FUBAR: Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s charisma goes a long way with this spy series, but odd structural choices and a middling narrative hold it back from reaching its potential.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Explosion

FUBAR Review

Between The Diplomat, The Night Agent, The Recruit, and more, it feels like we are going through a renaissance of Spy shows on TV. This has been a nice turn of events as someone who grew up on Spy shows like Get Smart, Chuck, and Alias. So, When I heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger was jumping back into this genre, well, you know, I had to check that out.

So to set the scene, Luke Brunner (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has worked at the CIA all his life. Because of that, he has become divorced from his wife Tally (Fabiana Udenio) and has a bit of a fractious relationship with his daughter Emma (Monica Barbaro) and son Oscar (Devon Bostick). But after a long career, Luke is finally retiring and can focus on his family and maybe winning the love of his life back now that she has started dating Donnie (Andy Buckley). But before he can officially spend his years doing up his boat, he is called back to active duty because Boro Polonia (Gabriel Luna), the son of an old arms dealer that Luke secretly killed, has started building pocket nuclear weapons. The CIA puts a spy in his organisation, but they are about to get outed, and Luke has to go in because Boro still remembers Luke fondly. All Luke has to do, is go to their compound in Guyana and get the undercover agent out … the only problem is that the secret agent turns out to be Emma. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Movie Review – A Simple Favor

TL;DR – Crazy, absurd, ridiculous, tense, and an amazing ball of fun

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

A Simple Favor. Image Credit: Lionsgate

Review

The tone is something that can make or break a film, and you would think it would be an easy thing to get right, but alas it can be a tightrope to walk at times. This is especially important when you are blending genres and still trying to make it feel like a constant whole. Today we look at a film A Simple Favor that walks that tightrope from absurdity to high strung tension and makes it look effortless. Now before we get into the review proper, I do want to say that I have not read the book so I will leave it to others more knowledgeable than me to let you know if it is a good adaption or not, and I’ll just focus on the film.

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