Hulu’s Future Man released its highly anticipated second season on Jan. 11.
Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) travel back in time from the year 2162 to recruit Josh Futterman (Josh Hutcherson) for their dwindling group of resistance fighters.
The show follows the group’s misguided attempts to save humanity from the herpes cure, which turns all those who receive it into perfect beings called Biotics.
Season one revolved around traveling back in time to prevent the doctor who cured herpes, Elias Kronish (Keith David), from ever contracting the disease.
After numerous failed attempts, they decide to kill Kronish and destroy his lab.
Season one utilized raunchy humor and intelligent consequences involved with time travel to tell a fully realized story.
Season two, however, takes place primarily in the future since the Time Travel Device (TTD) runs out of fuel after Tiger and Wolf return to their time.
Unfortunately, the cure for herpes was still discovered by Kronish’s partner Stu Camillo (Haley Joel Osmet), who has survived by becoming an A.I. hologram.
TTDs were never discovered in this timeline, so the majority of the season deals with Tiger and Wolf attempting to acclimate to their drastically different future.
Instead of the ongoing war between the resistance and the Biotics, Tiger and Wolf discover that a similar war had just concluded in their new timeline.
Instead of an engaging story, this season ends up being a meandering mess of jokes that only land every other time. Characters often disappear for episodes at a time for no reason and their individual stories stagnate more often than not.
The show lost all sense of progress until the last four episodes, and when the story did pick up it got confusing fast.
The strength of the season lays in Camillo, the villain.
Camillo is usually a believable character, with a few exceptions throughout the show. His life philosophy helps his actions make sense from a logical standpoint.
After its phenomenal first season I expected an equally good second. What we got was a funny mess of convoluted plot points and static characters.