Summary
Chad Powers capitalizes on all its early build-up in Episode 3, delivering lots of effective on-field drama (and a fair amount of laughs).
My worry for Chad Powers is that it’s a better, smarter show than its humour sometimes suggests. Episode 3 is great in a lot of ways, but it also leans heavily against repeated use of low-hanging comedic fruit — the fruit begins with the letter “R” — and you just know that’s going to give the wrong impression. Or maybe it’s the right impression. A show about a disgraced NFL quarterback enrolling in a struggling Southern team literally called Catfish, while wearing a disguise, suggests a degree of self-awareness. The low-brow vibe is similarly a cover for cleverer comedy and drama, or at least I think so.
But it makes sense. “3rd Quarter” is set entirely on-field during Chad’s Catfish debut, where he’s confined to the sidelines as the backup QB while Gerry gets continuously nailed in a losing effort (his summary of the game during a time-out is, simply, “I didn’t know I could get hit this much and not die”). That’s a classic sports-drama setup for a sudden heroic turnaround, which, to be fair, is precisely what happens, but it’s not so much what happens that’s of concern here, but how it happens. If you look at how smoothly every little dynamic is factored in here, you see a better-constructed show on the script level than I’ve seen Chad Powers be given credit for.
Sure, some of it’s a bit heavy-handed. Russ runs with the commentary from his Rose Bowl disgrace being piped into his ears. His sideline responsibilities as Chad Powers include holding a cup for Gerry to urinate into. Ricky’s involve fetching an empty bottle for someone to spit into, and retrieving some backup headsets after the first ones get fried, only to return to find the originals have started working again. Both are exaggeratedly surplus to requirements, which doesn’t always ring entirely true when we’re also expected to believe that the team is getting hammered, and Gerry’s performance is largely at fault. The obstinacy with which Coach Hudson won’t even entertain his backup is a bit of a stretch.
But again, that’s kind of the point. Chad Powers has already established that Ricky is a very competent coach who is continuously overlooked because people assume she’s just a nepo baby, and Coach Hudson is terrified of perpetuating that assumption. That fear has calcified into a steadfast refusal to entertain her ideas, even when everyone else can tell her ideas have merit. Since Hudson’s in charge, his approach festers. And then you factor in the garden-variety sexism she also has to endure.
Russ relates to Ricky because he’s historically a winner — she was an Olympic hopeful track star whose career was derailed by a freak injury — who is no longer allowed to win anything. They want the same thing. But getting it means upsetting the status quo, which is only possible with intervention from a couple of carefully positioned third parties.
The first is Tricia, who also seems to know a lot more about football than she lets on, but who also has the monetary power to throw meaningful threats around. Sure, she shouldn’t technically be on the sidelines — or smoking in the lounge — but there’s a level of wealth that the rules don’t apply to, and she’s there (or her father is, anyway). When the crowd starts chanting “Fire Coach Hudson”, they’re making her threats for her. If he can’t explain how the fourth quarter will be meaningfully different from the first three if he doesn’t make any significant changes, she’s well within her rights — and power — to do so.
The other wildcard is Danny, who spends most of Chad Powers Episode 3 in full mascot regalia. We still aren’t entirely sure why he’s so invested in Russ’s deception, but we get to see how far he’s willing to go to support it, since he trips Gerry up to injure him in order to give Coach Hudson no choice but to turn to “Chad”. You see a glimmer in his little speech here of a decent coach at heart, albeit one with the blinkers firmly on whenever his daughter is concerned. I like, too, that Chad has to reluctantly throw Gerry under the bus to make a case for himself. It’s played for laughs, but it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Even with all this, Russ still needs to go off-script and use Ricky’s overlooked play to exploit the opposition and win the game. This is presented like a romantic overture, and the episode commits to it after, with Chad heading back into the locker room, where Ricky has been banished, to celebrate with her instead of the rest of the team. It’s a nice moment, and Perry Mattfeld sells it with some believable tears. What I was mostly thinking was how badly all this is going to go when Chad’s real identity is eventually, and inevitably, revealed.
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