“Chad Powers” is completely implausible and consistently ridiculous, and when the directors and writers lean into that fundamental truth, they strike gold.
The Hulu/Disney+ limited series follows Russ Holliday (Glen Powell), a disgraced college football quarterback, as he disguises himself as a fictitious prospect named Chad Powers to participate in walk-on tryouts years after the controversial end of his football career.
The show starts exactly as it continues for the rest of the series: over-the-top and borderline humiliating. In the opening scene, Holliday, a star player for Oregon, costs his team the college playoff title by celebrating prematurely and dropping the football just short of a game-winning touchdown. If losing a college playoff because of hubris was not painful enough, Holliday goes on to get in an altercation with a pediatric cancer patient on the sideline. As a result, Holliday is publicly hated and has no chance at a professional career. Of the many unbelievable aspects of the show, the NFL rejecting a player based on a bad public image does not even top the list.
Fast-forward eight years, and Holliday is 30, living in his parents house and still an infamous pop culture figure. He hears about walk-on tryouts at the University of South Georgia and decides he wants to compete,but he has no eligibility, and he is recognizable. So, he decides to disguise himself using makeup, a wig and prosthetics and try out anyway.
Holliday journeys east in his Cybertruck from his home in Los Angeles to make his less-than triumphant return to football at the University of South Georgia. But, Holliday has an ego the size of the moon and could not get away with this perfect crime alone; as a poorly disguised Holliday walked to the first day of tryouts, he fatefully collided with the mascot (a catfish — get it?), knocking off his wig and special effects makeup. The mascot, Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez), recognizes Holliday and offers to help Holliday properly disguise himself as Chad Powers.
Though set at a school, academics are not a key plot point in the show, which may explain why nobody seems to question Holliday-as-Powers, who is unlike any person who has existed at any point in history.
Powers is a West Virginian by birth, has never played football in front of a crowd due to wolves that ate fans’ children and has a geriatric-bordering-on-immortal father who immigrated through Ellis Island. But, the unlikely hillbilly halfwit with a snail-paced 40-yard dash has the arm of a trebuchet. The Powers persona is possibly the fever dream of a person whose only knowledge of the South is “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
In actuality, Powers is based on a character created for former NFL quarterback Eli Manning on his TV series “Eli’s Places.” Manning used the name Chad Powers in a sketch where he put on prosthetics and competed in walk-on tryouts for Penn State. Though Powell, alongside screenwriter Michael Waldron, created “Chad Powers,” Manning and his brother Peyton Manning, are both executive producers on the show.
The show is different from the typical self-indulgent television careers many athletes turn to in their retirement, but it suffers the same afflictions of forced celebrity appearances and obvious ad placements. But, the record-breaking volume of Huel consumption in this remote Georgian town is not the only place where the show falters.
Despite a commanding performance from Powell, the transition from skit to television is awkward. To explain Holliday’s access to expert-level hair and makeup required to disguise himself, Holliday’s father is conveniently an award-winning special effects artist. Not to mention that Holliday is able to sneak into tryouts, despite not being a student and having no identifying documents.
Between the absurdity of Powers’ character and the glaring plot armor, there is ample opportunity for the show to become disorientingly bizarre. Each piece alone is an ingredient in a recipe for a painfully bad show. Yet somehow, when the show doubles down on the oddity, it only gets better.
There is a cameo from Hailey Welch, better known as “Hawk Tuah” girl; if there is any world in which she belongs, it is the Chad Powers Cinematic Universe. Naturally, Holliday-as-Powers can avoid showering in the locker room so as not to ruin his prosthetics; he just tells everyone that he has a medical condition involving his urethra, or as he so tactfully puts it, “pee hole,” that prevents him from getting wet.
Amidst the unseriousness, “Chad Powers” still succeeds at creating meaningful moments.
While the show follows Holliday’s personal growth from an insufferable showboat to a more humble talent, the most well-developed character lies in the head coach of the South Georgia Catfish, Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn). Hudson is in a rocky marriage and struggles to connect with his daughter Ricky (Perry Mattfield) while maintaining a professional relationship with her as an assistant coach on the team. Hudson also faces pressure from boosters to squeak out wins, knowing that a losing record will cost him his job. Zahn delivers a performance more remarkable than the show deserves.
The six-episode run packs in laughter and disaster, with antics that keep audiences returning week after week to see how Holliday manages to keep his identity secret.
Anything goes in “Chad Powers,” and the audience never knows what is coming next.