‘Obliterated’ Hunk Nick Zano Is TV’s Next Great Action Star

Obliterated, Netflix’s new action comedy, starts with a bang. An American special forces group has successfully dismantled a nuclear bomb that was set to destroy Las Vegas and, with it, change the U.S. forever. With that out of the way, the partying can start. And man, does this team know how to party!

There’s been a dearth of R-rated action comedies recently, and Obliterated, created by Cobra Kai’s Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, and Josh Heald, is an outrageous return to the genre. The concept is an excellent one—after the group parties all night, they discover that the bomb they dismantled was a fake: at 9 am, the real nuke will go off. Now wasted and on a wide array of substances, the team has to band together and save Vegas.

It’s refreshing to see a show that has absolutely no aspirations of being prestige television—Obliterated is silly, ridiculous, raunchy, and a whole lot of fun. But the biggest reason Obliterated is a hit is thanks to the terrific work of lead actor Nick Zano, who will now become your next action hero obsession.

Fans of The CW’s Arrowverse will likely recognize Zano from his role as Nate Heywood, a time-traveling historian in Legends of Tomorrow. But for the rest of us, his role in Obliterated is an exciting opportunity to see an actor take full command of his talents.

Zano plays the aptly named Chad McKnight, a Navy SEAL unafraid to follow his instincts. After the (fake) bomb is dismantled, he sets the party in motion: “If the world knew what we did here today, they’d want us to party like the rockstars we are. Fuck! They’d demand it.” Seconds earlier, everyone was content with going home, but Zano infuses McKnight with the swagger of a leader, dripping with a charisma that makes you want to follow him. If McKnight wants to party, then there’s gonna be partying.

At first glance, McKnight is pretty obnoxious. He’s a hard-headed, steely guy who does his job well, but he’s pretty misogynistic—he refers to hacker Maya (Kimi Rutledge) exclusively as “Tech Chick.” All this guy wants to do is have a good time, whether that’s taking down enemies or having sex with every woman in sight. His end-of-mission gifts for his team include a tank top for fellow SEAL Trunk (Terrence Terrell) that reads “This is what happens in Vegas” with a down arrow pointing to his genitalia, and a giant glow-in-the-dark dildo for sniper Angela Gomez (Paola Lázaro). And you better believe he shows up to the party in a cowboy hat, because of course he does.

One of the most interesting elements of Obliterated is how the show sets things up as an over-the-top bro fantasy, before completely breaking it down. It almost feels a bit squeamish, as if the first 30 minutes of the show were written by a 4chan forum. “McKnight might be the cockiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met, but that’s why the ladies love him,” Gomez excitedly tells Maya. Everyone feels like an archetype rather than a person, and nobody more than McKnight.

It turns out there’s a lot more to Zano’s character than being a muscular dudebro who likes to, as Gomez puts it, “fuck anything with a pulse.” Speaking with The Daily Beast Obsessed, Obliterated co-creator told us “What we loved is showing these heroes are like any one of us. We really wanted to humanize them. We did that by getting them drunk, getting them stoned, and taking them on an adventure. We wanted to get underneath the surface of the characters, and really get into the interpersonal dynamics.”

That may sound surprising from the way Obliterated sets things up, but it's the key to what makes the show special. Beyond the hijinks (and there are a lot of hijinks), Obliterated turns these archetypes into one of the most entertaining and loveable casts in recent memory. “It was about creating a show where everyone is on this adventure together.” For the show to work, the squad has to feel believable, and their chemistry is palpable. And while Ava Winters (Shelley Hennig) is the team leader, it’s McKnight who everyone rallies around, and Zano’s performance is vital to the crackling team chemistry.

While most of the team got to know each other only recently, McKnight has served with Trunk as a SEAL for years, and they’ve become the best of friends. But Trunk has a secret he’s terrified to tell McKnight—he’s gay. That’s an especially daunting task in an ultra-macho world like the military, especially in the uber-masculine world of Obliterated. But when McKnight accidentally finds Trunk with another man, he’s shocked, but only for a second. He immediately regains composure and asks Trunk with a warm smile if he wants to talk about it. There’s a genuine sweetness to his tone, and also a considerable naivety—McKnight is prepping for a heart-to-heart while Trunk is standing over the man who was fellating him pre-interruption.

This quick moment is a huge part of what makes Zano’s performance so exciting. He has the machismo befitting a Navy SEAL, and his prowess in action scenes is remarkable. But what’s really special is how Zano channels the surprising charm and tenderness of McKnight. By layering realizations (Trunk is gay, interrupting Trunk’s sex) into his macho exterior, Zano is able to mine a special tenderness of his character.

A lot of Obliterated rests on Zano’s shoulders. He has to keep the endless barrage of bonkers action and Vegas/drug-induced craziness feeling grounded while making his character and the group dynamic believable. He manages it not just admirably, but expertly. Peeling back the layers of a character is always exciting, but Zano makes it extremely fun, too. McKnight is not the archetypal party guy we thought he was—thanks to Zano’s craft, he’s a full-fledged, bona fide action star.