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If the phenomenon known far-and-wide as “streaming” has done anything, it’s what I like to call the “democratization” of film stars from their normally fixed position as images that we see on the silver screen. In the 1980s and into the 90s, any actor that made the trek from movie screen to television screen was seen as someone with a career on the decline. In other words, TV was viewed by many as a step back in an established career. As an actor, the goal was to get noticed with small yet flashy parts on the stage before graduating to critically lauded roles in television. From that stepping-off point, the next move was generally a feature motion picture to test the waters and see where your thespian lot was to ultimately lay. It was a tried-and-true method applied by the likes of James Dean, Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. That’s all changed now, of course. Things are more fluid. Don’t believe us? The Julia Roberts of 1990s Pretty Woman would appear to have no relation to the Roberts that starred in 2018’s AMC series Homecoming. Simply put, that earlier incarnation of the Sleeping With the Enemy star would have considered it career suicide to step outside the lane of theatrical movies to work on an ongoing episodic TV show. It just wasn’t done. Now of course we don’t bat an eyelash when A-List movie talent wanders in from the cineplex to put down stakes on our boob tubes. Though some may argue that the back-and-forth between film and television has stripped away some of the magic and mystique that movie stars such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt used to cultivate, we generally think it’s a good thing. Like I said up at the top: Democratization between the two mediums has truly been a game-changer in Hollywood. The recent worldwide pandemic, too, hastened the blurring lines between small and big screen with many movie theaters being unable to fully operate (if at all) during the height of things, making streaming even more lucrative for actors looking for work.
Perhaps the biggest example of a reigning box-office champ eschewing the big screen for the small is that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beloved for his turns in The Terminator franchise as well as his work in other films like Total Recall, Eraser, True Lies and Twins, Schwarzenegger snapped everyone to wake with his decision to pursue a starring role in a television series, the very first time he’s ventured into that land on an ongoing basis. The end result was the Netflix hit series Fubar which saw the Kindergarten Cop star play a nearly retired CIA agent who, upon uncovering a dark family secret, decides he needs to do one last job before calling it quits.
In its short time on Netflix (the series proper only premiered this past May) FUBAR resounded with audiences and it’s a safe bet to say that some of Schwarzenegger’s loyal moviegoing audience intermingled and locked hands with TV fanatics to score the action hero one of the biggest entertainment successes he’s had in some time.
From our The Last Action Hero admirers over at The Hollywood Reporter comes the welcome news that Netflix series FUBAR has been renewed for a sophomore season. The streaming behemoth announced the news at the recent fan extravaganza known as Tudum.
Don’t hold your breath for too long waiting for the new season of FUBAR: With an ever ongoing writer’s strike and rumblings of an actor’s strike in the pipeline, it looks as if it will be mid-2024 at the earliest before the series is ready to premiere any new episodes.
So whether by “democratization” or by necessity (or both), we’re happy to have Mr. Schwarzenegger and Co. entertain us with one of the better series currently on the air, FUBAR!
