This is the first in a series called Fandom Connections. It’s similar to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.Instead of connecting Bacon to everyone in Hollywood, I’m bringing you on my never-ending quest to connect all of my fandoms
Today’s edition:
We connect Batman with the almost as gritty, but still surreal Broadway musical Les Miserables with two degrees of separation through NBC’s new comedy Powerless. And later, we have a mini-review of the show.
Fandom Connections:
Powerless is set in a D.C. comics universe with Batman and features Vanessa Hudgens. She was in Grease Live! with Aaron Tveit and he was in Les Miserables.
Other connections by Powerless actor and fandom:
Alan Tudyk- Firefly, Rogue One: A Star Wars story,Disney (voice-acting work in Moana and others)
Danny Pudi- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Marvel), Star Trek Beyond (cameo as an alien), NBC/Yahoo’s Community, NBC’s Chuck
Vanessa Hudgens- Rent, Grease:Live!
Mini-review for Powerless:
Tudyk portrays Bruce Wayne’s inept cousin, Van Wayne, in charge of Wayne Security.His goal in life is promotion to the Gotham office– with the least effort on his part possible.
Emily Locke (Hudgens) is the idealistic, hardworking, new Director of Research & Development who Van Wayne is relying upon to make him look good.
And Pudi plays Teddy, a superhero-fantasy-league-playing, ingenious,over-worked employee. Their job is producing security products such as the rumbrella that protects citizens of Charm City from falling rubble.
NBC’s Powerless is The Office meets a dash of D.C. Comics. Or what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could’ve been if it ramped up the geeky references, dropped the focus on superpowered individuals, and wasn’t beholden to it’s cinematic counterpoints.
It’s set in a world where commuter trains are routinely derailed by villains, people who take selfies with the Crimson Fox in the background are mocked, and Ace Chemicals needs grates over their chemical vats because they’ve had too many evil clown producing incidents.
Oh and Batman somehow comes up with similar gadgets right around the same time as Wayne Security to catch bad guys. Weird,right?
Is Powerless revolutionary in the history of television sitcoms? No, but it is, at it’s heart about hope. Charm City’s citizens may have accepted chaos and destruction as a part of their lives, but they also rebuild. And people like Emily and Teddy innovate ways to keep people safe.
They may feel powerless, but rising up out of that is what makes the world, as one character puts it, a little more super.
Bonus Comparisons:
-Imagine an entire series with a matter-of-factness towards supervillainy like Team Thor featuring just Darryl dealing with Thor.
-The underachieving Buy More gang on NBC’s Chuck.
-If Greendale Community College from NBC’s Community, had super-heroes.
-io9’s Katherine Trendacosta has an interesting theory about Powerless being set after Fox’s Gotham,but within the same universe.