Drama
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Captain Pike finally gets his time in the Star Trek spotlight, but his story is one filled with tragedy and foreboding.
Luke Brunner has sacrificed a lot for his country. As a covert agent for the CIA, he’s lost out on time with his family, for instance, leaving him divorced and playing catch-up with his children. And after decades of baddie-slaying service, he was supposed to retire.
But that was before the CIA called him back in for one more mission. The operation sends him to Guyana, where an arms dealer by the name of Boro plans to sell a “suitcase nuke” to the highest bidder. Luke must intercept the package, and his past connection with Boro makes him the best man for the job.
You see, a couple decades ago, Luke was sent to take out Boro’s arms-dealing father (which he did) when Boro was just a young boy. Feeling bad for killing the boy’s father, Luke paid for Boro’s education and sent him care packages throughout his studies. Now Boro (who has no idea that Luke killed his dad) views Luke as, ironically, a father figure.
These days, though, Boro’s fueled by his desire to finish what his father started, as well as finding and killing the unknown man who murdered him.
And there’s another hitch in the operation, too: The CIA has received intelligence proving that “Panda,” the agent they currently have embedded in Boro’s compound, is soon to be compromised. Luke will need to extract that agent, too.
No problem: It’s all in a day’s work for Luke.
Or at least it was … until he comes into contact with the agent.
It’s his daughter, Emma.
That discovery came as a big shock to Luke in Season 1, and it came with a whole lot of drama. But by Season 2, the father-daughter duo has survived the ordeal and worked through their differences. And instead of wanting Emma out of the field, Luke’s encouraging her to pursue more career opportunities.
Unfortunately, the mission was a bit bigger than anyone could have guessed, and the CIA isn’t confident that there aren’t loose ends that might show up at any moment—the kind that put a bullet into the agents, their friends or their families. That’s why the whole team has been living for months in a cramped safe home while they wait for the storm to blow over.
That’s when CIA Director Dot reaches out to Luke once more. New intel indicates Dante Cress, a nihilistic terrorist who’d love nothing more than to “reset” humanity by wiping out 90% of the population, may finally have the means to achieve his goals. The problem? The only lead they have on him lies encrypted behind the Greta Code—and Luke’s the only agent she knows who can crack it. After all, he used it before when communicating with East German spies during the Cold War.
And after giving that vital information, Dot’s plot relevance fades away: she’s shot and killed in the crossfire of assassins sent to slay Luke. For his part, Luke and team quickly return the favor.
As fast as a bullet from a gun, they’re officially back out in the field once more.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back for yet another “guns blazing” adventure—except FUBAR is trying to squeeze a second person into his one-man army.
But the show’s title, an acronym with a meaning that the cleaner-mouthed man would describe as “fouled up beyond all recognition,” isn’t really talking about the difficulties of Luke and Emma’s mission. Instead, it more accurately describes their relationship as father and daughter.
And the truth is, that description fits Luke’s relationship with his entire family: His job caused his wife to leave him. His constant praise of Emma’s perfection caused his son, Oscar, to feel inadequate. And Emma’s drive to be perfect for her father, combined with the recent revelation of his lie, has caused her to feel like she’s not really sure who the real Emma is anymore.
At its core, FUBAR tells the story of a man who tries to fix a broken family unit—one that he did not realize was broken until his daughter hits him over the head with it. And once Luke realizes his mistakes, we’ll watch as he tries to steer his fiercely independent daughter away from making the same mistakes that hedid.
By itself, that would be a nice story to tell. But those positive messages share the same acronymic description as Luke’s relationships do.
A couple characters actively cheat on their partners, and one is upset when the truth is revealed to the victim. A lesbian woman on Luke’s team exists, it seems, primarily to make sexual references and jokes. And at one point, an operative strips down to her underwear (onscreen) and has sex (offscreen) with a target to keep the mission intact. Other sexual sounds and references are frequent, too.
The father-daughter duo blasts through dozens upon dozens of generic baddies with the occasional splattering of blood, and some moments of combat can get quite intense. And if the acronymic title is anything to go by, viewers should expect a plethora of heavy profanity as this series unfolds as well.
