I honestly didn’t think Netflix would give us a second season of FUBAR. It’s not like the first season was bad. In fact, I enjoyed it for what it was: a silly, low-budget spy series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But even after watching it and seeing the cliffhanger ending, it’s not like there was a lot of clamor from Netflix subscribers to what happens next. So, I was actually really surprised that they actually greenlit a continuation and even got Carrie-Anne Moss to be in it and the kind of main antagonist.

Well, after slowly watching the entire second season of FUBAR (I’m not one to binge watch television shows), I actually came out pleasantly surprised with it. That’s the short version of the review. However, if you want to read on about my more detailed thoughts and if you should see it, well, read on!

Now, I know this has been on Netflix for quite a while. But I haven’t really seen any chatter about it so I’m not sure how many, if any, people actually did watch and finish it. So, just to be on the safe side, I will be making this a SPOILER FREE review. I will be detailing the ending of the first season in my summary but I will be making my thoughts regarding the second season SPOILER FREE.

This season takes place a few months after the events of the first season. Luke Brunner (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), his daughter Emma (played by Monica Barbaro), the rest of his CIA team as well as their civilian acquaintances, have been holed up in a safehouse as a hit has been put out on all of them. However, a new threat with connections to Luke Brunner’s past reemerges and only his team is equipped to stop this new threat as well as Greta Nelso (played by Carrie-Anne Moss), a Cold War spy formerly thought to be dead… and also Luke Brunner’s old flame.

The first thing I do have to mention about FUBAR’s second season is it looks like Netflix decided to pluck in a few more coins to the budget. I already mentioned how they wrangled Carrie-Anne Moss to be part of this season. But they just didn’t increase the casting budget but on everything. The locations and the sets look much better and the props don’t look like something you could get from a high school production anymore. While I can’t say it looked like Netflix put in a million bucks into each episode, it does come off as a decent production this time around.

I also appreciated that they streamlined the story this time around. As they didn’t need to write in any plot elements regarding their double life because of the events of the first season, most of the second season is devoted to just the spy stuff, which should be the meat and potatoes of the series anyway. This does lead to the civilian storylines going by the wayside but, honestly, that’s a good thing because I found them pretty boring anyways. They do get their own storyline so to speak but it feels so contrived and utterly not connected to the central plot. So, it feels like these storylines were written because, one, these characters needed something to do. Or, two, they forgot about them and quickly scrambled in a plot thread so they could do something for the twelve guys who enjoyed their subplots.

The performances are, well, nothing to really write home about. Everyone is good in general but I don’t see any of them winning an Emmy. But then again, that’s to be expected since, for this kind of spy comedy, there has to be a good amount of hamming it up. They’re all trope-y in their special kind of way. Arnold is still good, despite him obviously not doing most of his stunts. But his acting is enjoyable. Monica Barbaro is pretty good here as the no-nonsense secret agent who’s trying to climb the ranks. Carrie-Anne Moss looks likes she’s having a blast playing the evil super spy as there’s a level of delicious layer of cheese whenever she’s on screen. However, the biggest surprise for me is Fortune Feimster as their snarky resident genius on the field. I didn’t find her all that funny in the first season. But in this season, her one-liners just came off better.

One thing I didn’t like was, like with the first season, the overabundance of subplots. As this is a SPOILER FREE review, I can’t really mention them. But I just felt some of then didn’t really contribute to making the overall plot work nor did it help with any of the character’s development. I’m okay with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character and Carrie-Anne Moss’ character weird relationship and anything connected to that. But the other ones just didn’t have enough gravitas to get me invested in them. So, to me, they felt like a waste of time and a way to pad out the show’s needed eight episode run.

I can’t say FUBAR’s second season the greatest thing Netflix ever put out and it’s not prime Arnold Schwarzenegger by any stretch of the imagination. It’s still a rather silly spy comedy series but it is much better than the first season. I really can’t say you should give it a watch, even if you did enjoy the first season. However, if you can spare the time, it’s an okay watch in a “turn off your brain” sort of way. Not exactly a glowing review but that’s just the way it is.

Have you seen the second season of FUBAR? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!