The Platoon of Power Squadron
A YouTube-based serial about four twenty-somethings sharing an apartment together in Chicago. Oh yeah, and they all happen to have superpowers.
There are currently only five episodes, and so far the show involves Donald, Jonas, Sebastian, and Virginia trying to go about their lives while also trying to deal with the fact that they have superpowers. For the most part, Donald, Jonas, and Sebastian like their powers, but Virginia finds them unnatural and she secretly calls upon the help of her sciency friend, Roxy in order to find a cure.
The first episode can be found here.
Tropes used in The Platoon of Power Squadron include:
- Awesome McCoolname: McTryck, an annoying comic book lover who comes in to to argue with Jonas and Spike almost daily.
- Badass Longcoat: Jonas's coat during the winter episodes is a trench coat.
- Body Surf: In Episode 3, an unknown evil force starts out as a black cloud, takes over a teenage boy's body, and takes over other people as it finds stronger bodies to inhabit.
- Buffy-Speak: "You can't be a vigilante without first being vigilant-y...-ish."
- Cloning Blues: The first couple of copies, referred to as Fox Two and Fox Three, are pretty willing to go along with whatever Sebastian wants and are happy being part of the collective Sebastian Fox. After Four, though, they start to get a bit unstable, and Fox Four has an individualist streak leading her to even live her own separate life under a different name, resisting being pulled back in, eventually moving out.
- Conversational Troping: Jonas and Donald on the roof is of particular note when they talk about what type of superpower Donald most resembles (Batman, but not the Frank Miller version).
- Department of Redundancy Department: The title.
- Eye Scream: Carl gets this twice. The first time around, Donald blinds him with a shock straight to the sockets. Later, Damon forces his useless eyes out of his head and replaces them with smokey ones.
- Evil Laugh: Donald during his fight with Jonas and Sebastian while he's shocking them both with lightning. Subverted because he's not evil, but at the moment he was mad with power.
- Fan Service: Episode 4/Part 1.
- Fridge Horror: Happens after Jonas's demonstration of his full power. That scene makes this trope wonder just how many people he may have murdered- and if any of those were accidents...
- Genre Savvy: Jonas. Donald goes to him for help because he knows a lot about superheroes ("There's nothing wrong with that!"), and Jonas even unwittingly predicts the existence of the evil smoke thingy.
- Gender Blender Name: Sebastian totally rocks the traditionally-male name.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Virginia, and Jonas to a degree.
- Jerkass: Jonas. He has a crush on Virginia, so when she goes out on a date with another guy, he secretly mind controls her date to give her a really bad time. (It also seems possible that he's done this before in the past).
- He also heavily implies he forced a lot of girls at 16 to date him, and since he had full control...
- Joss Whedon: The writer of PoPS, Jake Jarvi (who also plays Jonas), is obviously a Joss fanboy, as there are several references to his work. (On a side note, it seems that Sebastian probably ships Buffy/Giles).
- Limited Wardrobe: For some unexplained reason, Jonas wears the same shirt in every episode.
- Magical Defibrillator: Donald can stop normal peoples' hearts with lightning, but he can also restart them with a quick jolt.
- Me's a Crowd: Sebastian. She can self-duplicate and she often uses her clones to go to work for her or play video games with her.
- Muggle Best Friend: Spike, Roxy, and Veronique are the only normals to know about the Platoon's powers. Spike in particular is good at playing the normal human when the occasion arises.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Jonas hasn't gotten one yet, but he does give one to a guy he mind controls.
- Psychic Powers: Jonas has the abilities of telekinesis, Mind Control, pyrokinesis, and telepathy. He finally shows Donald some of the things he can do with his powers in Episode 5, Part 5.
- Real Life Relative: Jake Jarvi (who is also the series creator) and Eliza Toser, who play Virginia and Jonas, were in a relationship before the show was created. They have since gotten married. Bonus points because in show Jonas has unrequited feelings for Virginia, and also for making Episode 4/Part 1 somewhat less weird.
- Shock and Awe: Donald. "Energy Ball!!"
- Shout-Out: "And you know what happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning."
- Team Mom: Virginia. She refers to the group as a family, and she breaks up a superpower fight between the other three in Episode 1 with a short, momish lecture afterwards. Happens again in Episode 5 when Donald doesn't return from fighting crime and Virginia gets worried.
- Time Master: Virginia. Though she can initially only make time stand still for everyone but herself, she later discovers that she can unstop other people, teleport, and time travel.
- Title Drop: The gang comes up with it on the spot in episode 5.
- Villainous BSOD: Jonas is hinted at having one of these in the past, forcing him to try to never use his powers again. He still has a hard time controlling the impulse though.
- Wheezy Waiter: Craig, aka "Wheezy Waiter" on YouTube, plays Donald.