Fubar

The concept for the show is rather inane. Young female CIA agent gets angry when she finds out that her father is a CIA agent and she is pissed off that he kept his real job a secret. Ha ha ha

If she is a CIA agent then she must be fully aware of the need to keep secrets. Now she is angry at her father but she does the exact same thing - keeps secrets from her dopey boyfriend.

We know that "young generations" are spoiled kids that have a difficult time growing up and controlling their emotions. I would assume that a young female agent who is off the charts smart would be a bit grown up but she acts like a petulant little child. Lots of toxic femininity.

Funny also how young CIA agent thinks she is more capable than an old experienced agent. Stupid.

This show is exactly what you would expect from an Arnold Schwarzenegger show. FUBAR is about a CIA operative (Schwarzenegger) who's about to retire but gets pulled back for one last job. That job is to go help another operative finish an important mission and to his surprise it's his own daughter (Monica Barbaro) who he had no idea was also in the CIA. What follows is plenty of action and laughs. This is a very easy watch for you to just turn your brain off and enjoy it for what it is. I hope they give this another season. This feels a lot like a True Lies sequel and while not as good as that it's still worth watching.

This would have been a lot more fun without all the father, daughter, wife, boyfriend drama. It really cut into the action and the rhythm of the show. Maybe they thought this should be more of a romcom with the spy theme on the side. Maybe they thought it would draw more women in to watch the show. I don't know. But, whatever their reasoning, it was a real buzz kill. It distracted from the funny, exciting parts of the show. I did a lot of fast-forward with my remote to get past the "relationship" segments.

Beyond that, it was an enjoyable and even, at times, an edge of your seat thriller. Reminded me of some of the original Schwarzenegger films with a little extra James Bond thrown in. Worth trying out, if you don't mind a lot of family pettiness.

FUBAR is actually better than I thought it would be. I was expecting some past his prime Schwarzenegger series that was going to be kind of corny. And it is but in a good way. It held my attention throughout the season. I actually liked it enough to where I binged all 8 episodes over the course of a few days. I grew up in the 80's and 90's so I've seen most of Arnold's movies and this is a throwback to those kind of movies and shows. It also stars the beautiful Monica Barbaro as his daughter and Travis Van Winkle as his colleague. If you're an Arnold fan this give this a try...you won't be disappointed.

Plot

A C. I. A. Operative on the edge of retirement discovers a family secret and is called back into the field for one last job.

Cast

A star studded cast including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jay Baruchel, Travis Van Winkle, Barbara Eve Harris and Devon Bostick. Also we have stand up comedian Fortune Feimster and Monica Barbaro who though unfamiliar with was solid here.

Verdict

The trailer looked great, and though I'm not a big action guy I was quite looking forward to FUBAR and to see what it would bring to the table.

The first thing you notice is how good everything looks, the budget is clearly behind the show and there is a lot of experience behind the camera. The characters are a decent mixed bag and are entertaining, the comedy is on point and I was hooked from the first episode. The sad thing is there were elements to follow I didn't predict that would damage it going forward.

You see I have this thing about struggling with shows/movies with terrible human beings as protagonists such as Supacel or Attack the Block and FUBAR has the same flaw. No spoilers here but let's say that the majority of the characters are revealed to be terrible people and that includes characters who are simply too big a parts for me to not care about them.

Don't get me wrong all the compliments I gave the show stand, from start to finish it looks great, it's laugh out loud funny and oozes charm, not to mention feels like a love letter to Arnie fans. But....that character issue damaged it for me and took it from an incredible show down to something above average.

With better characters this could have been amazing.

Rants

No seriously, I've ranted about this before but it warrants saying again. Why? Why is this terrible protagonist thing such as an accepted trope these days? From cheaters to deadbeat parents to drug dealers & addicts and various other criminal elements. Why/how is this the hero of the story? Why do we applaud that goofy side character despite being an awful person? I don't get it in the slightest and never will. Take Attack the Block as an example, our "Hero" opens the movie robbing a woman in the street at knife point. I was cheering on the aliens! Why is this okay? Remember the days where the guy threatening a woman with a knife was the bad guy.....?

The Good

Arnie is great Solid cast overall Good mix of characters Looks great Genuinely funny

The Bad

Some characters flit between enjoyable and annoying Most of the characters are unlikable and simply bad people Arnie's real world politics seem to seep in every once in a while, maybe that ones just me.