{"id":172519,"date":"2025-09-27T07:56:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172519\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T07:56:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T07:56:04","slug":"chad-powers-megastar-glen-powells-small-screen-comedy-is-a-hilarious-and-heartwarming-hit-glen-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172519\/","title":{"rendered":"Chad Powers: megastar Glen Powell\u2019s small-screen comedy is a hilarious and heartwarming hit | Glen Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glen Powell<\/a> is Hollywood\u2019s man of the moment, a Tom Cruise-in-waiting megastar who only has to breathe near a movie set to guarantee that a project will be a huge hit (see: Twisters<\/a>, Hit Man<\/a> and \u2013 of course \u2013 the extremely Cruise-y Top Gun: Maverick<\/a>). It may come as a surprise, then, that his latest gig isn\u2019t a blockbuster movie where he gets to share his surfeit of charisma with the world, but a small-screen comedy in which he spends most of the time smothered in latex and sporting a wig that will \u2013 for British viewers \u2013 almost certainly call to mind Corrie\u2019s Gail Platt.<\/p>\n

The role in question is the titular character in Chad Powers (Disney+, from Tuesday 30 September), a Forrest Gump-ish southern college American footballer who is both unfailingly good-natured and deeply socially awkward (he\u2019s described by one character as \u201ca sweet, possibly inbred folk hero\u201d). If this sounds like it could be in bad taste, fear not, for Chad Powers is, in fact, the alter ego of disgraced sportsman Russ Holliday, the sort of toxic chump who brags about wearing a blood diamond earring and proudly drives a Tesla Cybertruck. After fumbling a major championship \u2013 an \u201coutrageous, improbable, inexplicable, painful loss\u201d according to the commentary that replays numerous times throughout the series \u2013 Russ is persona non grata, less popular with the public than Bin Laden, we\u2019re told. Disguised as Chad, there\u2019s a way back, and the possibility of resuscitating his sporting career. Just so long as he keeps his face away from all and any forms of water!<\/p>\n

The character was the brainchild of ex-footballer and broadcaster Eli Manning, who disguised himself with some frankly terrifying prosthetics for a section on his ESPN series Eli\u2019s Places back in 2022. But if making an entire series based on a TV prank sounds absolutely absurd, it truly works. Powell and co-creator Michael Waldron (Rick and Morty, Loki) have made a show that\u2019s as farcical as it is warm-hearted, with a story as much about sports as it is friendship and navigating the travails of life. In Russ\u2019s case, that means making an unlikely alliance with the South Georgia University Catfish mascot, Whiskers, who \u2013 under his big sea creature costume \u2013 is actually Danny (Frankie A Rodriguez), a theatre kid with some much-needed makeup skills. Danny\u2019s also unafraid to tell it like it is \u2013 not least when Chad is considering plastic surgery in Brazil (\u201cI think you\u2019re having a psychotic break,\u201d he deadpans).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rounding out the starting lineup are Steve Zahn<\/a> as perma-frazzled Catfish (see what they did there) coach Jake Hudson, with Perry Mattfeld as his daughter and colleague, Ricky, who is desperately trying to fight off nepo baby accusations to forge her own career. Because of the sort of show this is, they get a lot of silly things to do: I have no idea how the actors kept a straight face during a scene where Chad refuses to shower, feigning a medical condition, and Coach Hudson senior has to tell him to \u201cTape up your peehole!\u201d. But because it\u2019s also a heartfelt show, they get a lot of really touching scenes, too, which \u2013 shock horror \u2013 feel far less cloying and Hallmark-esque than you might expect. Zahn is particularly plausible as a man trying to save his marriage, while also truly believing that he has \u201cone of the hardest jobs known to man\u201d.<\/p>\n

This, I think, is Chad Powers\u2019 secret weapon: it really does have a lot of heart, even when it\u2019s totally and utterly ridiculous, which it very frequently is. In a scene where it looks as though a dog has mistaken Chad for a rubber chew toy, I find myself both in fits of laughter and desperately hoping that this isn\u2019t how his true identity will be revealed. Similarly, where else would running out of face glue be both a hilarious plot point and a potentially dramatic twist?<\/p>\n

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Seeing Glen Powell<\/a> here, at the peak of his powers, might come as a surprise then, but it\u2019s an excellent move. I wouldn\u2019t recommend that HBO start mining old episodes of Punk\u2019d for their next prestige hit, but Chad Powers proves that sometimes the old jokes are the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glen Powell is Hollywood\u2019s man of the moment, a Tom Cruise-in-waiting megastar who only has to breathe near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-172519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}