Con SuiteThe Reactor

Future Man brings Campy Humor to Hulu

by Transmute Jun

Future Man — Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson), shown.

We’ve heard the story before. A young man beats a difficult video game, only to find out that it was just a test, and is suddenly embroiled in an unexpected war. We saw it in The Last Starfighter film, and more recently we read about it in Ernest Cline’s book Armada. And this is how Hulu’s newest show, Future Man, begins.

That all falls apart in the first few minutes.

The twist here is that Josh Futturman, the video gamer in question, is actually a terrible fighter. He’s the stereotypical nerd who works as a janitor and still lives with his parents, barely able to hold his life together. He’s only good at one thing: the video game Biotic Wars. But playing a video game has nothing to do with his real life skills, much to the disappointment of Tiger and Wolf, the two futuristic humans who expect Josh to be their Savior in the real-life fight against the Biotics. So where do they go from there? As it turns out, the show heads into Back-to-the-Future-style time travel and comedy, taking the viewer places they probably hadn’t imagined upon hearing the premise of the show.

So what is Future Man? It’s a light, campy show with a strong dose of crude humor and pop culture references, familiar to fans of Last Man on Earth. Yet unlike that program, Future Man has an interesting story: enough to make the viewer want to see more as they learn about the problems of future Earth and how they might be resolved by changing our actions in the present time. There’s a bit of a ‘car crash’ quality to Future Man, in that you can’t stop watching. You just have to see what the next episode brings, which makes this show perfect for binging. Conveniently, Hulu plans to release all 13 episodes at once on November 14th.

Hulu has been working hard to bring a variety of original programming to the table, from the heavy drama of The Handmaid’s Tale to the historical tale of 11.22.63, to the superhero action of The Runaways. Future Man further expands the selection, bringing a show for fans of B-movie and sci-fi humor to the roster.

Future Man stars Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games), who also acts as producer. The show is headed by a number of executive producers, notably Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (Preacher). The cast also includes Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings, Quantico) and Derek Wilson (Preacher) as the futuristic humans attempting to recruit Josh, as well as Ed Begley Jr. (St. Elsewhere, Better Call Saul) and Glenne Headly (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dick Tracy) as Josh’s parents.

Do you plan to watch Future Man? Join the conversation on FoCC!

Transmute Jun

Transmute Jun has an addiction to pop culture conventions, and attends as many as she can each year. When she's not traveling, she likes to stay at home reading a good book, playing a video game, or binge-watching a TV show. She can be bribed with pizza, Coke Zero and Belgian milk chocolate.