After years in development hell, Brian Michael Bendis’ award-winning comic book series Powers is finally coming to your TV screens. Originally developed for FX with a completely different pilot episode and cast (originally starring Jason Patric), the network ultimately passed on the show. It wasn’t until Playstation announced they wanted to get into the original programming game (made all the rage by Netflix) and that Powers would be its first release, that fans finally knew they’d get to see the comic book series come to life.
Powers is a crime procedural, detective noir story set in a violent, celebrity-obsessed world where superheroes exist and are worshipped in the public eye, much how actors and reality stars are treated in our current society. Detective Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley) once was the biggest superhero out there, called Diamond. But after he lost his powers in a climactic battle with his mentor-turned-serial-murderer Wolfe (Eddie Izzard), he now investigates homicides with his new partner Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) in the Powers Division: a department of law-enforcement tasked with dealing with the “super” element of society – or as they call them “Powers.”
Playstation is making the first three episodes of the show available on their devices on March 10th and will release new episodes every subsequent Tuesday. I’ve seen the first three episodes titled Pilot, Like A Power, and Mickey Rooney Cries No More and after a rough start, I began to really enjoy the show with each further episode.
First off, I’d like to warn fans of the Powers comic book series that the Playstation Originals version of the story is a “loose” adaptation at best. The storyline involves many familiar characters from the comics, but uses them in different ways with different looks and motives than the source material. For example, Retro Girl is alive and well and played by the wonderful Michelle Forbes as a powerful, intimidating celebrity figure with ulterior motives, much akin to an aging A-list Hollywood actress.
As a matter of fact, there are quite a few parallels with rock stars, actors/actresses, and reality TV stars, and this adaptation is definitely hammering home this aspect with a bit less subtlety than in the source material. While the storytelling and excellent cast shine in the quieter moments, the show really stumbles in the more bombastic scenes that require the bigger elements of the superhero world involving the use of powers to be realized on-screen. The costumes generally look silly and the visual effects are downright bad in quite a few scenes.
The first two episodes are directed by David Slade – who has done incredible work on Hannibal – but the show never gets over the feel of being limited by budget when it comes to the overall look of just about everything. Pilot suffers the most, but much like the storytelling, each episode seems to improve, and by the time Mickey Rooney Cries No More comes around, the show feels like it’s starting to find its stride.
Powers is at its best when the villains are on-screen, with Noah Taylor as Johnny Royalle and Eddie Izzard as Wolfe, bringing very nuanced performances – especially Taylor, who has the most screen time as the slick, teleporting manipulator behind a new drug on the scene that boosts the powers of anyone lucky enough to have them. But Izzard’s portrayal of Wolfe has the most potential as the season progresses, not just because Izzard is a tremendous actor, but the character seems to be ramping up as the Big Bad for Season 1, and Izzard’s scenes are the highlights of all three episodes.
Sharlto Copley as Christian Walker works mostly off of the actor’s sheer likability, but I never felt he fully settled into owning the character of Walker. But Copley does exude that aging rock star feel and the actor himself always has a glint of trouble in his eyes, which plays well with his character’s attempt to live a somewhat normal existence after basically being a god. Walker’s partner Deena Pilgrim gets an ethnicity change from the source material in actress Susan Heyward, whose performance allows her to be the most likable character on the show. Heyward portrays Deena with strength, intelligence and the wide-eyed nature of someone getting to see the seedy side of the superhero community for the first time.
Powers isn’t perfect, but there’s definitely some solid elements within and the show really does improve with each episode. Fans of Watchmen should feel very comfortable in this dark, superhero world full of drugs, extreme violence, swearing, and silly character names and outfits. If you can get over some of the bad sub-plots and the general low-budget look of the show, the unique characters and great performances in Powers make the show a lot of fun for fans of the genre and it has potential to get even better.
eddie izzard KWR playstation powers tv sharlto copley susan heyward