Genre: TV Pilot – dark comedy
Premise: When a coup by a crazed military leader throws Pakistan and its nukes into disarray, the U.S. must make a difficult decision on whether to start World War 3.
About: Writer Roberto Benabib is probably best known for his writing on Showtime’s successful show, Weeds. He also wrote for the hit show Ally McBeal. Here, he teams with his brother to write the show, who’s getting his first produced credit (the show was officially picked up for series yesterday). The pilot for The Brink is being directed by comedy directing titan, Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers, The Campaign). It stars Tim Robbins (Shawshank!) and Jack Black (Tropic Thunder). It will air on HBO. Gotta admit that I’m confused why Showtime, who worked so closely with Benabib on Weeds, didn’t produce The Brink.
Writers: Roberto & Kim Benabib
Details: 34 pages – 6/12/13 draft
It feels like there’s a battle going down. That battle is between HBO and Netflix. The powerhouse DVD subscription-based service shut down one of the biggest entertainment businesses in the world (Blockbuster) in big part because the company didn’t take them seriously. So as they’ve moved into new spaces, companies have fortified their walls and drafted their soldiers. They’re not going to become the next Blockbuster.
The new thing seems to be to casting big film actors in TV rolls. Kevin Spacey with House of Cards on Netflix. HBO retaliates with Matthew McConaughey in True Detective. And now they’re bringing in Jack Black for The Brink. HBO is making it clear that if you want to play with fire, they still have the biggest matches.
None of that explains what’s going on with this show though. It’s one of those projects that makes you go, “Hmmmm.” A show about the end of the world starring Jack Black? A nuclear comedy? I guess it’s been done before, but not in TV form. I admit I was the same way when Jack Black was cast in King Kong. Funny Chubby Singing Guy starring in Peter Jackson’s epic? That didn’t turn out so well. Let’s hope this one does.
Alex Coppins (Jack Black – although he’s described in the script as “think a young Robert Downey Jr.”) is a junior foreign service officer for the CIA. If you’re wondering what that means, the rough translation is: “a low-level nobody.” Alex is a good guy trying to do good things in Pakistan, but on this particular day, everything changes. There are riots in the streets. Locals start throwing rocks at him. So he runs away to safety with his driver, all the while wondering what the hell is going on.
Cut to 60-something Walter Hollander, the Secretary of State (described as: “Think Bill Murray”). He’s a drunk prostitute-abusing politician, everything that’s wrong with Capitol Hill. The difference is, this guy’s got some real power! He’s torn away from an Asian hooker when this Pakistan business blows up, and he’s one of the first to learn that a crazy military psycho has just taken over the country and is threatening to send a bunch of nukes at Israel.
Naturally, this leads us to the president (progressively cast as Hispanic), who’s being pressured by his advisors to take out all the nuclear missile sites in Pakistan before this new army can move the arms and hide them. It’s a tight window and he has to act fast.
The final piece of the puzzle is a Top Gunner pilot named Zeke (“Think Owen Wilson”) who’s less concerned with world wars than he is with expanding his illegal prescription pill operation throughout the armed forces. But the man’s job is to push buttons when the prez needs them pushed so he goes over Pakistan waiting for the final confirmation to rain down nukes and kill a bunch of innocent people’s lives.
In a final “add-on” paragraph at the end of the pilot, we’re told that over the course of the series, all of this will take place in REAL-TIME, much like 24. Then, once the season is over, a new danger will be presented in the following season, and the same principle actors will be involved. I’m not quite sure how they’re going to do that since everybody here (particularly Alex) is so entwined in this specific Pakistan situation.
But that’s a good jumping off point to discuss the pilot. When you think about it, this is why TV is being so celebrated. It’s because they can make shows like this, which don’t fit into any traditional category. I mean you basically have a comedy here about nukes and millions of innocent lives potentially being eliminated.
