I searched but didn’t find any threads on it.
It’s styled as a madcap comedy, filled with improbably crazy characters. There’s president who can’t make a decision that lasts longer than the next whisper into his ear. There are Secretaries of State and Defense who shout “Fuck You!” at each other during White House meetings. There’s an End of Times ambassador who’s hoping Pakistan and India nuke each other.
It’s rather uneven but it’s funny enough that I’ve stuck with it.
Watching as we speak. Episode 6.
We enjoy it immensely, even if it’s not perfect.
I got about halfway through the first episode and gave up.
I think it’s great. The plotline is a little scattered, like they write each episode after the last one airs, but it is funny and some of the performances are fantastic.
Tim Robbins as Sec State is brilliant, Jack Black plays his role in an understated way, and the two fighter jocks are perfect in a slapstick role. Also like the Pakistani guy who works at the Embassy and John Laroquette, who is a Rapture obsessed Ambassador.
Good stuff.
I really like it. Not as much as Silicon Valley, but miles and miles more than this season of True Detective. It never quite goes where you expect it to.
I enjoy the mix of humor while dealing with actual real world concerns. Let’s just say how the Israeli official describes the US’s relationship with Israel is spot on.
The Pakistani guy os played by Asif Mandvi (sp?), best known as a *Daily Show *correspondent.
I’ve seen the last 15 minutes or so of each episode (and all of the first one) since it is on before John Oliver.
Nothing has made me want to get to the TV 15 minutes earlier.
Would probably be better without Jack Black, but very enjoyable. Could imagine that the depiction of the political negotiations is pretty close to how it is in real life, so it’s educational and funny…
I came back to mention one thing I forgot.
The writer or director or someone with powerful input into what gets on TV is seriously obsessed with penises. There hasn’t been an episode yet where a penis joke doesn’t play a big part and is often a major plot point.
The first couple of episodes featured clear shots (one of them full-frontal) of one guy’s enormously enhanced penis. It is a triumph of CGI in that, while obviously unrealistic, it still looks like a regular penis, just twice as big as a normal one. It almost makes you think “Is that real?” for a second before realizing it’s obviously not.
Unless you know guys who have to fold theirs in half in order to get it back into their pants.
Please refresh my memory.
I am enjoying it a lot, I never know where the next episode is going, and nothing in the news convinces me that this isn’t how world politics works.
When the Israeli person they barged in on in Israel (not Prime Minister but a higher up) said it was the Right Wing conservatives who protect Israel, even though all they want is for the Israelis to make sure the lights are on for when their Messiah gets back.
Cracked me up the way she said and the fact she did say it.
I said the same thing in the Silicon Valley thread and I’ll repeat it here: I’d watch this show even if it weren’t a comedy because I genuinely want to know what will happen next. Which is fortunate in the case of The Brink because I don’t actually find it very funny. Sometimes it seems to fall into the “yelling and swearing is automatically hilarious” fallacy, for instance.
I’ve said many times that if a comedy fails to be funny then it’s a failure, but maybe I’ll have to soften that opinion. Or maybe I’ll just internally reclassify The Brink as a “satirical thriller” or something like that.
I thought she was the foreign minister, i.e. their equivalent of secretary of state.
For some reason, I cracked up when she yelled “Get the fuck out of my office!”
“Satirical thriller”…that works for me (I react very similarly to the show).
They keep it moving and it’s never unintelligent. But it’s definitely not a laugh-riot type of show.
It’s been mostly okay. Some good bits, some blah.
The 8/9 episode was the best of the season IMHO.
I get a kick out of Pablo Schreiber. “Hey, it’s Nicky/Pornstache!” Tim Robbins did a really fine job in that last episode. Plus the art “dealers” were fun.
OTOH, Jack Black just barely does his job.
Tim Robbins definitely carries the weight of the show. Aasif is the second best.
And I never expected it to be anything above an absurdist thriller, which it is. It’s had a few laugh out loud moments, nearly always involving Robbins, which I imagine as Bill doing Hillary’s last job. 