Jack Black Starred In A Painfully Unfunny HBO Series That Everyone Forgot About

The premise of the 2015 HBO series "The Brink" seems ripe for comedic potential and salient political satire. Among the show's main characters are the ultra-horny United States Secretary of State Walter Larson (Tim Robbins), and Alex Talbot (oft-underrated blockbuster champ Jack Black) a random Foreign Service officer who is assigned to Islamabad as it stands on the brink of a nuclear crisis. It seems a local radical has taken it upon himself to declare World War III has officially begun, and the story follows that revelation as Larson and Talbot incompetently oversee the matter. The show also stars Aasif Mandvi, Pablo Schreiber, John Larroquette, and Esai Morales as the U.S. President.

Robbins and Black had worked together on several occasions before "The Brink," usually on political projects that satirized or lambasted restrictive and corrupt American institutions. Black appeared in Robbins' films "Bob Roberts" (which marked Black's feature debut), "Dead Man Walking," and "Cradle Will Rock," which are about a lying right-wing politician, the death penalty, and government control of public arts, respectively. Robbins was already forthright about his personal political beliefs, and Black was seemingly happy to join him for all his ventures. Although neither had a hand in creating or writing "The Brink" (it was created by Kim and Roberto Benabib), their combined presence evoked their previous political undertakings.

One thing in particular set "The Brink" apart from all the other Robbins/Black collaborations, though: It was really awful. "The Brink" was not well-received when it first aired, earning a lot of middling-to-negative reviews. It currently has a 55% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 40 reviews), with many critics calling the show's writing bad and its satire unpointed. Black was especially lambasted, with some critics writing that he was painfully unfunny. Needless to say, HBO canceled the series after a mere 10 episodes.

Some of the reviews, notably Randy Dankievitch at TV Over Mind, noted that "The Brink" might have been sold as either a comedic version of the intense spy series "24" or a more serious version of the comedy series "Veep." It seems that it didn't work at being either of those things, failing at matching the broad comedy of the latter and the immediacy of the former. Chris Cabin's review for Slant stated that "The Brink" will only seem deep to high school kids who've just discovered Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for Vulture, was even harsher, describing the show as "just a bunch of s***ty people being s***ty to each other, while decent people stand by sputtering."

Also, the satire seems to have come too late. "The Brink" apparently wanted to be a critique of the clumsy war efforts put forth by George W. Bush's presidential administration, but it was released in the final span of Barack Obama's time in the Oval Office. In other words, there wasn't any righteous indignation behind the politics (nor did the show have a clear point of view). As Cabin wrote "There's no real outrage to 'The Brink,' as that would require a modicum of effort in understanding the immense amount of historical and religious strife at play in Pakistan, rather than just knowing the country is probably not the greatest vacation spot these days."

Initially, HBO renewed "The Brink" for a second season while the first was still airing. After the season was completed, however, "The Brink" was officially canceled. It seemed that the low viewership numbers and lack of critical enthusiasm didn't improve as season 1 went on, so the plug was pulled. These days, "The Brink" is hardly ever referenced, and those who watched it probably responded to this article with, "Oh yeah! THAT show!"

Is "The Brink" worth another look? 10 years later (and another decade of American politics with them), "The Brink" is little more than a relic of its time. It was a mediocre show that transformed into a curio and may only be significant now to Robbins and Black completists.