This week, Emily, after getting an invitation to an ex-boyfriend’s wedding, is convinced by the rest of the team to go out and meet some new people. While out at a bar with Jackie and Wendy, she meets Dan, a handsome doctor who is just Emily’s type. However, we soon find out that he isn’t an actual doctor, but is rather a henchman for the Riddler. After he finds out about a new piece of experimental tech that Wayne Security is working on, Dan decides to use his new relationship with Emily as a ploy to break in and steal the tech to please his secret boss.
To be honest, the plot is pretty creative. It seems like a pretty obvious plot for the show to have done at some point, having one of the team dating a supervillain, but it’s done in a pretty unexpected way. Instead of having the entire team freak out when the find out that Dan is a henchman, everyone besides Emily acts as if it’s obvious. This furthers the difference between Emily and the citizens of Charm City, as the idea of a new person you meet secretly being evil is a somehow a common occurrence for them. Emily is still learning in her new environment, just as the audience is learning more and more about POWERLESS has to offer.
The side plot of this episode, following Teddy, Ron and Van, sees the team finding a Batarang lodged into a vault door that they’re investigating for security concerns. Knowing that Batman never leaves anything behind, they decide to use it for the opportunity to meet one of their biggest heroes. Though we never get to see the Dark Knight himself, because the rights to use Batman are more secure than nuclear missile codes, we do get a swift motion noise and a grappling hook in the background to suffice. As Teddy Ron, and Van all freak out that they just got to “meet” Batman, they share the same reaction as us, the actual audience whenever we get to see that famous cowl on any screen.
Despite the highlights of this episode, POWERLESS is still figuring itself out. The show hasn’t yet found out how to stand by itself, but it still appears to be learning. Last week’s episode was very promising, with jokes that felt natural to the overall feeling that the show had been trying to give off. This week, though the jokes weren’t horrible or distasteful, they weren’t natural enough to fit what this show promised it would be. Though I’m still confident, because the creative team and cast behind this show are all too brilliant to let this show pass, this week wasn’t necessarily a step in the right direction.
It’s important to remember at this point that Powerless underwent some pretty serious changes during its production. Powerless changed its showrunner and completely changed its premise while it was already in production, leading to a change in the creative team and an almost complete restart to what they had already done. With changes like this, Powerless had to figure itself out all over again.
It seems that these changes are still effecting what the show has made up until now. Not to say that the original premise would have been better, having the show set in an insurance company that dealt with superhero related damage claims, but POWERLESS has so many changes to deal with and so many ideas that have come from all over the place that they are still figuring out what to do and what not to do.
POWERLESS’ current showrunners, Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, definitely know what they’re doing, however. They both took over a show that didn’t know what it was going to become, and made it into something that proudly fills the void of comic relief in the comic book television world.
“Emily Dates a Henchman,” still only the fourth episode of the series, may not be the greatest example of what POWERLESS can be, but it’s still got promise. POWERLESS still has to establish itself, not only with audiences, but as a show in general. Once more episodes are released, and POWERLESS can be viewed as a larger product than just these four episodes, then it will be time to have a greater discussion into what POWERLESS has fully become.
Written by Williams Staton, POWERLESS Beat Writer -- Click to read William's posts
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