As we round the tracks and head into FUBAR’s third episode, the show’s layout and tone are now as clear to see as a brown bear in the middle of a snow field. Keeping a strict pattern of resolving the previous episode’s cliffhanger, engaging in comedic family dysfunction, sitting down for a briefing and then launching into another spy-rific set piece before ending on another cliffhanger (and then repeat) is a perfectly reasonable way to frame you series of events – however, as FUBAR is made up of eight episodes, there’s a very strong feeling that it may outstay its welcome the further along we go. Sure, plenty of older show have stuck to a rigid, unchanging formula – hey, it wouldn’t have been The A Team if every episode didn’t end with a building montage and a bodycount free final shootout – but in the streaming age, can such a simplistic attitude withstand eight hours of binge watching?
We’re back on that speeding bullet train currently hurtling its way through Kazakhstan and thanks to bickering father/daughter spy team Luke and Emma Brunner, the very thing that stopped Boro’s terrorist flunkies sucking up the nuclear waste on board into their helicopter has also turned the train into an out of control dirty bomb. Having to put their unfriendly opinions of each other on hold for a while, both Luke and Emma figure out not only how to slow the train, but actually manage to be on the same page for once.
Back at home, the usual issues continue as Luke’s latest attempts to win back Tally, his divorced wife, back fires when his crew point out the name he’s given his new boat, has unforeseen, negative connotations (“Tally-Ho“, anyone?) and he’s still unable to shake her irritatingly nice new boyfriend, Donetello, who seems have the clinging powers of an industrial strength sucker cup.
But it’s not just Luke who’s feeling the stress of his job as Emma is starting to experience friction with her impossibly caring, kindergarten teacher boyfriend, Carter, who has no idea about her real job and is disturbed by how much she’s called to be out of town. In fact, matters are made even more tense when Carter hints that Emma might not be a capable parent if they were ever to have kids.
Even Luke’s team is feeling the pinch, with Barry, his neurotic, man child, guy in the chair unsure of how to verbalize his feelings about the team’s timid new member, Tina and Emma wondering if the team’s serial man-whore, Aldon (dubbed Pooh Bear for all the honey pot missions he gets, is more her speed than her scrap booking, antiquing current beau.
These issues are tested when their latest mission comes in – seduce the handler of a scientist kidnapped by Boro who holds the secret of turning what little nuclear waste he got away with into something far more explosive. However, due to a typo, (Nika is actually Nick. A), Emma has to step into Aldon’s shoes to get the info they need.
If this the slick, but empty, presentation that FUBAR is going to religiously stick to, then I feel that when it comes to our patience wearing thin, it’s going to be a matter of when, not if and some of the lazier aspects of the plotting are noticably starting to fray already. For a start, there’s nothing that occurs in the middle section of this episode that hasn’t already been covered already by the previous installments as we once again go over well-worn ground concerning Luke’s distaste for Donnie, Roo bullying Barry for being a vast super-nerd and the ever widening gulf that’s spreading between Emma and Carter and it’s fairly worrying that the show is starting to repeat itself this early in the game.
However, there are a few intresting wrinkles starting to form, primarily between Emna and fellow agent/abs-machine, Aldon as the latter has to talk the former through the finer points of a honey pot mission while a horrified Luke listens on. Shifting the notion of a woman-conquering, man slut into something a bit more layered, it successfully plays with the conventions of the bed hopping, gentlemen spy into something a little more three dimensional, however, Roo’s mock reaction to Barry’s nerdy lifestyle feels about as dated as a Screech segment on Saved By The Bell as it essentially steals similar moments from The 40 Year Old Virgin without a shred of shame.
Even the opening sequence that wraps up the runaway train conundrum left over from Episode 2 gets us dangerously close to irritation as both Emma and Luke come up with a plan to stop the train so contrived, if genuinely feels like it’s been scrawled out in crayon. Remember those magnetic vests that therapist Dr. Pepper (sorry, Dr. Pfeffer) prescribed in an attempt to literally bring Luke and Emma closer together? You fucking well should, the show set it up for this very reason as the two use the unlikely contraption to allow Emma to cling to the outside of the train as Luke acts as an anchor on the inside. Frankly it’s an act of lazy deus ex machina as brazen as I’ve seen in quite a while and even though it fits into the goofy, tongue-in-cheek aesthetic of the show, I still had to restrain myself by yelling “oh, fuck off!” at the screen as my suspension of disbelief crumbled like a stale cookie in milk.
So, has FUBAR overstayed it’s welcome, then? Well, no. Not quite yet. The closing action set piece which sees the team all have different things to achieve that have to intersect in order for them to achieve their goal may not exactly be inspired comedy gold, but it moves well enough to be entertaining.
As Aldon runs interference for Emna while giving her pointers on how best to seduce her target, Roo needs to infiltrate a hospital by using a can of soup to fake vaginal issue that needs immediate medical attention and all the while, Luke has to avoid getting traumatised by the sounds of his daughter reluctantly spanking a grown man in order to accomplish her mission.
It’s hardly the Mission: Impossible meets Dodgeball you hoped for, but it works just enough to still keep the show on your watchlist – however, I have to say, I’m curious to know which method of muscling through FUBAR would prove to be the best. As it stands, binging it would surely bring the sameness to the forefront while spacing the episodes out would most likely nullify the momentum the show is aiming for.
Mind you, if Arnie and company don’t pull something spectacular out of the hat, neither may prove to be the viewing plan of choice.
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