Netflix does not pretend to be the new cradle of quality television, although from time to time it surprises with works that do try to go further and stimulate the adult viewer like Bronca. What is sought is to offer “gourmet cheeseburgers”, as the content manager Bela Bajaria said: accessible, recognizable entertainment that does not involve an effort for the public and narratively effective. Once the mentality of the company is framed when it comes to audiovisual production, a work like FUBAR, the arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger on television, is understood.
The Austrian actor, who has been a US citizen since 1983 and who temporarily abandoned acting to serve as governor of California, has a script on his hands that is not particularly ambitious but with which to exploit his gift for action and comedy. In fact, Fubar could be described as an alternative version of Risky Lies with the drawback that, of course, none of the people involved have the talent of James Cameron, who made him a movie icon with Terminator and its first sequel (and giving himself the coincidence that there is a remake of Risky Lies on television).
In fiction he is Luke Brunner, a CIA agent of those who may be on the verge of death but has time to crack a joke, as if his brain were incapable of processing any situation as a danger. Brunner wants to retire and recover his ex-wife (Fabiana Udenio), who has found sentimental stability with another man, but he must stop these plans because the agency asks him for one last mission. And when he tries to extract an agent from a mission, he discovers the impossible: Emma (Monica Barbaro), his perfect daughter, also works for the CIA, doesn’t hesitate to break jaws while she smokes cigars, and is just as ruthless as he is. . Neither of them will take particularly well to the fact that they have lied to each other for years and that their family life, in a way, was a farce.
The series is exactly as one can imagine. It is a face-to-face between two comfortable actors in this genre as demanding as action comedy, surrounded by supporting actors who try to develop their own dynamics as the episodes progress and missions where verisimilitude and realism are not the main thing. Its creator Nick Santora already had experience in this hybrid, having signed Scorpion, an action procedural with elements of humor and romantic comedy that, as it progressed, lost its extra-light charm in the formula.
FUBAR can be blamed for the fact that the action scenes could be more polished. In the first episode there is a scene with a vehicle that is directly embarrassing. There is no imagination, as if the casual tone was incompatible with careful planning of the most hectic or tense scenes. And you can recognize a very Alias ??resource of not closing the missions at the end of the episode but solving them at the beginning of the next episode, to ensure that the viewer sees the next episode. Television, more than seeing how to take audiovisuals to the future, is looking back at its past and, as I have recalled on more than one occasion, it can have a very comforting point.
It has no imagination and is so insubstantial that if someone looks for something to hold on to, it will melt away in their hands. But, within Netflix’s gourmet cheeseburger philosophy, it enters as a nice hobby with which Mr. Schwarzenegger can have fun and remember why Kindergarten Cop or Risky Lies worked so well for him.
