Round Two: Powerless

Powerless: Season 1, Episode 2 “Wayne Dream Team” (B)

I enjoyed this show’s second outing, and there’s something about Vanessa Hudgens’ energy as Emily that really makes it work. It doesn’t surprise me a bit that her easily-distracted employees are into a Fantasy Superhero League, something which makes total sense in a universe like this where villains with superpowers dominate just about everything. This was a classic example of someone good-natured and hard-working like Emily not understanding why her employees don’t want to be friends with the boss, and because she’s determined to make things happen the way that she thinks they should, she took multiple steps to motivate them. Of course they became obsessed with figuring out why the internet went down, putting aside their actual work, once she had a very biting representation of HR cut out that element of distraction from their lives. Watching the six-hour anti-bullying video four times to spare everyone else was a fitting sacrifice, and she seems to have ingratiated herself into their club and even lucked out with Crimson Fox scoring a big win for her in her fantasy league. It’s a big step up for Emily, who up until that point made it a regular thing of riding up and down the elevator just to try to meet people, an act that apparently got captured and mocked by those very people she was trying to court for friendships. Van fretting over being cropped out of the dream team picture was entertaining, and I like his rapport with Jackie which essentially involves two totally separate conversations going on at once.