FUBAR

It's like the Hallmark Channel and TNT had a baby together and it was fubar. It has adult themes with teenage action but with a plot and story line from children's programming.

Arnold Schwarzenegger gets in a lot of cheap laughs with his one-liners as usual and he takes a lot of shots at his previous movies which is kind of funny.

Basically the father is in the CIA and is getting ready to retire when he finds out that his daughter is also in the CIA and he's a bit unhappy about it. He's also dating his ex-wife who's getting ready to get married and his daughter is going through her own relationship problems with that dude that voices hiccup in the How to Train Your Dragon series.

It's probably better to watch this while you are a mildly intoxicated.

This really is the most wonderful rubbish. The plot lines are tenuous at best. The characters are comic book stereotypes. The scripts and delivery are spot on for comic effect. It is surprisingly violent in the later episodes of the second series.

It is a massive easter egg hunt for Arnold fans. There are references to loads of his previous work and not just the Terminator series. I spotted a dozen or so but I expect I missed a few. Look out for Conan the Barbarian!

Why watch it? Because it really is FUBAR, it is a huge piss take of the genera. Arnold dominates the whole thing the show orbits around him.

If you are an Arnold fan you will get a few good laughs as you hang onto the roller coaster that is FUBAR!

PS: It will put you off bacon.

So I happened to watch a couple of episodes of True Lies, which made me throw my almost empty beer can at the TV because it was as if they deliberately tried to ruin the fond memories of a good movie with an absolutely trash show.

This time, it is not an old Arnie property that gets a premiere on the small screen. It is Arnie himself, and he has years of experience being Arnie.

So what you will get here is a collection of one liners. They made Arnie action movies what they were - funny and exciting. The action in the tv series is not really at the same level, but the humor is classical Arnie.

Let off some steam and enjoy this.

These dreadfully lame scripts must be the work of high school students. I have no other explanation about the material:). Watching one and a half episode was complete waste of time. Poor acting and recycled clichés. The scenes are delivered with amateurish filmmaking, the actors are reciting the dialogue....also lacking any comedic moments or thrilling action despite the constant attempts at jokes and stunts. It's a disappointment on all fronts, leaving no room for laughter or excitement. It's baffling how such uninspiring scripts made their way into production, but alas, it seems the blame falls on the network and producers that put little or no effort in creating meaningful content.

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.