For reasons I can't begin to explain, Andrea and I watched a rerun of America's Got Talent from their most recent audition show.
Just to demonstrate that we will watch almost anything.
So I've mentioned a few times in previous posts that Andrea and I have been watching something called FUBAR.
What the hell is FUBAR?
FUBAR is a series on Netflix starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a CIA agent ready to retire. It's a show that is part spy action thriller, part family drama and part comedy.
Luke Brunner has completed his last mission for the CIA and is ready to call it a day, relaxing on his boat (that he insists on calling a ship and it's isn't, it's a boat) and trying to get back into the good graces of his family and the wife who divorced him 15 years ago.
But Luke gets roped in for one more gig, to retrieve a deep cover operative from a mission that's about to go pear shaped. Luke is shocked to discover that the deep cover operative is his daughter Emma.
Luke had NO idea his daughter Emma was a CIA agent.
Emma had NO idea her father was a CIA agent.
Awkward!
Unfortunately, Luke and Emma are forced to work together to bring down Boro Polonia, a weapons dealing psychopath with a penchant for solving personnel problems with a gun shot to the head. Boro's current project is procuring the items needed to be suitcase sized nuclear bombs and sell 'em off to whatever nut case may want to blow shit up.
Joining Luke and Emma are joined by other CIA operatives:
- Barry, tech support and prototypical black nerd whose references are all from Star Wars, comic books and anime.
- Aldon, the kind of guy you think of as an undercover spy with chisel abs, a handsome face and an easy going confidence.
- Roo, a butch lesbian with zero chill for anyone's drama.
- Tina , an NSA data analyst brought in to support Luke's team. She and Barry hit it off which is cool but Tina may be hiding a secret which is not cool.
Then there is the family drama with Luke's ex wife Tally dating some really nice (but bland) guy named Donnie which doesn't stop her from having sex with Luke which may be leading to a reconciliation until Luke lies to her one time too many.
There's Carter, a really nice (but bland) guy who is engaged to Emma but gets rattled when Emma lies to him one time too many.
As much as Luke and Emma rag on each other about home much of a disappointment each has been to the other, they are forced to realize they have more in common than they care to admit when it comes to how much their CIA careers fuck up their personal lives.
The arc of the 1st season's 8 episodes involves the team's repeated efforts to capture or kill Boro and stop the development and proliferation of his suitcase nukes.
There are various high level super spy plots to accomplish all this but then something goes off the rails due to dumb luck, an unanticipated variable or just plain stupidity.
One mission goes awry because Luke's attention was divided between the mission at hand and his side project of spying on Donnie.
What does FUBAR mean? It's an acronym used by the military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies that stands for "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition".
The series FUBAR is not exactly ground breaking stuff. Anyone who has sat through a 1990's Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie can see the plot beats of the CIA teams efforts to take down Boro coming a mile away.
What makes FUBAR worth watching is all the other stuff, the comedy, the family drama, the character interactions and growth over the 8 episodes.
The series has been renewed for a 2nd season which we will need to resolve the season finale: instigated by Boro's final act of vengeance, Luke and Emma and their entire CIA crew have been "burned", their true identities exposed to the whole world with a network of killers and terrorists out to kill them and their families.
As Luke exclaims in Arnold's Austrian accent, "It's all FOO-BAH!!"
With the writer's strike still a thing, there is no telling when we'll get that resolution.
From the spy thriller that is also a comedy, we turns to the murder mystery that is also a comedy with the season 3 return of Only Murders In the Building.
At the very last scene of season 2, a flash forward to the opening night of Oliver Putnam's new murder mystery play Death Rattle, the play's leading man Ben Glenroy drops dead right in the middle of his opening monologue.
OK, the name of the show is Only Murders In the Building and this building is NOT the Arconia but a theater. What gives?
At the after premier party that Oliver insists on still having, Ben Glenroy shows up. It seems he ALMOST died but then got better and left the hospital before anyone could determine what he almost died of.
Later, Ben's dead body suddenly crashes down through the roof of an Arconia elevator, making this death permanent and very helpfully keeping it in the building.
And yeah, it looks like murder.
Oliver insists on doing Death Rattle despite the death of his leading man and decides it's time to rethink the whole damn thing and make it a musical.
With Oliver obsessed with redeeming his play, it's up to Charles and Mabel to fire up the ol' podcast and figure out who the hell killed Ben Glenroy.
There are a lot options to choose from for suspects. Ben was a total asshat to a lot of people. Especially to Loretta Durkin.
Ben wanted to have Loretta fired on day one. Loretta has been practicing her craft for decades but the big breaks eluded her until Oliver was entranced by her audition.
Loretta Durkin is the role played by Meryl Streep and damn if Meryl doesn't just totally prove why she is such a good actress, exploring a character of many nuances. Loretta is many things but surely she couldn't be a killer.
The idea what we even consider that possibility owes much to Meryl Streep's increbible range.
And she can sing too! Here is the haunting ballad from Death Rattle: The Musical.
And Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez still have the incredible alchemy of strong performances and their continued uncanny chemistry.
Only Murders In the Building is off to a very strong start for it's 3rd season.
Coming up in next week on the Touchbase: Outlander!
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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