As Calista (Olesya Rulin) is about to be crowned the newest shining star of the Powers universe by Conrad Moody III (Wil Wheaton), CEO of the most powerful Powers merchandising company on the planet, a valuable member of the community is murdered. With Walker (Sharlto Copley) and Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) suspended, they are powerless to stop the city from unraveling around them.

Powers has given us two good episodes in a row. By focusing on the crime at hand, the murder of the original Retro Girl, the episode keeps things simple in many ways and makes the cops feel like actual police. They use actual deduction and go over evidence, instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It feels like actual intelligence is being used by the main characters.

Who the killer of the various Powers actually is isn’t that hard to figure out. The series has telegraphed that for quite some time. The reasoning behind it all feels rather idiotic though. I won’t ruin it, but it has to go up there as one of the worst plans by a villain ever. This one makes Cobra Commander look like a genius.

The episode is absolutely an improvement from what’s come before though. Even with the idiotic plan at the center of the season. Generally the acting is good, or at least better than a lot of what we’ve seen in the first season as well as this season’s current episodes.

There’s some good here. There’s a death that does feel like it comes out of nowhere, but it’s a character who was definitely a drag on the series. There’s also an ending that’s a bit surprising (and hopefully it’s not undone next episode). With that and the acting, this is one of the stronger episodes of the season and of the series as a whole.

The premise? Really silly.

The acting? Better than normal.

The special fx? Used at a minimum, so a big improvement.

Some twists? Yup, there’s some good things in there that I didn’t expect.

Overall? Two good episodes in a row and hopefully the series continues along this path.

Overall Score: 7.05

In the aftermath of a catastrophic political scandal, Walker (Sharlto Copley) and Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) investigate a high-priority suspect and uncover shocking government connections. Meanwhile Triphammer (Andrew Sensenig) is determined to create a new Powers team, recruiting Zora (Logan Browning) and a new protégé, Sgt. Tiberio Martinez (Raul Casso).

Powers has a good episode (seems every few are good doesn’t it) with a quieter more focused episode that gives us a few plotlines in smaller doses. Most of the episode is dedicated to Walker and Pilgrim’s investigation into the murder of Power Girl and their zeroing in on the likely culprit Heavy. This spirals into a vast conspiracy of government sponsored Powers and the attempt to rehabilitate and control some of them.

There’s also Triphammer’s attempt to build a new team which devolves mostly into scenes of Zora and Martinez sparring with each other. This actually looks good and it’s clearly where the budget was focused because….

The final plot thread is focused on Calista who is being lured into being represented be an agency and her dealing with Conrad Moody played by Wil Wheaton. While the Zora/Martinez fights are good, this section, especially a laughably bad use of a 3D hologram at the end, is the opposite. With bad acting and equally bad special fx, you get the vibe folks weren’t quite sure how to progress with things in this plot aspect.

As usual the episode is mixed, but in this case the majority is really good. By focusing on Walker and Pilgrim’s investigation we get some of the best acting from Copley and Heyward in the entire series. The progression and reaction by some of their shaking things up feels natural and really well paced. For a show based on folks with super powers, it’s this grounded episode that feels like the best this season by far.

Enrico Colantoni as Senator Bailey Brown really is the highlight of the episode giving the best performance of them all when he eventually turns up and sort of spills the beans.

This is easily the best episode this season. It feels like an actual detective show with some solid corruption aspects that pulls it all together. It’s clear there’s a lot of shenanigans to go and that the killer of Retro Girl is still to be revealed, but if the series kept its focus like this, it shows it’d be much stronger for it.

Overall Score: 7.2

Commander Cross (Adam Godley) unofficially reopens the Retro Girl case, ordering Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) and Walker (Sharlto Copley) to lead a covert investigation that may put them in a life-threating situation. Meanwhile, Los Angeles goes in lockdown mode as gang warfare reaches a fever pitch, pulling the revered Power, SuperShock (Michael Madsen) out of retirement.

Powers has things melting down (storywise and show wise) as gangs begin to riot and battle in the streets of Los Angeles. Much like Police Academy, why these gangs and riots all exist on one street and none of the side streets is a mystery. The riot scenes are woefully bad with stereotypical shots that we’ve seen a million times over.

Things aren’t just eye rolling in the streets, but also behind the scenes as Walker gets a team together to figure out who killed Retro Girl. This includes torturing a person to the point his head explodes. Scanners moment aside, the fact the cops have to turn to torture to get anything done is groan inducing.

And that head explosion. There’s been some bad special fx on this show, but this one is beyond bad. I can harp on the bad makeup, but this is laughably bad and feels like it’s been outshined in every way from what we see on SyFys Face Off. Add in the New Retro Girl’s bad green screen flight, a building collapse where I’ve seen model train sets that are more realistic, and it’s just bad in this department, like people don’t know how to budget on the show.

Again, there’s some good, but this episode has a lot of bad, falling into old habits that will hopefully die fast.

