A Better Game With Higher Stakes

TV SERIES REVIEWS
Chad Powers: Season 2
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Genre: Comedy, Sports
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 6 x 35m episodes
Director(s): Tony Yacenda, Payman Benz, Michael Waldron
Writer(s): Glen Powell, Michael Waldron, Luvh Rakhe, Gaelyn Golde, Jordan Mendoza, Rebecca Addelman
Cast: Glen Powell, Perry Mattfeld, Quentin Plair, Wynn Everett, Frankie A. Rodriguez, Steve Zahn
Where to Watch: premieres September 3, 2026

RAVING REVIEW: By the time CHAD POWERS ended its first season, the disguise had already stopped being the whole joke. Russ Holliday could keep fooling strangers, but the people who actually knew Chad were getting close enough to notice that something didn’t add up. Season 2 picks up that pressure rather than finding six new ways for a wig and prosthetics almost to fall off, and that gives the series a little more substance. Russ is no longer simply trying to get another chance at football. He has built relationships as Chad, enjoyed success as Chad, and discovered that people may actually prefer the person he becomes when he isn’t being Russ.

That remains the most interesting thing about the series. Chad started as a lie created by a disgraced quarterback who wanted to sneak back into the sport, but Glen Powell has gradually turned him into something closer to an alternate version of Russ. Chad is strange and awkward, constantly saying things that make everyone around him wonder where he came from, but he’s also less selfish. People trust him. Teammates depend on him. Russ wanted the disguise to fool everyone else, but instead accidentally created a personality that exposes everything lacking in the man beneath it.

Powell has a lot of fun moving between those personalities without treating Chad as nothing more than a comedy voice. The physical differences remain funny, particularly the slight changes in posture and expression that make Russ seem considerably more confident even though both men obviously occupy the same body. Season 2 gets better mileage from watching those identities bleed together. Russ occasionally behaves more like Chad, even when the disguise is gone, while the pressure surrounding Chad forces Russ's traits closer to the surface. Powell understands that the joke becomes less useful if the character never develops beyond it.

Perry Mattfeld also becomes increasingly important as Ricky. Season 1 eventually put her in a position where Russ could no longer control what she knew, and the new episodes take that seriously. Ricky isn’t simply another accomplice recruited to maintain the deception, and she has every reason to be furious about being dragged into something that affects her father, the team, and her own career. Mattfeld provides the season with necessary resistance because Ricky refuses to make Russ’s problem easier, simply because the show needs Chad Powers to keep existing.

That tension improves their relationship. Russ has become accustomed to Danny helping him preserve the character, while Ricky is far less interested in protecting his feelings. Frankie A. Rodriguez continues to be funny as Danny, particularly when Russ’s increasingly complicated life requires another ridiculous solution, but having someone around who isn’t automatically committed to extending the lie changes the rhythm; Ricky forces Russ to confront questions that Danny can help him avoid.

The six-episode season also spends more time exploring the strange consequences of Chad's success. Remaining unnoticed was easier when he was an oddball walk-on trying to earn a spot. A quarterback who keeps winning games becomes a public figure, and every bit of attention creates another opportunity for somebody to notice that his history doesn’t exist. That escalation fits the premise naturally. Russ finally has the football success he wanted, only to discover that success itself threatens the identity allowing him to have it.

Steve Zahn continues to make Coach Jake Hudson one of the show’s better characters because he never treats the football program as a setup for somebody else’s punchline. Hudson can be ridiculous, stubborn, and frustrating, but Zahn gives him enough sincerity that the South Georgia Catfish feel like something worth protecting. His growing suspicion of Chad adds another problem for Russ because disappointing Hudson would mean more than simply getting caught. By now Russ has received a level of faith from this man that he never really earned.

That moral problem is where CHAD POWERS becomes more interesting than its original sketch-derived premise suggested it could be. Eli Manning’s undercover Penn State stunt was funny because everyone watching knew the joke and the participants didn’t. A television series couldn’t survive indefinitely on the same idea. Glen Powell and Michael Waldron have instead made Russ’s deception increasingly uncomfortable. Every new friend makes the lie worse. Every victory gives him another reason not to confess. The longer Chad exists, the harder it becomes to argue that Russ is only hurting himself.

Season 2 doesn’t always push that discomfort as far as it could. There are moments when the series wants Russ’s deception to carry genuine emotional consequences, followed almost immediately by another broad Chad routine. That tonal switch has always been part of the series, though it becomes harder to ignore now that the stakes are higher. Some situations require characters to remain just slightly less observant than they probably would be, especially once suspicion is already circulating the team.

The comedy has a similar hit rate to the first season. Powell remains very good at delivering Chad’s bizarre explanations with absolute confidence, and some of the funniest moments come from other characters deciding that asking a follow-up question probably isn’t worth the trouble. A few jokes hang around too long, however, particularly when the show keeps adding another layer to something funnier at its simplest. The writers occasionally seem unwilling to leave a strange Chad line alone after Powell has already landed it.

Football matters more this time because the Catfish have something tangible to chase. The College Football Playoff gives the season a destination beyond keeping Russ undiscovered, and the games become part of the pressure rather than decorative sports footage surrounding the comedy. Powell is believable enough as an athlete to keep those sequences grounded. At the same time, the series understands that the emotional value of a football scene comes from knowing what the result means to everyone involved rather than trying to turn every play into a sports-movie climax.

Quentin Plair and Wynn Everett remain useful parts of that environment, although the short season leaves me wishing there were more room for the ensemble. Coach Byrd and Tricia both have relationships with the program that could support more substantial stories, and some players remain recognizable personalities without receiving enough time away from Russ. Six half-hour episodes move quickly, but CHAD POWERS has reached the point where its supporting characters deserve space that the format doesn’t always provide.

That becomes the season’s largest limitation. These episodes don’t feel like a complete second chapter so much as the back half of the story begun last year. The episode titles even continue the football structure from “7th Quarter” through “12th Quarter,” which fits, since almost nothing about Season 2 feels like a reset. Watching all six at once helps because Hulu is releasing the entire season together, but it also makes the series' overall size obvious. Just as relationships become more complicated and the football story expands, there’s already pressure to start wrapping things up.

More time could have helped Russ’s redemption in particular. CHAD POWERS wants us to believe he’s becoming better because of the people surrounding him, and Powell sells enough small changes to make that believable. The series occasionally moves too quickly from selfish behavior to emotional recognition, though, especially considering how badly Russ has manipulated some of these people. Being funny and talented shouldn’t automatically erase that distinction, and the better episodes understand it.

Season 2 ultimately leaves CHAD POWERS in a stronger position than I expected when the series began. The disguise remains absurd, the basic lie becomes harder to believe with every passing week, and there are only so many times Russ can narrowly prevent his two identities from colliding. Powell and the writers have found something beneath that machinery that can carry the show when the original joke starts to wear thin. Chad has become the person Russ wishes he had been, which means that preserving Chad and becoming a better version of Russ will eventually become incompatible goals.

That gives this short second season enough to chew on, between the football, the prosthetics, and the ridiculous explanations. Powell continues to carry the comedy, Mattfeld gets a stronger position in the story, and Zahn makes the emotional investment in the Catfish feel genuine. The show could use more room, and its shift between consequences and broad comedy doesn’t always land smoothly, but CHAD POWERS has grown beyond the stunt that inspired it. Season 2 doesn’t completely solve the identity problem at the heart of the series, which is probably a good thing. Russ hasn’t solved it either.

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