, backdropped by what seems to be a failing relationship with the former’s wife and the latter’s determination to forge her own path away from her dad’s shadow, is very sweet and has the potential to yield some ripe dramatic fruit, if the show is so inclined. Of that, at least, there’s no real guarantee, since Chad Powers is clearly having a lot of fun with the novelty of Glen Powell leaning so heavily into two distinct, equally ridiculous characters. But we can hope.
Read More: Chad Powers Episode 3 Recap
