Powers: The Complete First Season (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), an adaptation of the graphic novel series by Brian Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, is the first original scripted series for the PlayStation Network. It’s a superhero series from the perspective of the human police responsible for taking on super-powered criminals: a natural for the PlayStation user base but difficulty for anyone without a PSP to view. Which makes this disc release the first chance for even the most plugged-in superhero fans to finally see beyond the first episode (which was made available for free on YouTube).
Sharlto Copley (of District 9 and The A-Team movie) plays Christian Walker, the top cop of the LAPD Powers Division of an alternate future where superpowered beings—aka Powers—are the celebrities of the day, displacing superstar athletes, pop stars, actors, and the like, and often acting just as privileged and spoiled as the worst of our media celebs. There are a few genuine heroes and even more outright criminals but it seems that most are simply looking for their moment in the media spotlight, the better to parlay their gifts into an endorsement or two and entry into the hottest nightspots of the city. Walker himself used to be one of them, a caped hero named Diamond who was more concerned with notoriety than service, at least as far as the flashbacks go. Now he’s a civilian, his powers sucked out of him by a cannibalistic supervillain named Wolf and played with insane gusto by Eddie Izzard, and he’s playing grizzled, gruff mentor to Powers Division rookie Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward, who looks startlingly like her hand drawn counterpart, no small thing considering Oeming’s bold comic-strip style). He also has history with Retro Girl (Michelle Forbes), an old-school hero who is both a wary ward of her image and a true hero who does what she can to protect the civilians even while she realizes her limitations.
The series gets off to a rocky start. The first episode, which was made available free on YouTube as an enticement to subscribe, lacks any sense of defining style or discernable sensibility beyond trying too hard to look both glossy and gritty on a budget, and Copley overplays the jaded, reckless veteran who has seen it all. In fact, it’s a very different character than the one that Bendis wrote in the comic; the original Christian Walker is the very model of the devoted public servant whose tour of duty has only made him more dedicated. That’s par for the course in the new superhero paradigm and Powers needs to be bold and brazen to stand out from the flood of comic book shows. Sadly, it’s not, though to be fair it does improve from its initial episodes.
Susan Heyward and Sharlto Copley as Deena Pilgrim and Christian Walker
The superhero action is underplayed in favor of the celebrity culture, where every power has his or her own agent and publicist managing their image. And while Christian and Deena and the rest of the cops are familiar types in a new setting, Noah Taylor transforms underworld figure and nightclub impresario Johnny Royalle from shady villain to something more interesting: a power haunted by his own past (and his history with Walker) who is driven to change the status quo with a party drug that can unlock potential powers in the user… if it doesn’t kill them.
Bendis and Oeming are on board with the translation from page to small screen, at least in the credits, but while they help get the costumes and designs right, their guidance isn’t noticeable in the scripting, which is maddeningly inconsistent. At the center of the story is a lost girl (Olesya Rulin) who is convinced she’s destined to become a power in her own right, and it seems everyone takes a paternal (or in the case of Retro Girl, maternal) interest in her for no discernable reason beyond plot convenience. Next to the stylized superhero noir of Arrow and Gotham, the innocent charge of The Flash, or the retro cool of Agent Carter, Powers is a wannabe with a fashionable cynical attitude and a pared-down style that never comes alive in its own right. It’s a show that needs more comprehensive vision to come alive in its own right. Until then, at least there’s Izzard devouring his co-stars in fountains of blood.
10 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD, plus the featurette “Policing the All Powerful: Envisioning and Filming Powers” and an Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the season (SD for DVD). The Blu-ray also includes the additional featurette “From One Visual Medium to Another: The Art and Adaptation of Powers” plus deleted scenes and outtakes.
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD