The Brink - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Your Brink Topic!

[thuganomics85]

Usually don't blink much at sex and nudity, but seeing Tim Robbins being ridden by a call girl and getting a glimpse at his ass and pubic hair, might have thrown me for a loop there.  This is HBO, indeed.

 

I guess I was amused.  A few moments that made me laugh; a few times the jokes didn't work (are we still making remarks about pissing off Germans and getting sent to the gas chambers?  Come on...)  I actually think I liked the sidekicks the best.  Kendra was fun and I like how the actress plays of Tim Robbins, and I pretty much thought Aasif Mandvi stole all his scenes from Jack Black.  I almost would rather see more of Rafiq and his family instead of Alex being a goofy horndog.

 

Did like seeing Esai Morales as the President, even though sadly in real life, I suspect it could be a while before we ever see a Hispanic American President.

 

The stuff with the pilots were fun, even if I will always think of Pablo Schreiber as Nick from The Wire.

[Scootman]

Too much going on at times, but that's always the case for a pilot. I liked it, and will stick around to see where it goes.

 

All three story lines have a chance to be funny. Loved Walter's assistant, the Pakistan family was great and the pilots are really going to mess things up. 

 

Lots of familiar faces besides Robbins and Black and Esai Morales. Chief Matthews from Dexter as the Defense Secretary; Principal Figgins from Glee as the coup leader.

[Skyfall]

Too much going on at times, but that's always the case for a pilot. I liked it, and will stick around to see where it goes.

 

All three story lines have a chance to be funny. Loved Walter's assistant, the Pakistan family was great and the pilots are really going to mess things up. 

 

Lots of familiar faces besides Robbins and Black and Esai Morales. Chief Matthews from Dexter as the Defense Secretary; Principal Figgins from Glee as the coup leader.

Raj's dad who I think was also in Seinfied (or is that two different actors?) was also there.

[BusyOctober]

The drug selling pilot was "Pornstache" on Orange is the New Black. 

 

And Skyfall you are right...the crazy new Pakistani president is the same guy who plays Raj's dad and was also "Bahbu" (sp??) on Seinfeld. I also recognized the uncle from one of the "Mummy" movies and other roles.

 

I liked it enough to come back next week.

[Skyfall]

The drug selling pilot was "Pornstache" on Orange is the New Black. 

 

And Skyfall you are right...the crazy new Pakistani president is the same guy who plays Raj's dad and was also "Bahbu" (sp??) on Seinfeld. I also recognized the uncle from one of the "Mummy" movies and other roles.

 

I liked it enough to come back next week.

Not the President, the Dad.

[BusyOctober]

Oops! My bad... The crazy Prez is the principal from Glee

[fellini]

The first episode was hilarious. Tim Robbins character stole the show with his crazy comments. Anybody know the name of the Asian call girl? She was hot.

[iMonrey]

I thought it was pretty good. I was quite surprised because the promo spots really weren't grabbing me, but now I can see how this would be a tough show to market. It's smart and well-produced but not easy to encapsulate in small clips. 

 

 

I suspect it could be a while before we ever see a Hispanic American President.

 

From your fingertips to God's ears, if the choices are Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

[paigow]

Both Palmer brothers were POTUS on 24 before Obama. Then followed by female POTUS Taylor. This means Clinton gets in before Ted & Marco.

 

From your fingertips to God's ears, if the choices are Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

[ljp]

I'm afraid I didn't like it so much. I thought much of the dialogue (perhaps a direction issue) seemed terribly stilted. It seemed like an awful waste of good actors.

I pretty much thought Aasif Mandvi stole all his scenes from Jack

Agree with this. Also, while I love veep, the parts of veep that are ludicrous feel like they build out of something closer to realistic? This just jumped into ridiculous without build up or something.

I didn't think this was very good and I wanted to like it.

[AmandaPanda]

I love the concept of it and I really want to like the show. Right now, all the storylines feel disconnected, so it almost feels more like a sketch show to me. Once everything starts to connect, I think it will get better. It definitely has potential. I never thought I would willingly watch Jack Black on a regular basis, but as long as he's interacting with Aasif Mandvi, I kind of love him.

[ChaseMCP]

I agree that it felt very disconnected, but by the end it looked like it was merging together, so I'm hopeful.

 

I'm surprised how by the end I was actually liking it, since I spent the first 2/3 being unsure. I like the blunt humor it seems to be going for. I've always liked Tim Robbins and even though I don't like most of Jack Black's work, I've always liked him for some reason. Aasif Mandvi and him have a promising chemistry. And I don't really know the third guy, so I can't say too much about him yet. Overall, I'm in for another episode. 

[macrone]

Not the President, the Dad.

