Arnold Schwarzenegger has a brand new motion automobile, and a brand new catchphrase besides. “That’s it and that’s all,” he says repeatedly, sounding maybe much less like an unchallengeable authority than a valedictory Porky Pig. Its frequent recurrence within the Netflix sequence Fubar may also be learn as a type of acknowledgement of the present’s restricted scope. This can be a enjoyable, basically unserious save-the-world romp with close-shave thrills, nonsensical plots and breezy comedian reduction. However that’s it and that’s all. 

The eight-part present marks the primary foray into tv work for the 75-year-old Schwarzenegger (the second, an autobiographical Netflix docu-series, follows subsequent month, and the community has simply appointed him its “chief motion officer”). If massive names are sometimes responsible of testing on massive paycheque initiatives, right here the veteran star appears genuinely enthused about bringing his outsized muscle tissue to the world’s small screens. He performs Luke Brunner, a CIA agent on the cusp of retirement (naturally) who’s given one final job — stopping a nuclear gadget coming into the flawed fingers. 

To make issues much more delicate, his harmless, darling daughter Emma (Monica Barbaro) occurs to be an undercover operative assigned to the identical mission. Given — or regardless of — their respective positions as prime espionage property, neither suspected the opposite was a spy. Whereas each really feel betrayed, there actually may be no higher time or means for a father and daughter to thrash out their points and construct belief than, say, whereas aboard an unstoppable practice or throughout a honey-trap operation.

Because the title suggests, issues have a tendency to not go to plan, and there are a great few close to misses and cliff-hangers within the opening episodes (which may have been half the size). In much less adrenalised moments, the present performs out like a cross between a standard household comedy — with Luke decided to win again his ex, in addition to Emma’s love — and a office sitcom that options bantery aspect characters. The jokes might not hit the mark as typically because the gun-wielding Luke, however there’s a sustained, realizing levity which helps make Fubar a extra interesting proposition than Amazon’s latest globe-hopping however leaden spy present, Citadel.

★★★☆☆

On Netflix from Might 25

Discover out about our newest tales first — comply with @ftweekend on Twitter