Overall Score: 6.95

On the day of Retro Girl’s funeral, Detectives Walker (Sharlto Copley) and Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) prepare to combat violence between rival gangs The Quantums and The Hacks. Hoping to fill her place, Calista (Olesya Rulin) makes her public debut as New Retro Girl. Still reeling from Retro Girl’s death, and with her murder officially closed, Walker doggedly pursues a suspect he believes to be the real murderer.oks to avenge the woman he loved.

Powers continues its improved streak to two episodes as the funeral for Retro Girl takes place and tensions rise all around. It’s a very slow build, but the episode again has some strengths and weaknesses.

The episode does a decent job of continuing to build this world and the new season, though the fake outs of who killed Retro Girl feel obvious and a bit forced in ways. Depicting things as not rosy and there being an impact with the death of a hero feels much more realistic that just having an entire city mourn. There’s a power vacuum and this episode attempts to address that.

The bad as usual is the acting which just feels flat throughout with few showing a range of emotions. Everyone is just dour and angry and I’m a bit surprised the whole world isn’t steeped in grays and browns to match the mood.

The special fx again are mixed with flight being the major issue of the show. Supergirl has shown how to do it right, but this show just falls back on horrible green screen that looks like something I could create on my computer.

The episode again is an improvement on last year, but that’s not saying a whole lot consider last year was a garbage fire. But, that doesn’t mean it’s good. The show is watchable, and fills a void in the summer of comic based television shows, but considering the source material, so much more can be done and so much more could be done that’s interesting.

We’ll see where the season goes but judging off of these first two episodes it’s just very middling television.

Overall Score: 7.0

The world is turned upside down by the seemingly impossible and horrifying murder of Retro Girl (Michelle Forbes). Pressure is on the Powers Division to bring the perpetrator to justice, but when Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley) is pulled off the case for being too close to the victim, and may be a suspect himself, he must go off-the-books to avenge the woman he loved.

Powers is shockingly back for a second season on the Playstation Network after what I consider a poor and disastrous first season.

The first episode of this second season isn’t the trainwreck that was the first season, but it still has a long way to go before the quality of the show matches the quality of the source material. Part of that is the episode dialing things back a bit to focus specifically on the murder of Retro Girl and setting things up for viewers who may have not watched the first season.

The episode does a solid job in catching people up and clearly stating where everyone lays with what’s happened, as well as the implications of Retro Girl’s death.

There’s still some bad. The special fx are still laughable and is apparent with Calista (Olesya Rulin) trying out her new abilities. The scene is so bad, especially when compared to other comic television series. It’d be one thing if the show had a more stylized look ala Sin City that we see for a second in Walker driving and it’s not all bad. There’s some solid stuff in the dark where it’s harder to see the actual computer work, but overall there’s just an odd inconsistency of it all.

The acting too isn’t quite there with the writing trying to make up for what the actors don’t seem to deliver. There’s some decent moments, but something is still very off about it all.

The first episode was an improvement on last season, but we still have a long way to go and in this episode you can still see some of the issues that have plagued the series.

Overall Score: 7.05

Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) has escaped, leaving a path of destruction and death in his wake, pushing Walker (Sharlto Copley) to put aside his desire to regain his own powers in order to help the Powers Division and heroes of the world end this once and for all. Will killing Wolfe save humanity or are there more sinister forces lurking in the background?

The final episode of the series seems to mix everything that’s good and bad about the series, all in about an hour. The action, the story, it’s a bit better. The acting generally is over the top in a bad way, and about what I’d expect from a fan film on Youtube. Though some actors have reigned it in and remembered they’re professionals. The special fx are still dodgy, where flying is about as graceful as a high school musical production of Peter Pan. There’s also the continued fascination with over the top amounts of blood, almost to fetish glee. The costumes continue to look like bad cosplay.

The problem also remains the story still doesn’t make all that sense, with characters making choices that are completely baffling. Retro Girl flies through a window tackling Wolfe, knocks him down, then… does nothing except takes her foot off of him. What? With superheroes like this, how has this world not been overrun by villains?

The episode ends with a lot of cliff hangers. There’s a major death. Kaotic Chic is still out there. Calista has an interesting turn. The last 10 minutes or so actually shows quality, as if the series was saving all of that for these last few episodes, and especially this one.

I’ve said through much of the series, that Powers has a lot of potential. There could be some fantastic blending of superheroes and police enforcement. But, for whatever reason corners looked to have been cut, the budget might have been too low to properly make the fx look decent. The series just had trouble finding its footing until these last few episodes, which is a shame really. As someone who watches all of the television shows based on comics I only kept watching this one for these reviews. With so many other decent shows out there, why would I have wasted the time?

Who knows if there’ll be a second season, but it looks like the folks behind the series started to get everything together. Hopefully if it returns, it gets a bit of a bump in budget, because the show has potential, we’ve seen it for a few episodes. Here’s hoping they can expand that to an entire season if they continue.

Overall Score: 6.95