 

Neither. The actor who protrayed Babu on Seinfeld plays Raj's dad on The Big Bang Theory, but does not appear on this show. Here, Asif Mandvi's father is played by Marshall Manesh, whom most will recognize as Ranjit from How I Met Your Mother.

Edited June 25, 2015 by macrone

[Skyfall]

Neither. The actor who protrayed Babu on Seinfeld plays Raj's dad on The Big Bang Theory, but does not appear on this show. Here, Asif Mandvi's father is played by Marshall Manesh, whom most will recognize as Ranjit from How I Met Your Mother.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I knew I recognized him SOMEWHERE. I forgot about Ranjit.

[DrSpaceman]

The drug selling pilot was "Pornstache" on Orange is the New Black. 

 

And Skyfall you are right...the crazy new Pakistani president is the same guy who plays Raj's dad and was also "Bahbu" (sp??) on Seinfeld. I also recognized the uncle from one of the "Mummy" movies and other roles.

 

I liked it enough to come back next week.

 

 

Ahh.....Pornstache.  Hard to recognize him without his signature facial hair.  I kept thinking of one of the guys from Weeds, which may also be him without his facial hair, I meant to look it up

 

It has potential.  Found it amusing, though kind of hard to follow it all. 

[Skyfall]

It has potential.  Found it amusing, though kind of hard to follow it all. 

That's all HBO shows for me. It's why I try to watch each episode twice. My rewatch of this I found a lot more funny bits.

[TV Anonymous]

The first episode is full with, "Hey it's that guy!" among the cast. In no particular order, these are the shows / movies that first came to mind when I saw the characters, one for each:

 

Shawshank Redemption, King Kong, Night Court, Caprica, Dexter, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order: SVU and Glee.

[AmandaPanda]

It's so hard for me to take the Pakistani dictator as a serious threat because I can only think of him as Principal Figgins. All they need to do is send Sue Sylvester over to Pakistan and she'll whip the country into shape.

[Pollock]

Ahh.....Pornstache.  Hard to recognize him without his signature facial hair.  I kept thinking of one of the guys from Weeds, which may also be him without his facial hair, I meant to look it up

It's him! He played a drug dealer, one of Nancy lovers, the brother of her cell mate or something.

Pablo Schreiber is really talented and seems to work is ass off. Since 2011/12, he is everywhere : Lights Out, Weeds, A Gifted Man, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, SVU, OITNB... If I don't always like the shows he's in (case on point: Ironside*), I always like him, whatever his role is.

 

 

*ETA : and this show at the moment!

Edited June 27, 2015 by Pollock

[Former Nun]

I agree that it felt very disconnected, but by the end it looked like it was merging together, so I'm hopeful.

 

 

Sadly, I lost hope.  I have TOO many things to watch on a regular basis, so I'm sure I won't miss this.  I don't think the writing is equal to the actors on this show.   Jack Black always plays Jack Black...and in this case his "comedy relief" didn't cut it for me.

[thuganomics85]

 

Alex is captured by Zaman's soldiers and subjected to intense interrogation when they suspect he's working for the CIA. Meanwhile, Walter begs the president to delay the air strikes until he can reach someone in the Pakistani government; and Zeke and Glenn continue their high-stakes mission under extreme circumstances.

 

Trying to get laughs out of Jack Black getting water-boarded.  OK then...

 

Not enough Aasif Mandvi for me.  Without him, I just found Alex/Jack Black kind of grating in a lot of his scenes.  Enjoyed the Walter stuff more, especially now that Cara Gugino has showed up as his wife.  I hope it ends up that they both have an open relationship, and they aren't just cheating on each other. That would be a nice change of pace.

 

Still not sure how the fighter pilots are going to be needed for the entire season.

 

Next week: 

Jaimie Alexander! As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much of Lady Sif!

 

 

[marys1000]

I am a TV hound and have been forever.  There are things that don't grab me and just don't watch.  Rarely have I have thought "wow, this is just terrible".  Well I got about halfway through the first epi of this and though "wow, this is just terrible". 

 

The writing is very shallow, low hanging fruit type humor, the whole plot is very shallow low hanging fruit.  If you are going to do a send up about something people know about/real life it needs to be a send up, not just stupidly unlikely or insulting. Watch some Monty Python.   IDK, I never watched VEEP either, sort of the same reasons but I never had this sort of reaction. 

In some ways this seems to be just a VEEP replacement. 

 

And I don't care what Jack Black said on Jimmy Kimmel?  About making LA look like Islamabad and challenging anyone to see the difference, you can tell.  Looks and feels nothing like the Mid-East. Not to mention walking down the street smoking weed in Pakistan.  Right

 

Major WHIFF HBO.  Ballers is only 2.5 stars and True Detective's first epi wasn't so great either.  HBO is in a slump!

