PATRIOT GAMES

Spotlight

When faced with potential global annihilation, what can you do but laugh? So argues HBO's upcoming comedy series The Brink, anyway. Premiering this summer, the series, from brothers Roberto and Kim Benabib and executive producer Jerry Weintraub, stars Tim Robbins as a skirt-chasing, booze-swilling secretary of state trying to stave off World War III with the unlikely help of a sleazy foreign-service peon played by Jack Black. Also on board are Orange Is the New Black favorite Pablo Schreiber, playing a navy pilot who deals drugs to make ends meet, and The Daily Show vet Aasif Mandvi as a sardonic embassy worker. It's a motley crew tasked with ensuring that a Pakistani military coup doesn't tip the world into chaos, which could make for a pretty tense, grim series. But instead The Brink keeps everything moving with antic zip and dark humor.

Inspired by "macro comedies" such as Dr. Strangelove, which "dealt with the world" rather than with intimate, interpersonal stuff, Roberto Benabib says The Brink "might be heightened comically, but it's very real. The situation in Pakistan is the Pentagon's worst nightmare, and they are gaming it out." The show spins that scary reality in a riotous, profane direction, reminiscent of HBO's hit political comedy Veep, telling a story of messy people trying to do a little good despite themselves. "All the leads are definitely flawed people. I think that's a good arena to play in," says Schreiber. That inevitable human folly was evident in the behindthe-scenes intrigue, too. "In the pilot that I read, my character was described as a young Robert Downey Jr.," Black tells us. "I said, 'You know, I don't think I can pull that off, guys.' And they were very embarrassed because I think they meant to delete that before sending it over to me." Despite that minor calamity, it all worked out in the end. As we hope it will for The Brink's ragtag band of accidental heroes.

RICHARD LAWSONE

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