Hope you’re not tired of comic books on television yet. Well not exactly “television” but we’ll get to that momentarily. This year alone audiences were introduced to several small screen adaptations with shows like The Flash, iZombie, Gotham, and Constantine with varying level of success. Don’t forget popular continuing series like The Walking Dead or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that have dedicated fan bases, the first of which is getting a spin-off series which will feature more people killin’ walkers and fellow survivors. So what makes “Powers” so different from the rest?
The show is based on the long running Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Avon Oeming series about a part of the police force that deals with super powered humans referred to as “powers” and the realities of what the world would be like if these people actually existed. It turns out they’re rock stars and celebrities, idolized by the average American with commercial deals and brands of energy drinks. To the world they seem like hero’s but those in the POWERS Task Force know better. These are the police officers that deal with the violent offenders and criminals with abilities as well as the no good deeds of the various heroes; like the occasional drug overdose or sex with minors. It’s hard to hand out a warrant to someone who can shoot lighting from his eyes or summon storms at her will. The show follows our protagonist “Christian Walker”, played by District 9’s Sharlto Copley, previously known as Diamond, one of the world’s greatest hero’s who lost his powers and now works as a detective investigating Power related crimes, and his new partner Deena Pilgrim, played by Susan Heyward.
This show is a PlayStation Original, airing free for PlayStation Plus users, across multiple platforms, making it the first legitimate show to come out for game consoles, and I have to say, it was a rocky start folks. The pilot episode was weak, no other way to put it. Written by the show runner Charlie Huston, a writer I greatly admire, this episode had pacing problems, expository dumps, repetition of phrases like “what’s it like to be powerless” and one or two moments where characters say or do stupid things only to further plot, not to mention the visuals for the show. David Slade has directed some great television episodes. For reference, look at his work on Hannibal... and I liked his movies Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night, but this may be a low point for him... and this guy directed one of the Twilight movies! There clearly wasn’t much of a budget for this, with generally weak effects, excluding a moment here or there. When I first saw the way the show rendered powers and the visual aesthetics for the world, I thought perhaps I was watching a SyFy network show or something on NBC before I quite nailed down what exactly the show felt like to me. If you’ve seen any live action commercials (Greatness Awaits) then you have an idea for the way the show looks, just with the same budget for those 2 minute commercials expanded to 55 minutes.
If you can sit through what is essentially an hour long hand-holding for what this show is, then you will be rewarded because episodes two and three are better episodes. The run time is a standard 45 minutes which helps the pacing and the writing gets subtler, with still some corny and cheesy lines thrown in but nothing worse than on something like Gotham or Arrow. What really shines in these episodes are the character dynamics, our protagonists investigation of the murder of Olympia, a major superhero who overdosed from a new designer drug called Sway, with the only lead a young teenage girl “power wannabe” named Calista, who gets caught up with shady yet noble Johnny Royale, a figure from Christian’s past recently returned for motives unknown.
With every episode it feels like the actors get more comfortable in their roles, with some stand outs from Michelle Forbes as Retro-Girl who exudes power on the screen, Eddie Izzard as Wolfe who gives a typical Eddie Izzard performance notched up to 11 here as a cannibal who can consume powers- including our main character’s power several years prior- and perhaps the best character so far Johhny Royale, played by Noah Tyler who seems to be channeling Clive Barker in his performance and almost impossible not to watch.
At episode five, “Paint it Black,” the show is half way done with its first season. By now if you’re like me you’re hooked and can’t wait for the next episode and wished that PlayStation would use the Netflix model and put up all the episodes all at once. All elements of the show are better now, or perhaps you don’t mind as much after four hours of watching or so, such as the effects, dialogue, directing, and performances with the occasional slip into camp with lines like “I am power!” or bad CGI blood spray used a little too much.
While the show is presented as a science fiction/ police procedural/ drama it doesn’t really seem to care about the police aspect all that much, at least in terms of proper investigating or paperwork. Maybe with time the show could evolve to find room for all that but right now it’s busy dealing with themes such as the past catching up to you or what it really means to be a hero and carry all that responsibility while also serving as a satire to modern celebrity culture. Much to my surprise the show has several strong emotionally honest beats between characters that actually work better than the action or violent beats, which the show has a fair amount of with beheadings and fights a plenty.
Overall I have to say that this show went from being the weakest of the new batch of small screen adaptations to quite possibly being the strongest of them all.