The Brink shows promise as a capable satire of current American foreign policy.
The HBO dark-comedy seems to aspire to the tradition of other TV shows and films that used dark humor to explore national angst, such as the early seasons of M*A*S*H* (and the Robert Altman movie that inspired it) that spoke to America's ambivalence about our Cold War interventions in Eastern Asia. And of course The Brink has already been compared many times to Dr. Strangelove.
The Situation Room scenes capture a "seat-of-the-pants" approach to a major foreign crisis that is probably more authentic than many of us would care to believe. There is no rule book for the President to follow, only the gladiatorial combat of Cabinet secretary egos.
The three principle characters are a hard-drinking Secretary of State with a penchant for call-girls played by Tim Robbins, a middling foreign service officer at the American Embassy in Pakistan played by Jack Black who devotes more time to scoring weed and hitting on female colleagues in the international diplomatic corps than he does to the clean water projects he is ostensibly there to work on, and a U.S. Navy fighter pilot played by Pablo Schreiber, who is up to his neck in personal and financial problems and who supplements his income by selling (and sampling) prescription drugs supplied by his pharmacist ex-wife.
As an editorial: the Schreiber character, Lt. Zeke Tilson, requires the greatest suspension of disbelief. For pretty much the exact reasons depicted in the show, the Navy has many layers of regular fitness evaluations, flight physicals and random drug screenings to make sure a screw-up like Tilson would never get near the cockpit of a $30 million F/A-18 fighter-bomber.
Robbins admirably walks a fine-line between affability and smugness. For all his character's excesses, his Secretary of State Walter Larsen is developing as someone fiercely committed to peace and diplomacy and keeping bloodshed from spiraling out of control.
Jack Black is good in these darker roles and he infuses what could easily be a one-note character with a compelling sense of appreciation for the gravity of events he suddenly finds himself in.
The show is rounded out by an excellent supporting cast who all shine in their secondary roles. Esai Morales is convincing as a chief executive who has to think about what seems presidential while trying not to let on that he feels in over his head. Maribeth Monroe is excellent as Larsen's chief assistant and confidant who knows that if she can manage her bosses many human failings, he may actually be able to do some good in the world, and some of the show's best comedic lines have been delivered by Eric Ladin's Glenn "Jammer" Taylor- who rides shotgun as Tilson's naval flight officer- stoned out of his gourde on morphine while his finger is literally on a trigger that could start World War III.
Aasif Mandvi is fantastic as Jack Black's embassy driver and local connection. His character Rafiq is a great stand-in for young moderates throughout Central Asia who hope to see their nations move towards modernity and who often feel trapped between the volatility in the own country's leadership and their suspicions about feckless interference from the West.
So far The Brink has delivered some good laughs, but not as consistently as the similarly satirical Veep. The cast is all very good and their chemistry seems to be gelling.
While The Brink won't achieve the iconic status of a M*A*S*H* or Dr. Strangelove, it may one day be a program we can look back on and get a good sense of the angst and uncertainty of a time when drone-strikes, the toxic mix of nuclear weapons and religious zealotry, and America confronting the limits of its military "solutions" was front-and-center on the minds of those who set policy, those who carry out policy and those who have to live with those policies.
The HBO dark-comedy seems to aspire to the tradition of other TV shows and films that used dark humor to explore national angst, such as the early seasons of M*A*S*H* (and the Robert Altman movie that inspired it) that spoke to America's ambivalence about our Cold War interventions in Eastern Asia. And of course The Brink has already been compared many times to Dr. Strangelove.
The Situation Room scenes capture a "seat-of-the-pants" approach to a major foreign crisis that is probably more authentic than many of us would care to believe. There is no rule book for the President to follow, only the gladiatorial combat of Cabinet secretary egos.
The three principle characters are a hard-drinking Secretary of State with a penchant for call-girls played by Tim Robbins, a middling foreign service officer at the American Embassy in Pakistan played by Jack Black who devotes more time to scoring weed and hitting on female colleagues in the international diplomatic corps than he does to the clean water projects he is ostensibly there to work on, and a U.S. Navy fighter pilot played by Pablo Schreiber, who is up to his neck in personal and financial problems and who supplements his income by selling (and sampling) prescription drugs supplied by his pharmacist ex-wife.
As an editorial: the Schreiber character, Lt. Zeke Tilson, requires the greatest suspension of disbelief. For pretty much the exact reasons depicted in the show, the Navy has many layers of regular fitness evaluations, flight physicals and random drug screenings to make sure a screw-up like Tilson would never get near the cockpit of a $30 million F/A-18 fighter-bomber.
Robbins admirably walks a fine-line between affability and smugness. For all his character's excesses, his Secretary of State Walter Larsen is developing as someone fiercely committed to peace and diplomacy and keeping bloodshed from spiraling out of control.
Jack Black is good in these darker roles and he infuses what could easily be a one-note character with a compelling sense of appreciation for the gravity of events he suddenly finds himself in.
The show is rounded out by an excellent supporting cast who all shine in their secondary roles. Esai Morales is convincing as a chief executive who has to think about what seems presidential while trying not to let on that he feels in over his head. Maribeth Monroe is excellent as Larsen's chief assistant and confidant who knows that if she can manage her bosses many human failings, he may actually be able to do some good in the world, and some of the show's best comedic lines have been delivered by Eric Ladin's Glenn "Jammer" Taylor- who rides shotgun as Tilson's naval flight officer- stoned out of his gourde on morphine while his finger is literally on a trigger that could start World War III.
Aasif Mandvi is fantastic as Jack Black's embassy driver and local connection. His character Rafiq is a great stand-in for young moderates throughout Central Asia who hope to see their nations move towards modernity and who often feel trapped between the volatility in the own country's leadership and their suspicions about feckless interference from the West.
So far The Brink has delivered some good laughs, but not as consistently as the similarly satirical Veep. The cast is all very good and their chemistry seems to be gelling.
While The Brink won't achieve the iconic status of a M*A*S*H* or Dr. Strangelove, it may one day be a program we can look back on and get a good sense of the angst and uncertainty of a time when drone-strikes, the toxic mix of nuclear weapons and religious zealotry, and America confronting the limits of its military "solutions" was front-and-center on the minds of those who set policy, those who carry out policy and those who have to live with those policies.