We hadn’t even gotten halfway through Arnold Schwarzenegger’s debut on streaming services before I was convinced that its throwback charms were going to start grinding on my nerves. Its mixture of stilted action, cartoon logic and preference of wise cracks over actual characterization would have been a fun, undemanding time if this was a two-hour movie, tops – however, the fact that we have eight episodes to work though means FUBAR was rapidly starting to out stay its welcome.
And yet, with its fourth episode (one whose title contains a dad-pun so bad, I think it gave me mono), FUBAR seems to have upped its game somehow without actually changing the things that we previously starting to get on my tits. Has the show finally broke me down, or has it finally settled into its groove of being a goofy, sitcom version of Mission: Impossible?
After their honey pot mission seemingly hit a snag when Emma’s target got wise and pulls a gun on her, Luke hops in a car and races to his daughter’s rescue; however, when he gets there (after driving over a guard), he finds that Emma has managed to get herself out of the situation without violence and the team celebrates a successful mission after procuring Boro’s to-do list.
However, Emma is despondent about the fact that she sees the seduction of her target as possible infidelity against her doting fiancee, Carter and even a pep talk from her father can’t cure her of her malaise. Matters are made even more awkward by the fact that upon arriving home, Carter proposes and Emma agrees, despite claiming that she can’t be a CIA agent and be with Carter only an hour earlier.
This shit seems to be catching as Luke takes a huge swing at winning back his ex-wife Tally by hiring her to work at his extraordinarily fake shell company, Barry is still trying to lay the moves on co-worker Tina with the outdated advice from Roo backing him up and Aldon seems to still be trying to worm his way into Emma affections. However, as per usual, the latest mission pops up in the continuing pursuit of lethal, vengeful terrorist, Boro and in order to score a meeting with him, they’re going to need the help of the legendary talents of the Great Dane.
However, the catch is that the infamous deal broker is currently languishing in a Turkish prison and the only way they can get him out undetected is if they get someone into his cell for the head count. Step forward guy-in-the-chair, Barry, who overcompensates while trying to impress Tina and volunteers to spend time in the Great Dane’s cell. However, if the Dane’s skills aren’t up to snuff, Boro will smell a rat, Barry will be trapped in prison and a nuclear reactor will be in the wind…
I honestly was on the verge of losing my patience with FUBAR as it’s True Lies-lite stylings were more overfamilar than fun and its glib stylings made even the frothiest entry from the MCU feel like The Marathon Man and yet somehow, episode 4 didn’t feel as laboured as some of his predecessors did. I have a theory why this might be and I believe it might have something to actually do with the fact that the characters (or at least some of them) are actually beginning to move along within their respective arcs. The main example of this is Fabiana Udenio’s Tally actually has something to do beyond being all housewifey and providing a goal for Schwarzenegger’s Luke to shoot for and the fact that she gets hired to run his fake business means she can become a functioning part of the story. In fact, in under a single episode, she’s smelling a rat and starting to scrutinise the very fabric of Luke’s fitness equipment empire which, while is the typical type of illogical plotting that usually irritates, is utterly forgivable since it keeps an important character relevant. Also getting something different to do is Milan Carter’s Barry, who puts his stereotypical geek schtick slightly to the side and get fully involved in one of the missions in order to look brave to Tina. Ok, sure, these plot threads may not seem particularly groundbreaking, but it does mean at least that parts of FUBAR are going somewhere while the spy stuff continues to go round and round.
Speaking of the spy stuff, the show weirdly benefits from not having any sizable moments of action in the episode at all, focusing instead on subterfuge and stealth that plays far better with the humor than noticable green screens and weightless CGI, although that’s still very much in evidence here. Throwing another twist into the tale is the introduction of Adam Pally’s the Great Dane who typically laconic style fits well with the established group, especially considering that despite the fact that everyone loves the guy, Roo utterly despises him due to having only 9 toes thanks to a precious indent. In fact, Roo’s continuing bitterness about her apparently grotesque wound is so far one of the show’s best running gags, especially with a description of it that reveals that even though she’s missing a toe – the nail somehow grew back just to everyone’s disgust leading to Luke ordering her to “holster the four shooter”.
Another aspect that’s getting better at realising its comedic potential is the family therapy segments that sees the misnamed Dr Pepper employ puppet lookalikes in order for Emma and Luke to vent their frustrations and the sight of Monica Barbaro with a Schwarzenegger puppet on her arm while attempting a terrible Austrian accent is a legitimate highlight even though the puppet-a-like idea has already been done in everything from Angel to Community to even Ash Vs Evil Dead.
This odd improvement comes at a cost however, and aside from the occasional token scene, FUBAR has seemed to put its arch villain, Boro, on the back burner since episode 2. Considering that literally everything our heroes are doing is supposed to be bringing him to justice, Gabriel Luna’s non-appearance is harming to the whole secret agent bit.
Still, any momentum is more than welcome and whether or not the show can keep it building is something I’ll be interested to see. But as it stands, this is currently the strongest episode after the first and if said momentum is due to snowball, the second half of the season is a fine time to get it going.
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