The Brink (Season 1)

The Brink (2015) is an HBO political comedy you can watch online as three American officials sprint to keep a geopolitical mess from tipping into World War 3. It kicks off with a coup in Pakistan, a loose nuclear arsenal and a thoroughly panicked Washington.

Secretary of State Walter Larson, played by Tim Robbins, is a jaded diplomatic fixer who handles crises somewhere between a hangover and an escort. At the bottom of the food chain sits Alex Talbot (Jack Black), a low-level foreign service officer stranded in Islamabad and forever stepping into trouble. The third corner belongs to fighter pilot Zeke "Z-Pak" Tilson (Pablo Schreiber), who, with his co-pilot, worries more about the drugs onboard than the orders coming in. Their threads collide, and the fate of the planet rides on this ridiculous trio.

The satire is nasty and crude in the Dr. Strangelove vein, only with the brakes cut: the higher the stakes climb, the dumber the people in charge behave. It ran a single ten-episode season, so it's a tight binge for a couple of nights. Fans of sharp political comedy and the Black–Robbins pairing will click with it. Stream the series The Brink (2015) online on iFILM.