Review: SuperMansion “School Me Once”

Shame on me.

Spoilers Below

This episode of SuperMansion introduces a new character, and I’m thrilled because I staunchly believe that anything is improved by the addition of Yvette Nicole Brown – Drake & Josh, Community, and even those DiGiornio commercials she did in between. It looks like Portia, alter ego Zenith, will be this season’s replacement for Brad. I still miss Brad. It’s great that the show hasn’t chosen to replace him with a subpar copycat, but his personality really rounded things out.

Things start off with a flashback, as we get to see Rex Titanium as he was in “The Disco Era”. That’s where we’re introduced to Portia Jones: Harvard-educated secretary by day, mystical and all-powerful Zenith when danger rings. In the present day, Portia is a groundbreaking, Oprah-style talk show host, having suppressed Zenith since leaving the League.

Despite Portia’s on-air displays of unresolved frustration with Rex, he remembers how powerful Portia is. With the encouragement of Jewbot, Rex decides to recruit Portia for the League of Freedom’s empty slot. Jewbot remarks, “It would be nice to have another minority on the team”. It’s a joke, because, y’know, Jewbot’s actually just a robot built by a Jewish woman, but some diversity and another female character on the show would indeed be very welcome.

Speaking of Jewbot, I feel like he’s showing a little more personality this season, like his research on human behavior and dynamics is actually paying off. It’s fun! It fills a little bit of the hole left by Brad’s lumbering disposition.

Portia is receiving an honorary degree from Champston University, alma mater of both American Ranger and Black Saturn. This gives the League a perfect chance to corner her into acceptance. It’s also another opportunity to lift from the most popular plots of Avengers fanfiction, as the team arrives at college.

Of course, antics ensue. Cooch accidentally becomes Champston’s mascot, the Hellcat. This inspires Ranger to join forces with the campus Young Republicans to bring back the more traditional mascot, Lord Champston. And Black Saturn and Jewbot are learning all about life in the frat house.

Just as in episode one, ‘School Me Once’ has each character’s journey follow a theme. This time it’s disgrace. Rex starts the episode disgraced, as he has been since the beginning of the series, and looks to Portia for help. Black Saturn once again disgraces his fraternity, causing them to permanently lose their charter. Jewbot learns of the disgrace of what is disguised as the “brotherly” actions of pledging to a fraternity. American Ranger is disgraced in his attempt to restore old-school values to the university, and in turn, disgraced as a man living outside his time. Ever naive and therefore eternally positive, Cooch escapes the hammer of disgrace. Instead, she has a hand in delivering it to Ranger, proving herself the more worthy Champston mascot.

In the end, Portia redeems them all with class and a sophisticated demeanor. After finally unleashing Zenith from within, Portia agrees to join the League of Freedom, and the team is whole again.

So far this season, both episodes have been comprised of more developed plots. It’s a subtle, but nice change of pace that also results in less time for hijinks or even jokes. I’m still enjoying the show so far, and I’m looking forward to see where this new character Zenith goes.