2 out of 5

Created by: Nick Santora

covers season 1

I absolutely understand that FUBAR is Dad TV: a previous-era, recognizable action star – Arnold Schwarzeneggar – plopped into a comfortably formulaic action series. It’s an NCIS-style show, skirting believability for easy thrills and baiting plotlines about getting along with your kids and reconnecting with your ex, dusted with a bit of PG-13 edge since we’re on a streamer and not prime time TV. There’s nothing wrong with Dad TV, just as there’s nothing wrong with popcorn procedurals or reality shows, if that’s what you’re in for. But certainly within those scenes there are also standards, and it’s often surprising how lazily FUBAR meets those standards.

Which isn’t to discredit the cast, who are mostly putting on game faces; or the over-arching story – retiring CIA operative Luke Brunner (Schwarzeneggar) is pulled into “one last job,” as the now-grown child of a terrorist with whom he’d connected when undercover is doing a bit of terrorism himself – and I’d even positively credit the attempt to tie themes together, as Brunner discovers his daughter, Emma (Monica Barbaro) has been operating as a CIA agent as well, leading to new levels of estrangement between the two, paralleling Brunner’s discomfort with tracking down a terrorist he once knew as an innocent boy. But the coasting along on kids-sure-are-weird old manisms, and the yuks of decades past – nerds who collect action figures sure are funny! – and the kind of unsettling middleground between cheap and quick production and splashing some cash on action movie mimicking setups (a speeding train; high stakes heistsl etc.) sinks the easy-going quality of this below an entertaining median. Stacked on top is a strange performance from Arnold, who seems often incredibly bored by his involvement -down to his unshaven, comfy-clothed presentation – but then randomly turning up for some funnier exchanges or more dedicated line readings. The whole thing just feels bumbling, a patchwork of early 00s sitcom jokes glued around recycled one-liners from Arnie films.

Barbaro and, playing other CIA-ers, Travis Van Winkle and Milan Carter, are all functional; Fortune Feimster’s sense of humor actually slots in really well on the team, and is a highlight (given you enjoy her style); and Jay Baruchel gives his role some dimension, preventing his bit as Barbaro’s character’s fiancée from being completely a stereotype of the whiny boy vs. the manly men with whom she works. And Gabriel Luna, playing our terrorist, is way beyond this material. But overall, FUBAR is the kind of series that works just hard enough to get us to where the joke is – un-retiring Brunner; bread-crumbing the story from location to location – and then forgets any further justifications, even within single scenes, where the alignment of who’s doing what where loses much logic or consistency. There’s a sparkle of intelligence within some themes, and some moments where the repartee suddenly works, and this should be fun, putting Arnie into a 30-minute action comedy, but the patchwork nature of it never syncs, like we’re looking at first takes and a first draft.