Is it possible for a monolithic streaming service to cook up a great idea for a series, attach a multitalented A-lister, a proven writer-creator, and debut the final product to rave reviews? Then—and this is the important part—debut a second season one short year later—that does it all again?
You have to hand it to Chad Powers, which just did exactly that. Like a Super Bowl winner returning its essential parts for another championship run just one year later, the sophomore season of Hulu’s football comedy, which premiered all six of its episodes yesterday, is just as great as its predecessor.
Season 2brought back its proverbial and literal quarterback, Glen Powell, showrunner Michael Waldron, and a stellar supporting cast including Perry Mattfeld, Steve Zahn, and Frankie A. Rodriguez. (Who is once again a revelation of a character actor who needs to be on our TV screens more than he is.)
In an age when it took three years to get Severanceseason 2, The Morning Showand its merry band of celebrities is hardly followable at this point, and Pluribusreturns in I-don’t-know-when? The fact that Powell donned Chad’s ugly mug a second time feels like a small miracle, only rivaled by the fact that we have a standing January appointment with Dr. Robby.
Chad Powersseason 1 impossibly built a universe around Eli Manning’s football-world-famous “Chad Powers” sketch, which saw the former Giants quarterback don prosthetics, try out for Penn State’s football team, and hustle all the froshes with his skills. In the Hulu series, Chad Powers is the alter ego of a disgraced college quarterback (played by Powell)—a rocket-armed Frankenstein’s monster who finds success in disguise at a small school in South Georgia.
His second chance ends up threatening a lot of folks’ first chances: The mascot-accomplice Danny (Rodriguez), offensive assistant coach (Mattfeld), and head coach (Zahn). While season 1 was a jock-humor-stuffed, Ferrellian sports comedy, season 2 smartly takes a darker, twistier, Empire Strikes Backapproach. The new episodes plunge our (anti)heroes into thriller territory as Holliday’s antics inspire a genuinely dangerous villain (the backup quarterback, played by Colton Ryan).
There’s not much to say about why Chad Powersmoves like Derrick Henry on a downfield bender—and that’s why it’s so damn good. As always, Powell blends a cocktail of goofiness, charm, and genuine star power into another Emmy-worthy performance. He’s paired brilliantly with a sardonic Mattfeld, the bullshit-calling coach who might turn into something more. Plus, it’s just plain inspired to make Chad’s benchwarming, dweeby backup the antagonist of season 2—and write him as a deranged incel rather than Biff Tannen. That’d all be enough to make Chad Powers another worthy trip to the gridiron, but Waldron’s capacity to mesh Chad’s (inevitable) physical humor with genuine stakes makes this season far more gripping than an upcycled Eli Manning prank has any right to be.
Really, I’m not sure if I had a better end-to-end watch this year than Chad Powers. It’s not my best TV show of the year so far (that honor belongs toBeef, and I’m reminded of itevery single time I open Netflix), but it might be the only series this year to do exactlywhat it wanted to do. In just three hours, Chad Powersadvanced a certain critical relationship, matured Russ Holliday into someone we can (maybe) root for, and set up a third season that feels primed to put a bow on Russ Holliday’s story. It’s no surprise that Waldron spent so much time writing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Chad Powersseason 2 feels like six issues of your favorite comic book, breezily moving from beat to beat until a killer cliff-hanger that’ll make the next six issues essential reading all over again. And, yes—season 2’s cliff-hanger is somehow even better than the first.
Can’t the rest of Hollywood learn this lesson? I would take six episodes of Widow’s Bayseason 2 if it meant I would see it before 2030. Same goes for Severanceseason 3, which I won’t believe exists until I see it. House of the Dragon‘s fourth and final season? I’ll be dead by then. But I know for sure we’ll have more Chad Powers.
