Powers 1.01

Pilot

Police Detective Christian Walker loses one partner to a powers, someone who has superpowers. His dead partner is replaced by Detective Deena Pilgrim. Walker used to be a power named Diamond but he lost his superpowers. Walker and Pilgrim investigate the death of Olympia, a power that Walker used to work with, when Walker still had superpowers. They find a girl, Calista, in the bathroom of Olympia's apartment.

Calista acts scared and tells them almost nothing. She doesn't know it yet but the man she was working for, the man who sent her to Olympia, was killed by Johnny Royale, a powers who is supposed to be dead. Johnny Royale uses his powers to discretely get Kalista out of the police station. 

Walker and Pilgrim go looking for Calista. They don't finds her. They do find some kids with superpowers but Calista isn't with them. Walker and Pilgrim go to a maximum security prison. Walker wants to talk to Wolf, who used to be his mentor. Wolf is in prison for turning to the dark side. He killed Johnny Royale but Walker now suspects that Royale is still alive. Royale was also a protégé of Wolf.

Walker doesn't get an answer from Wolf but he gets a call, later that night, from Zora, one of the powers he met earlier that day. She wants to see him. She doesn't tell him that she's just seen Calista.

Walker goes to see Zora. He learns from one of her friends that Calista was there. Zora wants him to stay but he doesn't. He spots Calista atop a building. He tries to talk her into stepping back away from the ledge she is on. She is desperate to have powers and chooses to jump, Walker jumps after her and catches up to her. They are both saved by Retro Girl.

Retro Girl drops Walker off on top of the building and zooms off with Calista. Walker is left with the memory of Wolf's voice echoing in his head, asking him how it feels to be without powers.

Thoughts

I have probably read at least 3/4 of the Powers comic books series. It seems that they have changed some things and compressed some events. In all fairness it has been several years since I last read the comic books so my memory of the comic books is a little fuzzy.

This was okay. I'm undecided as to whether I should watch more. There are only 19 more episodes. I wasn't won over by this one. It lacked the charm that the comic books possessed. It felt kind of pedestrian compared to the comic book. The performances by the lead actors were good. It's the writing and the pacing that I'm not so sure about.

Notes

Sharlto Copley played the part of Christian Walker. I know him only from District 9 (2009) where he played the lead.

Susan Heyward played Deena Pilgrim. I know her from Orange Is the New Black where she played Tamika Ward. Her work on Powers predates her work on Orange Is the New Black by a couple years.

Logan Browning played the part of Zora. I know her from the Dear White People TV show where she played the lead part of Samantha White.