The other day people were talking about how Powerless might be coming to an end. A TV show that covers those around superheroes in a comedic way. Someone mention the No Heroics, as being a funny show that did the same with superheroes. I looked up the show and the idea behind it seemed promising. Since it was on thirty minutes an episode, I sat down and watched it. I regretted that almost immediately.
The plot revolves around a group of friends who also happen to be superheroes. They aren't famous superheroes and one is actually retired. Alex calls himself The Hotness and is a horrible hero who often burns things down by accident and attempts to bribe people with his headshot when he's not being sex obsessed. There's Sarah known as Electroclash who helped a robber who shot a store clerk get away because she felt the clerk was sexist and she does this throughout the series. Don is the only non white member of the crew, he's also the only non straight person in the crew, he's also a chronic masturbator who likes to torture people but is retired. Jenny is She-Force who is obsessed with finding the right man and will go to extreme lengths to do so. Lastly is Delvin, better known as Excelsor, the best hero in the UK who isn't so much their friend as adult bully.
Each episode is mostly self contained with some references to other episodes and they're all horrible. The premise behind the show is supposed to be heroes dealing with things normal people do, as well as things heroes do such as the hero tax or retirement. The problem is it's all about sex. The jokes, sex. The stories, sex. The crimes, sex. It's Sex and The City for superheroes. There's nothing wrong with that, just don't try to pass it off to me as something else.
If they want to lean on sex jokes that's fine. The problem is most aren't funny the first time and the ones that are funny get used so much you get tired of hearing them. How many times can they go to a bar? The answer is too many. I don't really have anything nice to say about this show. It's all horrible. The acting is almost as stale as the joke delivery. I usually hate a "studio audience" laugh track but this show could have used one. They don't even laugh at each other's jokes. The costumes all look terrible and make you say "Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern suit wasn't so bad."
All of the characters are just bland or plain annoying. I hate Alex, I'd actually become a villain and murder him if I was in this universe. Don could be interesting instead he's relegated to a prop that shows the team a few seconds into the future so they can get into some stupid action. That's when he's not telling jokes about how he's masterbated so much there's nothing left. Sarah might actually be evil. There's a character named Simon, also a hero named Thundermonkey who works at a bar they visit. She constantly makes fun of him for being a stupid hero because his only ability is to call monkey and they take a long time to get there. I get it, it's a dumb power. However she makes fun of him and taunts him until he picks a fight with one of the more dangerous superheroes and gets murdered along with all the monkeys. She also lets a store clerk get shot several times and robbed while she eats a muffin in the first episode because he pointed out her costume shows a lot of skin. Then she extorted him before stopping the robber that she encouraged to be more daring.
I hate this show, it made me say "Iron Fist really wasn't that bad" and I hated Iron Fist. I'll be honest I started watching episodes in fast forward just to get through them. We really take for granted the content about superheroes we get now. ABC had picked up a pilot for an American version of this show but never aired it and refused to pick it up for a full season. After watching it, I understand why.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet. You can also check out his playthrough of Sleeping Dogs or Skyrim
