The Brink

It has been an exceedingly rare quality in people I have met in my more than half century of life who do not enjoy laughing. Whenever I have met someone incapable of freely indulging in one of the healthiest of human expressions, I have experienced a deep sympathy for whatever it is inside them that has been so badly broken. I believe most emotionally healthy people feel similarly about those poor souls who cannot for the life of them, allow their polished and fragile veneer become softened by levity. I believe the sheer volume of comedies produced throughout the world of entertainment television stands as a testament to this fundamental human need to cope with a world so seemingly beyond reason.

Every season it seems we are presented with a plethora of choices to placate this critical bone in our anatomical coping mechanism. Every season we find almost all but a few of these attempts at tickling our spirits fade away into forgotten obscurity. Given the sheer number of comedy shows network stations churn through on an annual basis, one can only imagine how high the number is which comprises the sum total of efforts at succeeding in this venture. It is stunning to realize upon reflection, just how few actually succeed beyond mere survival as a viable production spanning years of business success.

Upon surveying the landscape of comedic offerings throughout the decades, one cannot help but be stunned by the shockingly rare few which manage to transcend transiently entertaining humor which placates our humour needs beyond the duration of its production run and survives as legendary comedy for decades. This is not to say that there have not been successes which continue to find new audiences through the churning of rerun programming, only that few of the many offerings stand as a testament to comedy greatness that are celebrated long after the creators and cast members have departed our plane of existence.

Sure, there are many clever offerings which embed themselves within niche market demographics to live on in the hearts of those for whom that show finds appeal. There exist an exceedingly sparse number however which manage to combine enough of a range of comedic elements to surprise and delight audiences across demographic boundaries. A show like M.A.S.H. for example, is the sort of comedy masterpiece which manages to remain relevant and funny long after the issues and sensibilities of the day spawned its creation.

I believe The Brink has managed within only a few episodes to demonstrate a potential to achieve this stratospheric class of legendary status. It serves up a delectable mix of both intelligent insight into the issues of our day while treating them with the sort of timeless irreverence that pushes an audience beyond mere chuckles and into rip roaring laughter. It is a combination of a critique into the sorry state of today's global political environment and the sort of zaniness which stops short of being tirelessly repetitive slapstick.

The large cast of characters comprise many well known stars who have entertained us with both laughter and heart-wrenching drama for decades. Perhaps it is this mix which adds to the dimension offered by the show but it never lets us as an audience, to wallow in the gravity of a premise based upon a widely expected and feared ultimate conflict between nations. The Brink is about a series of events occurring across the globe in a semi-stable, semi-democratic nation taken over by a coup which sets off a chain of events to threaten our world with a global war. No topic could be more serious to us a species struggling to establish a global form of social stability than this fundamental fear we all share. Not once however, are we as an audience concerned with the sheer volume of acts of stupidity engaged in by the various characters as they face crisis after crisis; and many due to their own ineptitude, negligence, or sheer myopic vision. We simply shake our heads and speculate on how remarkably accurate some of the scenes might be in rendering what feels otherwise like plausible scenarios - at least in the sense that the events themselves are credible. The reactions of and interactions between characters however represent a form of lunacy which could not occur in the manner they do if these were real people facing real life situations and I believe this contrast between deadly seriousness and cartoonish behaviour is what lends itself to a concoction of humour rife with potential for years to come. In some ways, this blend reminds me of the early years of M.A.S.H's run and its subject matter certainly does lend itself toward introducing moments of poignant gravity which we have yet to experience, and which I believe if done properly, can establish this show as a socially transformative masterpiece in a similar way.

I am certainly not looking forward to being hammered with an object lesson in the penitent state of our global politics because I am enjoying the feeling of laughing out loud to a comedy in ways I rarely have an opportunity to do. I do note however, that an unrelenting diet of insanity can overwhelm the senses in a way which makes the experience of being an audience member one that can begin to feel repetitive. I think we are far from being in danger of this happening because the stage has only begun being set in these first few episodes while the raunchiness has been steadily increased in a measured manner to leave much room at the top of the dial before breaking the red line into the danger zone of ridiculous.

Of all the comedic offerings I have seen and enjoy, this is the only one to grab my attention on the day of its release and leaves me panting for more.