Obliterated brings back the raunchy, yet epic ‘90s action through an inter-organization task force from the best of the best. From the team of Cobra Kai, it was expected to bring back some nostalgia, and it delivers with crazy, coked-up shenanigans with over-the-top explosions and great fight scenes in the neon-lit party city of Las Vegas. That being said, the actual story spreads thin across eight episodes, and the story beats are familiar if you’ve watched plenty of action films before, but it’s totally entertaining as they scramble around to get their wits together to be sober enough to fight old school Russian terrorists.
A special forces team thwarts a deadly plot in Sin City and parties accordingly. But when the real threat emerges, they must sober up to save Las Vegas.
After deactivating a bomb strong enough to destroy Las Vegas, an elite special forces team lets loose and celebrates in a drinks-flowing, drug-spiked party. However, they discover that what they deactivated as a fake, and while intoxicated, they have to find the real bomb to save the world.
We’re all used to highly competent, fully functioning sleek spy teams in action films, that they’re already a staple in the genre. Most times, the team tends to be sober, serious, and tightly laced. Drama usually stems from trauma, sworn enemies, or good ol’ fashioned saving the world. This time, however, the special forces team of Obliterated is decidedly unserious and crude, even as team leaders Ava Winters and Paul Young try to keep the team in check. And when drinks and drugs are added to the mix, and things between the team get messy, it adds dramatic tension, and comedic shenanigans, when the team has to reconvene to finish the mission. These tropes aren’t particularly new, but the way they’re remixed is, and it’s fun to see the team duke it out, even if it takes eight episodes to get there.
Crazy entertaining, if you can forgive the near eight hour runtime for what should be a feature-length film.
