The affable yet thin Hulu comedy “Chad Powers” is a redux on several fronts. The basic premise — a silly gag set against the backdrop of high-level football, extrapolated into a feel-good sports series named for its protagonist — has obvious parallels to that of the Apple TV+ hit “Ted Lasso.” For leading man and co-creator Glen Powell, “Chad Powers” marks the second major role in which his character’s physical transformation for the sake of a disguise prompts and reflects an interior shift. The first, the Netflix film “Hit Man,” was the latest of several collaborations with the filmmaker Richard Linklater; Powell co-wrote the script and played a mild-mannered professor who starts posing as killers for hire to entrap potential clients.
“Chad Powers” is not as astonishing a show of Powell’s range as “Hit Man.” Nor does it manage, as “Ted Lasso” did, to transcend its initial gimmick over the course of its awkwardly compressed six-episode season. (What happened after that initial success need not be spoken of.) Powell remains one of movie stardom’s great young hopes, a blonde and beaming Texan taken under the wing of Tom Cruise who shares his mentor’s embrace of visible, enthusiastic effort. With “Chad Powers,” he’s returning to live-action TV work for the first time in a decade, since a part in Ryan Murphy’s horror comedy “Scream Queens” helped kickstart his ascent. But even though “Chad Powers” helps cement Powell’s rise by placing him at the top of the call sheet, the college football quarterback seems unlikely to be remembered as one of his signature roles.
The first person to assume the Chad Powers moniker was retired New York Giants star Eli Manning, who donned a fake name, a wig and prosthetics to pose as a Penn State walk-on prospect in a viral sketch for his ESPN show with older brother Peyton. (Both Mannings executive produce the Hulu project via their company Omaha Productions.) Powell and co-creator Michael Waldron, the “Loki” showrunner, have given Powers a slightly more convincing hair and makeup job, a reedy voice and a fleshed-out backstory. This Powers’ true identity is not an NFL veteran but Russ Holliday, a former college athlete whose career ended in humiliating fashion on the national stage. Years later and now a Cybertruck-driving, crypto-plugging Z-list celebrity, Russ takes inspiration from “Mrs. Doubtfire” and decides his best shot at redemption is to become someone else.
The most interesting wrinkle in the story of how Russ becomes Chad, the unlikely new face of the fictional South Georgia Catfish — default cheer: “Go fish!” — is Russ’ father Mike (the great Toby Huss), a Hollywood makeup artist whose tricks of the trade Russ steals for his secret project. But like so much else in this rushed-feeling hero’s journey, the dynamic between a gay single dad and his unrepentant sports bro of a son doesn’t get much space to deepen beyond the initial comedic contrast.
Once on campus and under the supervision of head coach Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn), Chad strikes up an alliance of convenience with team mascot Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez), who recognizes Russ from DeuxMoi and volunteers to abet his scheme, and a flirtation with Jake’s daughter Ricky (Perry Mattfeld), an assistant coach who’s trying to be taken seriously. Both relationships evolve at a pace that seems shaped more by the scant episode order, so common in contemporary TV comedies, than Russ’ organic evolution. The season ends on a cliffhanger, a choice that’s both frustrating but at least portends a seemingly inevitable second installment that can elaborate on what’s initially left bare bones.
Chad himself requires as Herculean a commitment from Powell — not to mention the makeup department, led by Alexei Dmitriew — as the persona does for Russ. Chad doesn’t just have a bigger nose or longer hair than his creator; he’s also a kinder, gentler person, if one whose bizarre behavior leads a booster to callously but reasonably speculate may have “the seety.” (She means CTE, a sharper-edged joke than the show typically goes for.) “You want to come across as a quiet, likeable leader,” Danny advises his collaborator. “Try and be the opposite of yourself.” Chad is so much the opposite of Russ that Russ starts referring to him in the third person, like he’s a completely separate entity.
But Chad is, and remains, such a cartoon that the story’s more earnest elements never quite resonate. “Chad Powers” lands plenty of jokes at its namesake’s expense, from all his absurd, unbelievable lies (Chad and Danny are close because Danny’s family “‘Blind Side’-ed” him; Chad is late to a game because his garage door opener got a virus) to one coach’s drive-by insults, such as “Sling Blade” and “Flowers for Algernon.” It just can’t synthesize these bits with, say, Jake’s quotidian marital woes into a uniform tone. “Chad Powers” is now more than a sketch, but it’s not quite all the way to being a full-fledged TV show.
The first two episodes of “Chad Powers” are now streaming on Hulu, with remaining episodes streaming weekly on Tuesdays.
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