It’s not a spoiler that the opening scene of the Hulu series Chad Powers uses a realistic recreation of a College Football Playoff National Championship of Oregon versus Georgia in full uniform, and from that metaphorical first snap, the show proves it knows its college background and its comedy. With that scene, it captivates with a true-to-life simulation of a College Playoff National Championship Game in Arizona. Chad Powers gets more than one thing perfect about the college game, though. Anyone who’s ever sweated through a September kickoff will recognize its authenticity.
First, Chad Powers achieves actual entertainment if not greatness. Yes, it began as an Eli Manning ESPN skit, and yes, the premise sounds like Ted Lasso by way of Eastbound & Down, yet Chad Powers earns its place on the roster.
What it does well, it does in spades: its jokes are legitimately funny and go beyond one note, the characters grow or at least have the chance at it, and the tension is palpable as the stakes get higher each week. And, yes, it's a weekly show that impressively follows the actual college football season closely. The writers deserve a nod for planning that far ahead. At least Alabama fans will appreciate that Chad’s fictional South Georgia team played Tennessee the week that the Tide did.
The South Georgia Catfish and Russ Holiday, aka Chad Powers, are the few spurious aspects of the series. Everything else feels as authentic as a 1990s student-section ticket from Bryant-Denny. Steve Zahn, welcome in any role and note perfect as a Southern college football coach, deals with issues stemming from working full time, which translates to all of his time as a coach of a Division I college team. That’s to say he’s perpetually watching film in his office, discussing Chad and other players, and keeping an eye on his daughter, who coaches on his Catfish team. It’s tough as the only female coach in the South!
Then, Glenn Powell. No dismissal of Leo or Timothee, but Glenn’s one of the few male movie stars, yet here he is doing a thirty-minute comedy on a streaming service. He gives it his all, too, a weighty task in dual roles. While it’s not the stress of playing twins, Powell has to switch, lately in the same scene, from Russ to Chad and back again. Chad walks differently, talks differently, and boy does he have a different backstory, one that’s made up as it goes.
And that’s the comedy, of course. What will Russ-as-Chad say next? What can he say? Will anyone figure it all out? Will this blow up at any second? Those questions create anxiety, hilarity, and a sense of anything could happen. He does not need to sign any more footballs without practice, so it’s not all football.
Mix in Russ-as-Chad with his very gay roommate (who happens to be the only person in on the secret), his relationship with his father, his asshole origins, and the show soars.
The show isn’t without faults. One storyline cuts whole cloth from a stereotype that I would not surprise me if readers here don’t see it now from this spoiler-free review. The rest of the plot lines feature tension and surprise. And there’s a joke I keep dying to share with anyone who’s seen all six episodes which have aired.
Chad Powers works and works well because it knows its audience and realizes that a secondary one will come along on a lark and stay because the series is as breezy as Chad’s best 3-and-10 throw to the slot. The NIL money plays a role, the teams are real, and thanks to the Mannings’ production company, viewers can spot actual jerseys, players, and coaches alike. No one here is afraid to drop a name though the football fumble is another tale.
Nearly everything that could go wrong with creating a show like this did not. And Chad Powers may be the best complement to the current college season as one can have. And for a show built on a joke, Chad Powers ends up saying something real about reinvention and how football dreams can turn into national legend, especially in the South.
The series Chad Powers airs its final episode of the first season on Tuesday, October 28 on Hulu. The first five episodes were used for review.