Obliterated Review – Netflix Series: Full of Adrenaline and Rhythm, Amuses and Entertains
Cast: Nick Zano, Shelley Henning, Terrence Terrell, Alyson Gorske, C. Thomas Howell, Eugene Kim, Paola Lázaro, Kimi Rutledge, Carl Lumbly
Created By: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, John Heald
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
The series Obliterated, a show with 8 episodes full of adrenaline, arrives on the Netflix platform starting on 30 November 2023. A cast that includes performers of an ensemble show Shelley Hennig, Nick Zano, C. Thomas Howell, Kimi Rutledge, Paola Lazaro, Terrence Terrell, Alyson Gorske, and Eugene Kim, is one of the most successful factors of the series: a close-knit group where everyone is the best in their field, but they are all a disaster in interpersonal relationships, be it love, friendship or family relationships. Obliterated is a series full of action and comedy, to be seen in one sitting, following the specialized task force that experiences a real night of pure panic.
In the increasingly frustrating context of Netflix’s editorial policy, which does not adequately promote its productions and then cancels titles that weren’t doing so badly on paper (which is why some showrunners, like those of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off for example, have specifically conceived the respective works as complete one-season stories in case it is not possible to continue), it can become easy to lose sight of what are very worthy products, such as the new creation of the trio composed of Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and John Heald, who earned himself admiration for writing Cobra Kai on Netflix. Here the atmosphere is much more playful, but that sense of narrative coherence that characterizes their work remains, which we will talk about in the review of Obliterated – A Night of Panic, which is based on the preview of all eight episodes.
Obliterated Review – Netflix Series: The Story Plot
An elite task force, made up of experts from the military, the CIA, and the NSA, is sent to Las Vegas to avert an attack with potentially devastating consequences. Once the mission is completed, the various members of the group decide to take advantage of the trip to the “city of sin” and celebrate properly, giving themselves up to crazy joy as if there were no tomorrow: sex, drugs, and alcohol galore. There is no shortage of embarrassing moments, or funny ones (a man tries to lie about his size, to which the conquest of the moment replies ” I’m drunk, not blind!”), and the next morning they are all devastated, to say the least (hence the series title). Except that the bomb they defused was fake, and they have about seven hours (those remaining once the first episode is over) to locate the real one. This is easier said than done, given that in the best of cases, our heroes have to deal with the lighter after-effects of the epochal hangover from the night before…
Obliterated Review and Analysis
Between action and comedy, Obliterated turns out to be brilliant, lively, fun, and engaging, with a series of brilliant ideas that surprise the linearity of the plot. There will be no major twists or an in-depth investigation of the characters and it will probably not be the psychology of the main figures of the ensemble cast that will stimulate interest in the viewer. Obliterated immediately clarifies, with a subsequent fun matrix that is unexpected, the style, genre, and type of sequences that we will see throughout the series. There will be action scenes, with predictable cliffhangers, but still in line with the story, and some interpersonal relationships, between love stories and friendships born from sharing a secret, relationships therefore already obvious and perceivable from the first shots. However, to all this there are a series of positive factors between the end of the first and the beginning of the second episode; in particular the most comical, lively, lively, and chaotic component of the show.
It is precisely the confusion and, literally, the storm that the protagonists unleash that is funny, makes you laugh, and is the winning element of the series. Between suspension of disbelief and a subtle but measured characterization of the characters, Obliterated is a series of pure entertainment, which perhaps in the development of the story will not offer major events or particularly complex development, but which will certainly manage to make those moments live with the sought after enthusiasm. Between alcohol, drugs, nightclubs, and extreme parties, the infallible team of the new Netflix series is as invincible as it is a comic. A pop and glossy character is evident from the party scenes and those of the mission, which often intersect creating a mix of opposing ingredients that make Obliterated a product with events, gags, and absurd situations, but definable as hilarious, in its way different from those series that seek only action, or only suspense, only fun, or only entertainment.
Photography maintains dazzling, vivid, and sharp chromatic hues both when celebrating and when working, to complete a goal and to go home knowing that you have saved thousands of human lives. What is surprising about Obliterated, which presents itself as the classic American action with all fighting and little substance, is that from the first episode, it shows that it is much more than this. It is a series that delves deeply while not giving up entertainment, comedy, or romance but also sensuality, it is a title that keeps you glued to the screen not only for the twists and full-frontal nudity but above all because it makes you so fond of to its protagonists who, through their different personalities, ethnicities, sexual preferences and fragilities allow anyone to identify with one if not each of them.
