[rating=5.00] “Just a Little Crazy Talk”
The penultimate episode of The Brink led us to a few things: one, quite possibly the end of humanity as we know it, and two another vast disappoint that, at this point, comes at absolutely no surprise. Rather than lament all the time and effort we’ve put into the series, let us instead speculate on the season finale, and discuss how HBO could possibly sign another season of this abhorrent satirical dramedy.
In a final move to hold onto power, Walter is able to speak to one of the General’s high ranking officers, and in doing so he convinces him to arrest Zaman. At this point there’s birds in the air, ready to bomb the shit out of Pakistan in an attempt get Zaman out of power. Of course, before anything can happen Walter is successful in usurping the seated president (again), though this time he has to ability to stop the air strike. Zaman, now in custody, is still as smug and insolent as ever. Turns out he has launched another nuke before being arrested, putting the US in a tight spot.
Here’s the thing, the way things have been set up so far we’re about to circle back to the pilot episode. Drunk and a mess, Zeke and Jammer are literally the only ones who can save the day. Next week we can expect the two of them to royally fuck things up in front of the nation, while simultaneously figuring out a way to save the day…again. Let’s be honest, the showrunners will use the whole “tying up loose ends by coming full circle” in order to further the series into another season; another season, another crises that our main characters can bumble their way through. The problem is that there’s no intrigue to follow. There’s nothing inherently interesting about what’s going on, and the show relies on its actors to carry it rather than actually giving us details. Which, would be fine if there wasn’t such a huge chasm separating them all.
Again, I want to point out the abject uselessness in both Zeke and Alex’s role in the series. Zeke’s main purpose from the beginning of the season to the end has been to blow the missions he’s been sent on. The whole reason he got any sort of storyline was to use him again in this season finale. As an audience, we would have appreciated seeing him in that capacity at the beginning and at the end. Rather than having to follow this seemingly pointless character through his trials and tribulations, we could have appreciated the fact that he’s around solely to screw things up. The same logic goes for Alex. Instead of being forced to vaguely give a shit about the character, we could have easily accepted him as a sidekick or even cameo that added to the show, rather than hindered as it seemed he was throughout the season.
Perhaps next year they’ll learn from their mistakes. There was a complete lack of female presence, aside from being sexualized or dominated. It’s easy to point out Joanne as a strong woman, which she most definitely is, however she still falls to the will of Walter at a simple request. Is she incapable of saying no? The only other constant women in the show are Walter’s assistant Kendra, and Rafiq’s sister Fareeda. Kendra may consistently save the day, but she still takes all of Walter’s shit. Fareeda is very intelligent, a teacher, and yet still falls for Alex after he does one decent thing in his life. Perhaps some of the show’s failings come from the lack of women, but then again it’s probably just poorly written.
This week’s episode was just as long as it usually is, and yet it felt shorter. What really happened? Walter was floundering, and yet figured things out quickly despite the president and co. trying to thwart his every move. Alex continued to play the middle man, while never actually being useful aside from being there, and Zeke managed to put himself and those he loves in jeopardy because he didn’t like the way his day was going. If this farce were the way America truly runs, then whole country would have been nuked out of existence years ago.
We can’t rely on the series to be anything other than a failure. Let’s face it, HBO isn’t always cranking out hits. For some reason The Brink was able to garner enough ratings to continue existing. The way things went this season it should have been a mini-series or at the very least a one off storyline. The only part of it that really worked was Walter. Ideally, the season finale will bring us some sort of closure to this whole mess. That way, even though there’ll be a new season, they’ll be able to start a new storyline with a new threat to the US. But, when it comes to The Brink, I’ve learned we shouldn’t hold our breath.
