Round Two: The Brink

The Brink: Season 1, Episode 2 “Half-Cocked” (C+)

In its second outing, I would definitely emphasize this show’s idiotic qualities over its political cleverness, but that’s not too surprising given the way the pilot went. It’s hard to know how to react to Jack Black’s Alex being taken in to be tortured, with water, towel, and all, and then seemingly shown sympathy once he identified his connection to Walter Larson. This show is a farce, plain and simple, and recognizing it as a legitimate successor to “Veep” was highly inaccurate. It certainly hasn’t reached that status yet, and at this rate I don’t expect it to. As if Alex weren’t absurd enough, Walter is a completely ridiculous character, telling his assistant that he wants to keep tabs on an attractive woman he just met only to be reassured that she has already been added to his contacts. It was a pleasure to meet Walter’s wife, if only for a moment, mainly because it turns out that she’s being portrayed by none other than the fantastic Carla Gugino, and she seems to be enjoying some extramarital privileges of her own. Z-Pak and Glenn’s mission did not go well in large part due to the vomiting and intense tripping going on in the cockpit, but it seems that they managed to avoid too much damage. I didn’t identify him last week, but I now realize that the new supreme leader of Pakistan is Iqbal Theba, who was Principal Figgins on “Glee.” Theba is actually Pakistani – I’m sure he’s making his country very proud.