Critical Condition: Future Man

Future Man | Lightbox, from today

➢ “Part Back to the Future, part The Last Starfighter , this 13- episode half-hour series from the minds behind Sausage Party (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir) is a fine addition to the sci-fi-meets-comedy universe. There are, of course, plenty of gross-out jokes … But the humour goes beyond the easy laughs, skewering everything and everyone from gamers to Bill Cosby, kombucha, and Corey Hart.” — Entertainment Weekly.

➢ “Josh Hutcherson plays Josh Futturman, a bored janitor whose only solace is his favorite shoot-‘em-up videogame. The show takes far too long to lay out a premise that could have been covered in a few short scenes: The game is actually a recruiting tool for potential real-life warriors, and after some plodding and predictable set-up, he’s drawn into a series of time-traveling shenanigans that may save the world from future disaster.” — Variety.

➢ “The characters are appealing and their story, through all its ridiculous twists and turns, genuinely involving; even when you know where it’s going, it’s a treat to get there. For all the mayhem that occurs along the way, the show is good-hearted and aspirational and steeped in family feeling.” — Los Angeles Times.

➢ “A pilot that gets its biggest reaction from a shot of semen shows signs of progressing into a more varied show, if not always a more mature show … There’s actual melancholy in one conversation about Marty McFly’s experience at the end of Back to the Future and then there’s pure, Hollywood-loving laughs in a visit to the high-tech house of a legendary Hollywood director. What starts off loud and obnoxious gradually finds ways to build character moments around the spurting bodily fluids and profanities.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

➢ “Future Man is not unwatchable, but it’s pretty bad … The end product is another example of a TV series labouring to extrude a couple of hours’ worth of plot over 13 half-hour installments while substituting a knowledge of popular culture for storytelling chops and characters you care about.” — New York.