Edited June 29, 2015 by marys1000

[iMonrey]

I really like this show but . . . I don't know, I just don't have a lot to comment about. I think the whole thing is funny, I loved the whole bit with the two pilots high on morphine, I even liked the Alex interrogation scenes. Tim Robbins and that guy playing defense secretary play off each other so well and I love having Mimi Kennedy in this too. I just don't really have any complaints about it, although I wonder if the government of Pakistan does.

[represent]

I

I really like this show but . . . I don't know, I just don't have a lot to comment about. I think the whole thing is funny, I loved the whole bit with the two pilots high on morphine, I even liked the Alex interrogation scenes. Tim Robbins and that guy playing defense secretary play off each other so well and I love having Mimi Kennedy in this too. I just don't really have any complaints about it, although I wonder if the government of Pakistan does.

 

This is how I see it and I love the diverse casting, love it. I love the family in Pakistan, it's just pure fun, which clearly it's not in reality. But I don't  watch this nor VEEP for all that much reality, I just watch it to see these idiots running or not running the government.

 

Which now that I think about it, that's the reality, there are a bunch of idiots on all sides running our actual government and I personally laugh quite a bit at the stuff that goes on to keep from crying.

[walnutqueen]

I really like this show but . . . I don't know, I just don't have a lot to comment about. I think the whole thing is funny, I loved the whole bit with the two pilots high on morphine, I even liked the Alex interrogation scenes. Tim Robbins and that guy playing defense secretary play off each other so well and I love having Mimi Kennedy in this too. I just don't really have any complaints about it, although I wonder if the government of Pakistan does.

 

I feel the same way, iMonrey.  The show is funny and entertaining, I like all the characters, and it's pure escapist silliness for me.

[ChaseMCP]

The show is funny and entertaining, I like all the characters, and it's pure escapist silliness for me.

 

That's how I feel about the show too. It's like a dramatic show that decided to poke fun at itself, which I need right now because there are too many drama shows on that take themselves too seriously and need to loosen up. And as someone else said, it gives us a chance to laugh at the things that we should probably be crying about.

[Morrigan2575]

Really enjoying this show, it's got so many recognizable faces and it's funny.

[scrb]

I don't know how they sustain this as a series after this season.

They either take out the crazy guy before he attacks Israel or he launches nukes.

Then what?

[Skyfall]

I don't know how they sustain this as a series after this season.

They either take out the crazy guy before he attacks Israel or he launches nukes.

Then what?

They set it up as a different world crisis in a different country/part of the world a season.

[SoothingDave]

 I just don't really have any complaints about it, although I wonder if the government of Pakistan does.

I am surprised it isn't in a fictional country, like Abbudin.  

[ChaseMCP]

I think the show will have enough to work with for future seasons since, if I remember correctly, the whole point of the show is for them to prevent WWIII from happening, so I wouldn't be surprised if/when Pakistan is solved another issue comes along with a new country. As we know from the last two World Wars, it's never just between two countries. That said, I do wonder how Jack Black's character will stay relevant if that's the case.

[Constantinople]

I feel the same way, iMonrey.  The show is funny and entertaining, I like all the characters, and it's pure escapist silliness for me.

 

I feel the same way.

 

I've read a couple of reviews that criticized the show for not being sufficiently satirical in the spirit of Dr Strangelove.  Obviously satire will provide some of the basis for the show, but I'm not looking for a satire per se.  I just want some laughs.

[Fisher King]

This show is insanely awkward, inappropriate and hilarious. It's the only thing saving HBO Sundays at the moment for me.

[Muffyn]

Alex tries to get a message to Walter; Walter is greeted with personal and professional surprises; Zeke and Glenn await their inquiry into the downed drone.

[thuganomics85]

Glad that it does look like Walter and his wife are just in an open relationship, and don't really care that they sleep around.  A bit refreshing.  Of course, it now looks like he is going to take a job working for Pierce, which pisses him off more then any affair would.  I hope we seem more of them: I like the way Tim Robbins and Cara Gugino play off one another.

 

So, it looks like Zeke and Glenn are in the clear, because the military doesn't want to admit that they had a drone there.  Figured it was heading that way.  Zeke though wants to get out, so he's now convinced his wife to try and get more drugs over, so he can sell his way out.  That might cause a problem, since that would displease his pregnant girlfriend.  And I wouldn't want to piss her off since she's none other then Jaimie Alexander!  Lady Sif is in the building!!

 

Alex's stuff was pretty simple, but I loved Raja's annoyance with him.  Aasif Mandvi is killing it.  Of course, it seems like this was all just a set-up from the Zaman brothers.

[Morrigan2575]

Really entertaining episode last night. I'm loving everything with Jack Black and Aasif Mandvi, especially Aasif's family.

