FUBAR

Available now on Netflix

The ever-increasing prestige of the small screen has been well documented, and is of course one of the chief reasons sites such as this exist. What started with the bravura approach to storytelling of networks such as HBO has eventually transformed into a status quo in which every actor, no matter how famous, wants their own prestige project. 

The latest big name to have been bested by his own FOMO is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once upon a time was about as big a Hollywood star as you could get. Here, he lends his star power to FUBAR, created by Nick Santora and centered on a soon-to-be-retired CIA operative (Schwarzenegger) who is pulled back into the field after he discovers that his daughter (Monica Barbaro) is also working for the force.

Santora’s show is hardly original and almost certainly wouldn’t work without its leading man, but nonetheless retains a self-awareness that Schwarzenegger fans will only be too familiar with. There are plenty of knowing nods to the Austrian Oak’s more celebrated work, with FUBAR’s overarching story often feeling like a rehash of prior action flicks. 

Naturally, your enjoyment of the show will be dictated by your appetite for such borderline meta-textual storytelling, although I suspect viewers such as I with an unapologetic soft spot for Schwarzenegger’s patented absurdity will have plenty of fun with this light-hearted, empty-headed series.