On the flip side of that, there’s a reason why material like this is considered “challenging.” It’s hard to know if people are going to get the tone. And that was certainly my problem while reading it. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh or not. The way this doomsday scenario plays out is all rather real and scary. If a nuclear war goes down, it’ll probably be something similar to this (a weak country with nukes gets taken over by a crazy lunatic in a military coup). To that end, I wasn’t laughing.
Problematically, the humor that was on the screen was kind of cliché. The biggest attempted laugh was Walter Hollander banging a prostitute when he’s called to the White House by a presidential female aid.
Here’s what I don’t understand about this kind of scene. It sets up the character well. We see Walter banging the prostitute while drunk and immediately know what kind of person he is. It’s ironic (person in power is such a mess) which is what every screenwriting teacher in the world teaches you to do. But isn’t all of that marred by the fact that we’ve seen this exact same scene a billion times before? “Oh, a politician who’s drunk and bangs hookers.” What’s new about that? Yet I keep seeing it all the time. So I don’t know if my standards are too high or this is as lazy as I think it is. Thoughts?
Not that everything is lazy. I mean, I’ve never seen a comedy TV show that’s dealt with subject matter like this before, so I have to give the Benabib brothers that. But when you’re on the fence about any piece of writing, one lazy choice can result in the reader giving up on the script. I didn’t’ quite get to that point, but Walter’s cliché entrance nearly brought me there.
As for other characters, Zeke was the most original. He’s got a deal with his pharmacist ex-wife to sell oxycontin to all his fellow soldiers (that Weeds show is the gift that keeps on giving!). I’m definitely seeing more scripts covering pharmacists who are abusing their privileges for pleasure or monetary gain (the upcoming “Better Living Through Chemistry” comes to mind) so it’s maybe not as original as the writers think it is, but I the idea that Zeke is divorced from but still working with his wife in an illegal international drug operation for the sake of their kids. That was unique enough to keep me invested.
And then, of course, with any show, it’s all about “Would I want to keep watching?” What’s the hook that’s going to bring the viewer back next week? The premise here practically guarantees that’ll happen. Who’s not going to want to see how we get out of this? The stakes are sky high (the fate of the world) and presented in a way we haven’t seen before. I mean, we’ve seen the fate of the world at stake in a million movies, but rarely in a TV show that puts us right on the brink of it all. That was a really clever hook on their part.
In the end, this show is going to live or die on how the tone is handled. I don’t envy Jay Roach’s job. How you’re going to balance a comedy with a situation this terrifying – I honestly don’t know how you do it. But there’s enough on the page here to at least give it a shot.
And despite some of my criticism, I want to congratulate companies like HBO and Netflix on continuing to push the medium. Not every show’s going to work, but when just one does, it can quickly change the storytelling landscape.
[ ] what the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: So I was reading a particular dialogue exchange in The Brink that I didn’t like. Alex’s Pakistani driver takes him back to his house to lay low for awhile. As they’re walking up to the house, Alex says: “This is nice. You live here?” “What were you expecting?” “A mud hut. Stray goats.” “What does it feel like to be such an asshole?” “Face it. The world is run by assholes. Bows to assholes. Show me one person in a position of power who isn’t an asshole.” “My father.” “Your mother might beg to differ.” I don’t think this dialogue is bad. But personally, I hate these little “button” jokes at the end of exchanges that seem to be there more out of necessity than because they’re funny. “Your mother might beg to differ.” That line falls dead to me, mainly because you can feel the line trying too hard. I bring this up because for a long time, I’d see stuff like this and say, “If they’re doing it, I must have to do it too.” So I’d write stupid little button jokes at the end of scenes that weren’t really funny because I thought I had to to be taken seriously. What you eventually learn, as a writer, however, is that if you don’t like something, you don’t have to do it. Because if you don’t like it, then there are people out there who aren’t going to like it either. Those are the people you’re writing for, people who respond to the way YOU like to do things. So never write something because you believe you “have to.” Write it your own way. That approach is what will set you apart from others and help define your unique voice.
