Roush Review: More Powers to ‘Chad,’ a Goofy Gridiron Comedy

Chad Powers

Matt's Rating:

“Who the f**k is that guy?” marvels NFL great Eli Manning upon his first look at sudden college football sensation Chad Powers.

Eli ought to know. He created Chad.

Chad Powers, an adorably silly sports comedy, was inspired by a segment of Manning’s Eli’s Places series in which he donned a ridiculous disguise with prosthetics and a wig to impersonate a walk-on player during open tryouts at Penn State. This stunt is now a deliriously improbable and mostly delightful six-episode farce, starring Hit Man chameleon Glen Powell (also a co-writer, co-creator, and executive producer) as Russ Holliday, a once-promising college QB seeking a comeback eight years after torching his career in a meltdown during a national championship game.

As the overripe Chad, whose very appearance demands a high suspension of disbelief, Russ becomes the Great Weird Hope of a Georgia team that, like its lonely-hearts coach (the effortlessly sympathetic Steve Zahn), has seen better days.

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With the help of Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez, a find), the sweetly flamboyant South Georgia Catfish mascot, arrogant Russ becomes eccentric hayseed Chad, played like an idiot savant with a vacant grin and high-pitched drawl that would give Gomer Pyle pause. Chad’s sincerity wins over the coach, whose query “Why do you play this game, son?” receives the response, “Without football, I don’t know who I am,” underscoring Russ’s own identity crisis. Chad’s other fans include the coach’s daughter Ricky (the terrific Perry Mattfeld), a former track star and underappreciated assistant coach who shares Russ/Chad’s competitive streak. If she only knew…

Naturally, the complications of the Chad masquerade land the show squarely into sitcom territory, as he and Danny repeatedly scramble to keep Russ under wraps. (I live with a University of Tennessee alum, which is why I thoroughly understood Russ’s panic when the Catfish go to Knoxville for an away game at the very moment he runs out of adhesive glue to keep his fake face on, and the search for supplies forces him to venture into enemy Volunteer territory.)

“You are a puzzle,” the coach says of his bizarre new star player. Which is an understatement, but as Russ bends to the genre’s sentimental rules to embrace his inner Chad, Chad Powers finds its way into a goofy end zone of comedic bliss.

Chad Powers, Series Premiere (two episodes), Tuesday, September 30, Hulu