It’s game on in Hulu’s ‘Future Man’
“So this is ‘Last Starfighter’ meets ‘Quantum Leap’ now?” asks Josh Futterman, the so-called hero of Hulu’s new series “Future Man.”
Josh (Josh Hutcherson of “The Hunger Games” series) is a janitor at a science lab, lives at home with his parents and is obsessed with a violent video game called Biotic Wars, which no one has ever beaten until now. When he does, he celebrates alone, thinking about the hot female warrior in the game, Tiger (Eliza Coupe, “Happy Endings”) when she and another warrior, Wolf (Derek Wilson, “Preacher”), suddenly appear.
The game has been a secret test from the future, and Tiger and Wolf believe Josh is a real warrior who will save humanity since the video game is used as a training exercise in their time. Of course, Josh can’t do much. “Why would anybody play video games if they could do a bunch of cool (stuff) in real life?” he explains to them.
Soon, though, the trio is off to the day of the moon landing in 1969, when a scientist attends a Cal Tech party and — short explanation — sends humanity spiraling toward extinction.
This 13-episode halfhour hybrid sci-fi comedy series is from the minds behind “Sausage Party” — Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir. So there are plenty of gross-out jokes and cultural references.
The trip to ‘69 soon throws in some “Terminator” and “Back to the Future” and a visit to Canter’s deli where Wolf, who has never had real food, is enchanted with those little green logs.
It turns out that Josh’s plan doesn’t work, and he and his two companions, who know nothing about human interaction, must rethink their plans, There are some goofy moments in “Future Man” that are worth it, but two or three episodes at a time is probably best.
The mashup of comedy and violence in the show is often uneasy. It works better in “Preacher” — also from Rogen and Goldberg — because the AMC show
FUTURE MAN
What: Comedy series follows a janitor (Josh Hutcherson) who suddenly finds himself charged with the task of traveling through time to save the human race. When: Available today. Where: HULU is a drama with a violent premise, so the laughs are unexpected and wanted.
In “Future Man,” it bounces amusingly along for a while and suddenly becomes weirdly sci-fi serious. In the third episode, “A Riphole in Time,” there’s a plot twist that makes you wonder what you signed up for.
Still, “Future Man” is intriguing enough to keep you going, but I wouldn’t call it one to binge.