Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 28, 2025
The thing about Eli Manning’s original “Chad Powers” video is that it was a funny, feel-good prank the former New York Giants QB played on a college football team. It worked because it was real — and at the end of those seven minutes, Eli Manning could take off his prosthetics and everyone could have a nice laugh about it.
That’s not what happens in Hulu’s six-episode first season of Chad Powers. Completely aside from the show’s strange preoccupation with Chad’s prosthetic, the tone has been … weird. It’s a comedy, and there are jokes, but Russ Holiday — the character played by Glen Powell who disguises himself as Chad Powers — is a deeply sad guy.
And for good reason. In college, he blew the National Championship by dropping the ball a foot before crossing into the end zone. In a fit of anger, he even pushed over a kid with cancer in a wheelchair. He was cancelled for life.
Years later, Russ stumbles on the idea of disguising himself as a homeschooled bumpkin to try out for another college team, the Catfish, as Chad Powers. He’s a great quarterback. He wins the starting job, and after five episodes, the Catfish are 5-0 and heading into a huge game. The finale sets up like your typical feel-good sports movie ending.
Only that’s not what happens. Coach Hudson (Steve Zahn) has a heart attack after learning that his wife slept with Russ Holiday the night before. To save his life, Chad drives the Coach to the hospital in Russ Holiday’s Cybertruck. That’s how Ricky, the Coach’s daughter, discovers that Chad Powers is really Russ Holiday.
Russ walks away, but his new best friend, Danny (the team mascot), convinces him to at least apologize to his father, played by Toby Huss — who, frankly, should be in everything. It’s a touching-ish moment, and Chad’s dad persuades him to return to the team and play in the big game.
On the team bus, though, Chad runs into Ricky, who’s furious. She knows that Russ slept with her step-mom and that he triggered her father’s heart attack. She’s also angry because he’s been lying to everyone, and she has always despised Russ Holiday.
Russ/Chad delivers a heartfelt apology, and typically, this is the point where she forgives him, maybe they kiss, and the team wins the big game. Except — that’s not what happens.
Ricky tells Russ she wishes he’d taken his own life after the National Championship game and threatens to expose him if he steps on the field. Russ counters that doing so would nullify the team’s wins and destroy her father’s career. She knows he’s right, so he defiantly takes the field anyway.
That leaves Ricky enraged and the backup QB, Gerry (Colton Ryan), furious that he’s been benched. Ricky hates Russ/Chad, Gerry’s about to snap, and it feels like we’re witnessing Gerry’s Joker origin story. Then the season ends.
It’s a downer of a finale that mostly feels like setup for a second season. That’s fine, I guess, but a tight ten-episode, one-and-done season would’ve been much better. Glen Powell has Top Gun sequels to make!
The bigger problem is, the show has written itself into a corner. Russ can’t take off the Chad Powers prosthetics and have a good laugh with the team — that would void the entire season. But he also can’t keep being Chad Powers forever. The more visible he becomes, the more inevitable his exposure.
I don’t see how this ends well. The only possible conclusion now feels like Mrs. Doubtfire: he loses custody of his kids, and they just have to watch him on TV after school.
(p.s. The actress who plays Ricky, Perry Mattfeld, is married to Mark Sanchez, and I cannot help but think that the anger she expressed toward Russ/Chad in this episode must be similar to how she felt after she found out her husband beat up an old guy).