Tim Robbins is wonderful in this, so much fun.

The pilots crack me up but at the same time, it's prefer less of that storyline and more focus on the President or Pakistan.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[AAEBoiler]

I am surprised it isn't in a fictional country, like Abbudin.

 

Or possibly Fauxrakistan.

[iMonrey]

The scary thing about the ambassador character is that there really are people like that, who are sort of hoping Armageddon comes, and are in political power. Fortunately he's not that high up on the food chain but there are others who are. I also have to mention that John Laroquette is aging very well. 

 

The president seems like kind of an idiot.

 

So General Zaman and his brother have basically tricked the US into sending them $200 million dollars and a nuclear sub. Oy.

[scrb]

What was the deal with showing the boy toys penis and Walter's repeated comments about it!

[Hanahope]

What was the deal with showing the boy toys penis and Walter's repeated comments about it!

 

Coz it was huge!

 

So pilot-guy plans to get out of the navy with one last big score (haha too bad the navy-gf dumped his pills) and then somehow split his time between LA and SD?  Yeah, that will work.

 

Lol at all the military cya and how the US is going to ship all that stuff to the crazy-pants tyrant and his brother.

[clady]

I thought pilot guy was playing both women. I didn't believe a word he said.

[cattykit]

For me, this show is not laugh out loud funny like Veep, but it's interestingly weird, and getting better.  It's kind of like Homeland on acid.  I think Jack Black is actually the weakest link, but of course Tim Robbins is awesome.  Aasif is great, might be the next great comic actor to come out of the Daily Show. 

 

I remember Pablo Schreiber from Weeds and The Wire--does he ever play a character who leads a normal life?

 

Not a big fan of HBO's gratuitous nudity, but at least it seems like for once it's equal opportunity nudity.

[thuganomics85]

 

Alex gets advice from Walter before his crucial rendezvous with Raja. Meanwhile, Walter works around a medical emergency and interference from above to cut a deal with India's foreign minister; and Zeke realizes he's promised more than he can deliver to the women in his life.

 

 

Well, the good news for Alex is that he managed to end negotiations with General Raja without dying!  The bad news is he now promised him a nuclear submarine that he can't deliver!

 

Seemed to be a pretty big episode for Walter.  Tim Robbins was having fun at doing all the high-risk, intense negotiations and wheeling/dealing, while trying and failing to hide his pain.  But it sure looks like The President and Pierce are trying to sideline him, so now he's off to Israel without the President's permission!

 

Zeke and Glenn got shot out of the sky and were forced to abort.  They now seem to be prisoners of some kind.  I'm hoping this means they are going to be more involved in the bigger story soon.

Edited July 13, 2015 by thuganomics85

[MarkySnark]

No sighting of this series' biggest breakout star - the personal trainers Dirk Diggler-like appendage.

[TrininisaScorp]

I'm an easy mark, but the continued use of "Shakira!  Shakira!", instead of "Shukran" made me LOL.  Jack Black commits to the line reading in a great way.

 

I also enjoyed General Raja talking about Augusta being the thing he was willing to negotiate on to get his real dealbreaker (the sub).  Something about the tone of that crazy ass conversation was too funny.

 

Robbins high pitched wheeze of pain had us rolling my my house.  Hehehe!

[gwhh]

I love the guy that plays the president of the USA on here.  He use to be the Lt. in charge of the NYPD Blue squad for a while.  He also played a gay son of drug lord on the Miami Vice TV series!!  He does a great job in all his roles.  He acts intense and smart! 

[ShannaB]

I am loving this series.  All the actors seem to be having a wonderful time in their roles.  I've always liked Aasif Mandvi so I am enjoying him and the rest of the actors playing his family members.  I also like the fact that Jack Black has 'toned down' his frenetic acting style.  Tim Robbins is a revelation in his role as Secretary of State.  His timing and delivery is pitch perfect.  Same with Maribeth Monroe who plays his assistant.  It took me a while to realize that she is also on WORKAHOLICS.  Oh hell, all the actors are good on this series so far.  This series is a gem and I kind of wish that I could binge watch it.

[ChaseMCP]

I really am liking this show. It's a silly show but one thing I do really like is that everyone so far seems to be a three dimensional character. Every character gets the chance to be silly and serious instead of having the main three be funny while everyone around them is trying to rain on their parade. Even smaller characters like Rafiq's family get full personalities and it makes all of the scenes enjoyable. And I'm enjoying all of the actors in their roles. 

 

Also, I don't know if anyone else watches this with closed captioning, but I got a kick out of the last scene when after the cow blew up, the caption read (cow pieces falling). Very blunt. 

[scrb]

Wondering if this could build up to Veep levels. There isn't the witty dialog but it's a talented ensemble.

Tho not sure if they could sustain this story line.