Do you guys remember back in the day when a person’s word actually meant something, particularly when that person was the head of a major cable network? HBO seems to not be bothered by such things. Despite honoring its freshman political satire The Brink with an order for Season 2 a few months back, the execs have taken a second go at that decision and concluded that it was the wrong one. The result? The Brink has been canceled after just one season. For the rest of today, we’re going to say that HBO formally stands for “Home Backsies Office.”
While there aren’t any mindblowing reasons why the network decided to excise the comedy from its 2016 schedule, HBO did release a statement to explain their choice. Here’s how they put it, according to EW.
After evaluating our schedule and our programming needs, we unfortunately decided we cannot give The Brink the attention it deserves for a second season. We are proud of the first season and wish everyone involved in this show the very best.
Created by Roberto and Kim Benabib, The Brink centered on a team of people handling – not that successfully – a geopolitical situation that could eventually end in World War III. It had one of the better ensemble casts on HBO, with Tim Robbins playing the Secretary of State, Jack Black as a Foreign Service Officer, Pablo Schreiber as a Navy pilot, with supporting actors like Jaimie Alexander, Carla Gugino, John Larroquette, Aasif Mandvi and Esai Morales, among others. But a great cast apparently wasn’t enough to keep HBO interested.
The ratings for The Brink weren’t that great, and they dipped to below 1 million viewers several times during its 10-episode Season 1. And though the show had its defenders, it wasn’t exactly a critical juggernaut and it didn’t get a lot of people talking over the summer. I personally didn’t think that the sum was better than its parts, but I wouldn’t have minded watching these characters come back for more. The tentative plans for Season 2 and additional installments would have seen these same characters handling different political crises around the world.
It remains to be seen if HBO will go back on its word in giving Ballers, its other new summer series, the Season 2 that was ordered around the same time as The Brink’s. That show has Dwayne Johnson, though, and I think it’s impossible to put a halt to anything The Rock is a part of.
Beyond stalwarts like Game of Thrones, HBO does indeed have a huge lineup of original series coming in the next year, from the Danny McBride-led Vice Principals to the music drama Vinyl to the sci-fi remake Westworld and around a dozen others. And we still don’t know if True Detective is getting Season 3.
Are you guys sorry to see The Brink go?
