I absolutely have no idea where this sudden burst of energy has come from, but as FUBAR staggers towards its climax, I’ve found the show to be more agreeable the less it tries to hold everything together. At the beginning of the season, the show kept insisting on having everyone involved in all the missions at the same time – be it Luke, Emma, Roo or Aldon in the thick of it, Barry on comms, or Carter and Tally simply standing around listening in while Donnie schlubs around in the background. The problem with this is that for a lot of the time, a lot of the characters have just been standing in place waiting for the show to give them something to do, which thanks to the addition of new antagonist Greta and maniacally cheerful henchman in love, Chips, meant that half a season went by until they actually did anything of use.
Well, out of nowhere, everyone is now extraordinarily busy and now that FUBAR has belatedly gotten up to speed, the hit rate of the jokes have increased dramatically. I can’t believe I’m saying this for two episodes in a row, but FUBAR is almost cooking. Almost.
With one plant to go before Greta does the will of the mysterious Dante Cress and shuts down America’s entire power grid, both Luke and the turncoat Chips race to save the day by boat. Unfortunately, while they take out all the goons, they’re too late to stop them using expanding foam to gum up the turbines of the power plant’s dam and have to quickly figure out how to clear it.
However, while Aldon is out getting info from an informant, he finds that Cress has paid her off to kill him, butcas he narrowly avoids death while once again keeping Hamsteak safe, the gang realise that if they fake Aldon’s murder, that can trace Cress’ payment and finally find out who this guy is. With the egotistical Farkas joining the team in order to track the payment, they realise that to trace it, they’ll have to get Cress to pay someone else and after Greta shows up, an audacious plan in formed.
Meanwhile, in a completely separate subplot that literally has nothing to do with anything, Carter and Donnie sit zip tied in the back of a van waiting to meet an uncertain fate. After their search for a missing Hamsteak led to then accidently walking in on a biker’s drug deal, they’re being driven to their execution – however, the survival instincts that Carter is so enviable of finally kicks in as his successful plots their escape. However, things rapidly ho from bad to worse when – in No particular order – they taser a cop and steal his car; get Donnie high on PCP; accidently kill one of the bikers by crushing his head; and end up shooting one of Donnie’s balls off.
Back to the doomsday plot and it seems like the team is on the verge of finally cracking this thing, however, while their act of “turning America on and off again” manages to get them Dante Cress’ address, it also ends up meaning that every nuclear warhead in the country is now in the ready-launch position.
World War III and Donnie shot his ball off? Now that’s a busy episode.
I still don’t truly know if I’ve just truly lost my mind, or that FUBAR has genuinely gotten better, but once again I had quite a fun time with this episode. Coming from story point of view, it’s still as shockingly messy as it always was as the show’s cartoon logic carries it through narrative cul-de-sacs like an overly-convenient jetpack – however, the hit rate for the jokes has suddenly gone through the roof, with zingers nailing the target like Aldon pulling off a slow motion headshot. It’s truly bizarre how the complete.and total collapse of the A-plot has facilitated some of the running gags finally being able to find its feet (or trotters), but if that’s what it takes to make FUBAR funny, I guess we’d better go with it.
To further make my point, virtually every story thread related to the spy stuff is given the most cursory of glances. The show still refuses to even speculate who the shadowy Dante Cress actually is, Emma’s distrust of her father’s ability to make the right decision is cleared up in a single exchange and even Carrie-Ann Moss (whose addition to the show was the whole basis of its ad campaign) has had barely anything to do over the last couple of episodes besides refusing to practice that German accent. And yet, while the show tackles the possible crippling of the United States of America with all the seriousness of a dirty limerick, it also means that it has time to finally ween it’s secondary plots to actually reach their comedic potential. In fact, Dam It manages to score the most consistent belly laughs of the entire season, starting with nailing a Schwarzenegger callback that’s nothing short of fucking genius.
While some of the gags that reference Arnie’s past works have felt rather laboured, the moment that sees him pushing a power plant turbine with sheer Arnie-power brilliantly invokes the famous Wheel Of Pain sequence from Conan The Barbarian. Elsewhere, I’ve also felt like the Aldon/Hamsteak thread of a secret agent and his beloved, adopted pig simply hasn’t been explored comedically as much as it could, but even though it makes zero sense in relationship to the story (global terrorism, guys), the moment where Aldon decides to take time out to take glamour shots of himself posing with his adorable oinker in a variety of costumes is a winner. Finally, coming out of nowhere to somehow steal the show, is the thrown together double act of Carter and Donnie and their weird micro adventure as they flee from a drug dealing biker gang. In a better show, this whole distraction would be the worst kind of time consuming filler that takes important tome away from a more important storyline, however, as that storyline is a stone’s throw away from hot trash, watching these two idiots blunder through a Dumb and Dumber style misadventure is actually a lot of fun. Has it been placed during the absolute worst time in the season – absolutely, but it’s not if the show has been particularly tightly plotted up until now. As a result, watching one of these two insignificant characters get off his tits on PCP while the other accidently causes their would-be kidnapper to get his skull flattened by an air conditioning unit proves to be the most engrossing shit the shows actually done and it only gets funnier as it continues to spiral out of control further.
This leaves me in something of a predicament as such abysmal plotting must surely be punished with a low score – and yet it’s exactly the poor grasp of the main story that actually gives the gags the room they need to breathe. As the penultimate episode of an entire season, Dam It fails in almost every way conseivable, yet it’s been the only episode that’s managed to get all of its running jokes right – and for this reason I’m gonna have to go with the win because if nothing else, the show needs laughs. Disagree if you must, but look at it from my point of view – I’m dammed if a do and dammed if it don’t….
Next stop: the season finale – and it can’t come soon enough.
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