Rating: 5/5 stars

After his work on “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Cobra Kai,” it was no surprise that director and screenwriter Josh Heald (“Plan B”) blew us all away with “Obliterated.” The action-comedy stars Paola Lázaro (“The Walking Dead”), Nick Zano (“The Final Destination”), Terrence Terrell (“First Wives Club”), Kimi Rutledge (“Half Sister”), Eugene Kim (“Sake Bomb”), Shelley Hennig (“Teen Wolf”) and C. Thomas Howell (“The Outsiders”) acting as a team of undercover United States military agents tasked with arresting a Russian terrorist (Costa Ronin, “The Americans”) who plans to level Las Vegas with a nuclear weapon. However, after the mission is a success and the team thinks they are in the clear to go their separate ways, it is discovered that the bomb was fake and the real weapon is still set to be detonated. Drunk and high on party drugs, the team now must find the actual nuclear bomb and disarm it before it is too late. 

The casting pool was unmatched for this show; Howell blew me away in his role as serial killer and criminal mastermind, George Foyet in the American drama series, “Criminal Minds” so it was no surprise when he mastered the role of bomb specialist and unhinged wildcard, Haggerty. After her role as Malia Tate in “Teen Wolf,” it was a nice change of pace for Hennig to take on the role of Ava Winters, a rigid stickler for rules and always ahead of the game. Even Zano, he is not new to playing the arrogant heartthrob, but he does seem to nail the role every single time. It seems like he fits his role of Chad McKnight with a scary amount of accuracy, taking charge whenever a leader is needed and taking a “punch now, ask questions later” approach to situations. I was never familiar with Rutledge’s work, but after watching “Obliterated,” it is very tempting to go and explore the other projects she has done like “Indecent Exposure” and “Half Sisters.” It would be nice to see her step more into the limelight as “Obliterated” takes off.

 Heald uses action to open the show, drawing the audience in with an intense opening scene of the team being in the midst of an end-game undercover operation with all of their skills being put to the test. As the episodes progress, the comedy elements slowly protrude with the use of unconventional characters and dialogue that make you do a chuckling double take. The show does not beat around the bush when it comes to answering questions, but that does not necessarily mean it does not open doors for more realizations to be made as the series progresses—whether you realize it or not. Using unanswered questions, episode one does an excellent job of setting up the rest of the series with multiple factors to unravel the entire plot. However, it is not just the plot that kept me hooked, it was also the extremely raunchy comedy that flowed from the actors in a natural way; a show with that and government agents partying in Las Vegas gives a whole new meaning to “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

Image from Netflix via Youtube.com