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Obliterated is like a two-hour action/buddy comedy, but which takes place over 8 episodes, and with many buddies, given the sizeable main cast.
Sassy Ava Winters (Shelley Hennig – Teen Wolf: The Movie) and meathead Chad McKnight (Nick Zano) lead a SOCOM team, where they travel the world extinguishing baddies, whilst ridding it from any life-threatening situations. The main problem for all of them being, that since they do everything undercover, they feel very unappreciated as as a result.
The task, initially, is to locate and bring down Ivan Koslov (Costa Ronin), who has set up a nuclear device and could blow Las Vegas apart, which at least gives them a nice location in which to work. However, once they’ve dealt with that, and partied like it’s 1999 again, there’s more work to do, since there’s even bigger one to deal with, and it will also involve Ivan’s father, Dimitri, who’s an even bigger bigwig in the terrorist business.
So far I’ve seen the first two episodes, the second of which briefly goes back six months to the start of the mision, when they were all getting to know each other, seeing Ava and Chad do the business, and with them (verbally) bouncing off each other like David and Maddie in Moonlighting.
Credit also to C Thomas Howell as bomb-disposal expert & consumate professional drunk, Hagerty, for whom the job has clearly taken its told… as well as some of his fingers.
However, when it comes to dealing with the baddies, he’s a meathead who uses his fists as often as possible, and even in a situation where bullets are flying, why doesn’t Ava wear any headgear? Doesn’t she want to ruin her hairdo??
So far, this utterly ridiculous nonsense – temporarily deviating in order to drip-feed personal information about the characters along the way, but I am very much enjoying it. One mad example is that at one point – due to forgetting to use the toilet, Ava has to pee into a can while on the helicopter with the rest of her team, as well as in front of a witness, eventually declaring: “I swear we’re all professionals!” – although Chad enquiries, “Do you eat asparagus?”
Eww…
Also, the opening episode features a cool Wanted-style bullet tracking shot, and the best of the team is clearly “tech chick” nerdy Maya Lerner, playing by the stunning Kimi Rutledge.
And just wait for a particular callback to Varsity Blues, which I haven’t seen, and so certainly got a surprise with this!
However, despite the 18-certificate, when it comes to a ridiculous sex scene between two characters, while almost everything from the man is on show, for the woman, hey, they just can’t show any nipples, can they(?) And I’m sure they were even blurred out at one point, amongst the derring do.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Obliterated is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from today.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50-60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: November 30th 2023
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Joel Novoa, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, America Young
Producer: Kelly A Manners
Music: Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson
Writers: Laurie Magers, Bob Dearden, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Rachele Lynn, Hayden Schlossberg, Joe Piarulli
Cast:
Ava Winters: Shelley Hennig
Chad McKnight: Nick Zano
Maya Lerner: Kimi Rutledge
Hagerty: C Thomas Howell
Angela Gomez: Paola Lázaro
Lana: Alyson Gorske
Trunk: Terrence Terrell
Paul Yung: Eugene Kim
CIA Director James Langdon: Carl Lumbly
Vlad: Ivan G’Vera
Ivan Koslov: Costa Ronin
Gleb: Neal Kodinsky
Sarah: Jade Bender
Alexei: Ryan de Quintal
Boris: Roman Mitichyan
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.