Future Man (2017) Review: A Brilliant, Unruly Comedy That Couldn't Sustain Its Own Madness - 8/10 Future Man burst onto the scene with a first season that was nothing short of a perfect 10/10. It was a shockingly clever, relentlessly funny, and beautifully stupid deconstruction of 80s sci-fi tropes. The premise—a janitor and gamer, Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson), is recruited by cybernetic soldiers from the future to save the world based on his skills in a video game—was a masterclass in high-concept comedy. The chemistry between Josh, the hyper-violent Tiger (Eliza Coupe), and the socially inept Wolf (Derek Wilson) was electric, propelling them through a riotous tour of time periods that felt both fresh and hilariously unhinged.
Why Season 1 Was a Masterpiece
The first season worked because it balanced its absurdity with a surprising amount of heart and a tightly plotted, mission-based structure. Every episode was a self-contained adventure that advanced the larger arc, packed with razor-sharp parodies of films like The Terminator , Back to the Future , and The Last Starfighter . The jokes landed with machine-gun precision, and the character development, particularly Wolf's emotional awakening, was genuinely touching amidst the chaos.
The Downward Drag: Seasons 2 & 3
This is where the overall score drops to an 8/10 . The show's initial strength—its premise—became its biggest challenge. Having resolved the "save the world" plot in Season 1, the subsequent seasons felt like the writers were figuring it out as they went along.
Season 2 stranded the trio in a psychedelic, post-apocalyptic 1969. While it had its moments (the send-up of The Leftovers was inspired), the setting grew repetitive, and the plot lost the clear, driving focus of the first season. The humor began to rely more on gross-out gags and running jokes that were stretched thin.Season 3 attempted a course correction with a time-traveling corporate conspiracy, but it felt rushed and convoluted. The spark of the original dynamic was dimmed as the characters were often separated, and the series finale, while ambitious, tried to cram too much philosophical resolution into too little time, failing to recapture the magic of its peak.
The Verdict
8/10 - A Must-Watch First Season with Diminishing Returns
Future Man is a testament to a brilliant idea that burned too brightly to be sustained. The first season is an all-time-great comedy season that stands entirely on its own. While Seasons 2 and 3 drag the overall score down with their meandering plots and a noticeable dip in joke density, they still contain enough of the cast's brilliant chemistry and the show's signature WTF moments to be worth watching for fans.
It’s a rollercoaster: a thrilling, perfect first climb, followed by a couple of loops that are still fun but don't quite match the initial adrenaline rush. Watch it for a phenomenal Season 1, and view the rest as a sometimes-great, sometimes-messy victory lap.