We don’t expect saving the world to be the cleanest job on the market. But we’d appreciate if extra grime wasn’t thrown on top of this TV-MA show’s depiction of it.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
After Luke is assigned to help a compromised operative escape a sticky situation, he discovers that the operative is his daughter.
A missile explodes a human trafficker. Criminals are shot, stabbed and poisoned to death. We see a cage match: It ends with the sound of Emma’s shoulder dislocating. One man is shot in the head, and we see his blood splatter on the man behind him. Two men are stabbed to death, and one is seen with his throat slit. Someone is run over. Emma hides in a cow’s carcass to catch a guard by surprise and stab him.
A couple crude jokes are made. We hear Luke make a reference to having sex. A man and a lesbian woman discuss their mutual attraction for Luke’s ex-wife. Someone talks about her sexual arousal. There’s a reference to a gorilla performing a sexual act on a fruit. Luke tells a parable of two bulls who discuss mating with a flock of cows. He says that it’s supposed to convey the importance of not rushing into things, but Emma says that it “sounds like it’s about cow rape.”
A man references having sex with Emma (which she denies). Luke tells Emma that she should wait until she’s married to have sex, and Emma responds, “Do you think I’m a virgin? I’m 28!” We hear a reference to male genitalia. Luke accidentally turns on Emma’s disguised sex toy, and the bit goes on for some time.
Luke lights a cigar and throws it in a dumpster to start a fire. He steals diamonds from a vault. People drink alcohol.
We hear the song “Sympathy For the Devil” play. Luke calls someone “Judas” for not telling him about something. Someone says that a man makes “Jim Jones look like Jim Henson.”
The f-word is heard five times, and the s-word is used nine times. We additionally hear many instances of “a–,” “h—,” “d–n” and “b–ch,” as well as one use of “crap.” God’s name is used in vain 11 times, including twice in the form of “g-dd–n.” Jesus’ name is used in vain three times.
Luke and Emma track Boro down to Kazakhstan, where they must prevent him from siphoning radioactive material from a train.
Luke suggests that someone would be sexually popular in prison. A dozen terrorists are shot and killed. One man’s body drags along the side of a train, leaving a bloody stain. Another man’s teeth are knocked out.
Luke calls someone a pervert. Luke uses his power to spy on his ex-wife’s boyfriend—and he finds him taking Viagra pills. A man chides Luke for using the word “cuckold,” saying that Luke is referencing pornography. A woman comments on how an arrow looks like male genitalia, and she also makes a couple other sexual references. Someone else makes a reference to “casual hookups.” A man congratulates himself for getting a “booty call.” Emma and her boyfriend kiss.
Emma calls someone “Judas” for not telling her about something. People drink beer and wine.
The s-word is used five times, including once in German. We also hear milder profanities, including “a–,” “d-ck,” “p-ss,” “h—” and “b–ch.” Someone displays their middle finger. God’s name is used in vain twice. People, including a young girl, use the word “fluffin’” as a replacement for the f-word.
Following the death of a notable team member, Luke and the other agents begin chasing down a man who threatens to wipe out most of the world’s population.
Someone tells a lesbian woman that she’s acting “horngry,” evidenced by the fact that the cookies she’s made are in the shape of breasts. Later, the same woman comments on a man’s attractiveness, saying with feigned incredulity, “What? I’m gay; I’m not blind.” Emma removes clothes to her underwear, and a male agent briefly stares at her body. There’s a reference to oral sex, “sex surrogates” and male arousal. Luke and his wife coo about having sex earlier, and Luke apologizes to her live-in ex-boyfriend if they distracted him with how loud they had been. Luke unintentionally uses a couple of sexual euphemisms. A woman grabs a man by his rear and kisses him. A man and woman kiss.
Roughly a dozen men are shot and killed. A couple more are hit by cars or, in the case of one poor guy, choked to death with a hose. People fistfight. A woman takes a bullet to the chest and dies.
A man pours beer into his cereal and eats it. Luke accuses the same man of doing nothing but “getting high” in his room all day.
We hear the f-word twice and the s-word seven times. We also hear “a–,” “b–ch,” “h—,” “d–n,” “d–k,” “p-ssed” and “t-t.” God’s name is used in vain five times. A man and woman trade crude gestures using their middle fingers.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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