And if we are usually used to seeing spy action series that are too superficial or too dramatic, Obliterated shows us not only that shades of gray also exist in the serial world but that they can be even better than black and white. Dynamic, funny, deep, sexy, Obliterated is a wonderful surprise from Netflix which, at the end of the year, gave us a series that immediately entered our hearts and which we can’t wait to see the continuation of. With the slightly meta setting (the remaining hours corresponding to the number of episodes) the dramaturgical coherence of a series that recognizes its lightness seasoned with jokingness and occasional bouts of authentic, delicious stupidity is already clear (the setting in Las Vegas involves inevitable comparisons with The Hangover, but in this case the zany gags are much better), but it also knows how to work as an action adventure with the suspense between one chapter and another that goes hand in hand with the foul-mouthed evolutions.
A double progression so shameless that the discovery of the deception, at the end of the first episode, more or less coincides with the entrance on the scene of a male frontal nude. And it’s just the beginning as regards this comedy that loves the conventions of action and dismantles them at the same time, with vicissitudes and characters that work perfectly in both modes, with that extra edge to get noticed in the anonymous crowd that it could be Netflix’s algorithm. The intention behind the project was to give the public something that could at the same time dredge up and reawaken memories of works on the small and big screen that had nourished the imagination of entire generations, and on the other offer an overflowing and uncensored entertainment pushed to excess. In this sense, the comedy proposed is not for refined palates, but rather intended for lovers of the class, which leads on more than one occasion to the parodistic with the mind-returning Hot Shots!
The sample is, therefore, that of continuous sexual allusions, of bad taste (farts, regurgitation, and penises in plain sight), of the politically incorrect, and of jokes without half measures and mincing words, which is mixed with another level of entertainment given by the action, also above the threshold of credibility with a cocktail of detonations, shootouts, fights and chases. Then obviously the authors did their best to make the two fronts coexist, but this takes a back seat in the economy of the finished product. If in Cobra Kai the romantic and nostalgic look at the past and the reference model combined with a series of ideas contributed to embellishing the result, quotationism is an end in itself and is for the use and consumption of a type of comedy that does everything and more to get laughs, without lucubrations or sophisticated turns of phrase. Everything is absolutely and consciously cheap and cheap, which is why there is nothing else to say on the subject.
From the creators of Cobra Kai an action-comedy series that mixes zany, foul-mouthed comedy with the testosterone and adrenaline-filled models of TV shows and films Stars and Stripes action. The result is a cheap audiovisual product for not at all refined palates and with few needs, which has as its sole purpose that of entertaining the spectator on duty with the entire sample made available by the genres and registers involved. There are few laughs, but on the other hand, some well-made action scenes offer a noteworthy ballistic spectacle. Obliterated is one of those disposable products with recycled packaging, designed to spend a few hours happily and with the brain turned off, given that solicitations in this sense are truly scarce.
Obliterated Review – Netflix Series: The Last Words
Obliterated above all a parody of all action TV series that take themselves too seriously. A bit as if it were the R-rated version of Fubar (the series with Schwarzenegger). The cast is perfect, and credible in one of the most surreal and incredible stories you will ever see on TV. And because of this, everything works: Ava, Chad, Trunk, Gomez, Maya, Paul, and Hagerty are so into their roles that we can barely imagine how much fun they must have had filming the 8 episodes for Netflix. Mainstream critics rejected the series, judging it to be excessively vulgar – which it is proud to be – and full of gratuitous nudity, as well as unnecessary violence. The public, however, appreciated it. From the first sequences of the pilot episode, the kitsch that is the key to understanding the entire narrative not only emerges effectively but is also accepted by an audience that wants to see how far our heroes will go. And they will go very, very far… Maybe even a little too far. Nonetheless, laughter is guaranteed.
Obliterated Review – Netflix Series: Full of Adrenaline and Rhythm, Amuses and Entertains - Filmyhype
Director: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, John Heald
Date Created: 2023-12-08 13:11
3.5
Pros
- Fun and dynamic
- Excellent action choreography
Cons
- Lack of character analysis
- Predictable events
