Fubar

Need to 'let off some steam Bennett?' Then 'come with me if you want to live' and 'get to the choppa' and watch Fubar.

This is actually good and I'm so glad. It's Arnie. On TV. Being Arnie, on TV. It's as you think it will be but actually better. Nobody is more surprised than me, I can tell ya. I'm only a couple episodes in, so it may well go south but so far its actually good!

Yep, there's a barely believable back story but that's ok.

Yep, Arnie still can't act but that's always been ok hasn't it?

And yep, he's old, but who cares?

Give it a go, you'll like it. If you don't - 'consider that a divorce'.

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.

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.

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.

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.