[rating=6.00] “Who’s Grover Cleveland?”
Shit has finally hit the fan this week on The Brink, and with Raja dead there’s not much choice or wiggle room for the driving protagonists. As is the theme with much of HBO’s programming, the characters have been suffering from a severe inability to do anything right for themselves. After literally starring down the barrel, Walter, Alex, and Zeke have all reached a point where it’s time to make something of their thus far meaningless indulgent existences, or face the wrath of a true war.
Walter is still undeniably the driving force of the entire series. Really, the show should have been directly about him with a few toss out lines for Jack Black to deliver, and a cameo or two from Orange is the New Black’s porn-stache. Admittedly the show has gotten better as the season has progressed, but going from complete and utter crap to “meh, there’s nothing else on” isn’t much of a step up. The storyline is still intriguing, as anything could happen in this nuclear fueled world. However, with the loss of Raja still freshly on our minds, and a looming second season in the distance, one has to stop to wonder, where the fuck is this going? Will we legitimately enter into a war with this crazed self-imposed dictator? Or will America vanquish this demon only to be doomed to cut off the two heads that grow back from the one?
Out of America’s obvious lack of a plan comes Walter’s seeming defeat. After working every angle and even installing a friend of his on the inside to get things going quickly and painlessly, Walter has run out of options. This is the first time in the series that we have seen this from the Secretary, as his wit and savvy fixes have again been driving the show forward. What ends up being his one saving grace is his secretary Kendra. She always seems to be palming a “get out of jail free” card, and it’s her motivational talk that gets Walter off of his ass and into strategy mode as he attempts to keep the world from recessing back into the dark ages. Though he was off to a rocky start, Walter ultimately kicks it into gear by trying to figure out what the next move will be for the US.
In a surprising move, it turned out that Alex was the smoothest of operators in the fight to keep things grounded. While Rafiq was fighting for the political asylum card to travel with his sister, Alex was sliding the pilots $1,000 bills (money that would later prompt one of them to deliver the line “who’s Grover Cleveland?”), a move that would eventually keep the seven “political prisoner” school girls on their territory without leaving them in danger. Personally I’m so used to seeing Alex blow it that it came as a refreshment to see him fighting to (sort of) do the right thing. Alex isn’t a bad guy, he’s not even really comparable to the decadent man Walter is, aside from the feeling of comradery the two seemed to have shared one night long ago. Alex is so close to having everything tumble down on him again, yet he keeps managing to keep it together.
Zeke ran into trouble this week when his ex-wife and current baby mama spoke through an emergency contact phone call. Things quickly got awkward, and for some reason his ex-wife still cut him some slack and let him sell pills and possibly rekindle their relationship. In this sense Zeke has been a lucky guy, and has never really had to deal with his actions aside from an angry ex here and there. While the ship is getting ready for war, he has the opportunity to push pills on everyone as a way of making money and possible amends with his family. Of course, he ends up having to just give them out due to his superior commanding it. This would be, say, the equivalent of a truck full of electronics tipping over, and the driver just allowing everyone to grab the latest Sony gear. If Zeke’s supplier/ex-wife was on board with him before, she definitely won’t be now. His shoehorned storyline is still unimpressive, and adding a human element doesn’t really help in his favor. Zeke’s co-pilot and seemingly only friend does reveal that he stole something very valuable from the art thieves home, so maybe things will work out? Again?
One of the biggest missteps in the series came this episode when they didn’t make more out of a nuclear bomb exploding within the Earth’s crust. How will it affect the environment? Possible crops, water supplies. More than anything, where were the jokes? This big faux pas happens in the middle of a potential war and…nothing. No “popping off early” or “dud” puns. Not even an impassioned speech to help save America. Next week shows the same amount of professional “wit” littering our Sunday, but perhaps things will get a little more exciting and coherent as we welcome the finale in two weeks
One Response
Worst show I have ever seen on HBO.