POWERLESS Looks For The “Wayne Dream Team”, But Does It Find It?

Season 1, Episode 2: “Wayne Dream Team”
Written by Dean Lorey
Directed by Marc Buckland

[All photos courtesy NBC Universal]

Van Wayne (Alan Tudyk) has returned from a Wayne Industries retreat and he wants to know what the team has for him. They have a new device called The Rumbrella near completion; Emily (Vanessa Hudgens) pipes up and says they’ll have it ready by the end of the week. In the “B” plot, Van wants to know why he’s not in the company “Wayne Dream Team” photo.

Emily really wants to be friends with her team, but they don’t want to be friends with her. Instead of getting right on the problems with the Rumbrella, they are hard at work on picking their rosters for The Fantasy Superhero league.

Emily goes to Samuel Green (Michael D. Cohen), the head of Human Resources for help.

The team goes to the computers to find the Superhero league website has been blocked, as well the entire internet.

The team is working full steam on getting the Rumbrella ready; you see they’ll get the work done without motivation.

Unfortunately, Samuel reveals to the team that is was Emily that got the internet blocked.

In order to the get the internet back, Emily has to watch the HR Bullying video…4 times in a row. She makes it through, but the team realizes that she took a bullet for them and they allow her to join the Fantasy league. She picks Crimson Fox…and wins some points.

Analysis:

Well, here we are at the first normal episode after the pilot and…it’s not bad…it’s also not good either. It needs something.

Right now, you could edit out the superhero elements from the show and get a pretty average workplace comedy. I want something more here. I know they probably spent a lot on the Crimson Fox/Jack-O-Lantern battle in the pilot. Hopefully, we’ll get some more in the next few episodes.

In the opening of the episode, Jackie and Emily are at a street side cupcake cart when Jack-O-Lantern flies by just to do a little random pumpkin bombing (He’s probably waiting for the cease and desist letter from Marvel for ripping off elements from the Green Goblin) and there is almost zero reaction from the public on the street.  Shouldn’t the vendor be hurt? Shouldn’t there be screams of panic? Something? Nope. Just a look of annoyance. If no one on the street gets hurt when things like this happen, why do we need a research company to fix a non-problem? And didn’t they just make the “Jack-O-Lert” to warn people of his presence in the pilot? Where did that go? (Yes, I know, it’s probably still in beta. But still, if I was head of the project team, I’d still wear the prototype.) And where was Crimson Fox when this was going on? I know it’s a half hour sitcom and I should just relax, but that’s not me.

Well, this episode we had mentions of Superman, The Flash, and the Phantom Zone. I appreciate the little references, but I would like some bigger things than just references. Maybe some footage on the TV or whatever Earth-P uses for YouTube?

Obscure DC Character this episode: Prince Evillo (David St. James), who is featured in the HR video that Emily is forced to watch. He first appeared in Action Comics #350 in November of 1966. He was an adversary of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I hope we could get an appearance by the Legion in a future episode.

Best moments: Van’s vainglorious attempts to put himself back in the Wayne Dream Team photo (Only his arm is visible in the current one.). Alan Tudyk’s Van is one of the bright spots in this episode. His attempts at photoshopping himself in are met with the staff creating memes of him in funny situations.

We also meet the small, evil director of HR, Samuel Green. I find it odd that this is Emily’s first contact with him. Shouldn’t they have met when she was hired?

The relationship between Emily and Jackie (Christina Kirk) is really nice. They really have something there. Jackie is the person that Emily must try to avoid becoming and Emily is the part of Jackie that she left behind.

Next episode: Emily has to salvage the a deal with Atlantis (Aquaman references, here we come) after Van torpedoes it in “Sinking Day”.

 

Powerless airs Thursday at 8:30/7:30 Central on NBC. It can also be found on Hulu, Amazon, and NBC.com. For more information, visit the official website.