History Series / TheBrink

* TheCameo: Wolf Blitzer shows up in a [=CNN=] breaking news story around Zeke and Glenn missing.

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Captain Naseer pronounces Alex's surname (Talbot) as 'Towel-butt'.
* AcePilot: Lt Commander Zeke 'Z-Pak' Tilson. Though he has to be hopped up on all sorts of meds to function.
* TheAlcoholic: Secretary of State Walter Larson.
* AmbiguousSyntax: Between the Director of the CIA and President Navarro in the pilot.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Gen. Haroon Raja demands three things from the US government in return for removing Zaman from power: $200 million, a nuclear submarine for the Pakistani Navy, and membership to the Augusta National Golf Club.

* BitsOfMeKeepPassingOut: One of the side effects Glenn feels after accidentally taking a morphine pill instead of Xanax.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: While a total letch and alcoholic, Larson is an excellent diplomat and strategist.
* CaptainObvious: Talbot, when he sees an angry, anti-American mob on the streets of Islamabad.
--> '''Talbot:''' That's no gay pride parade.
* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Larsons aide, Kendra, finds him in the pilot episode in a hotel room, with an Asian hooker, wearing nothing but a red ribbon around his wrists.
** Larson then catches his wife with another man, but doesn't think anything of it and just goes back to packing.

* CoitusInterruptus: Larson's early morning sexcapade is interrupted by his aide, and to an extent the threat of an unstable Pakistani general gaining control of nukes.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: General Zuman is against the use of drones over Pakistan not because of the many civilians they kill via bombing, but because he believes they spread electromagnetic radiation that sterilises Pakistani women and feminises the countries men.

* {{Determinator}}: Larson manages to negotiate India's foreign minister into taking a deal from attacking Pakistan, whilst at the same time suffering from a life threatening kidney stone, wanting to stop at NOTHING to keep the world from blowing itself up because of diplomatic hiccups.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Walter Larson, the US Secretary of State, is introduced tied to a bed having sex with a prostitute [[EroticAsphyxiation smothering him with a pillow]], which he later refers to as an 'important meeting'.
* EnhancedInterrogationTechniques: Used on Talbot by the Pakistani military after they become convinced he is a spy.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: The [[spoiler: democratically elected Pakistani Prime Minister]], thrown into the same army truck as Alex, is saddened but accepting of his inevitable fate at the hands of General Zaman.

* TheFundamentalist: Ambassador Kittredge, who believes the tensions in the Middle East to be a sign of the End Times. His secretary even says he seems to be HOPING that the Apocalypse is coming.
* GuyInBack: Lt Glenn Taylor.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The moderate Gen. Haroon Raja seems adamant to want to remove Zaman from power with the help of the US government and replace him. However, as soon as the US pays him $80 million as an indication of seriousness, he leaves Pakistan and goes into hiding in Germany a very rich man]].

* [[InsaneAdmiral Insane General]]: Umair Zaman, the leader of the coup, previously had a psychotic break and bouts of schizophrenia.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Captain Naseer, after the army executes [[spoiler: Pakistan's democratically elected Prime Minister]].
--> '''Naseer:''' You can't install a corpse as [[spoiler: Prime Minister]] now, can you?
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Despite being an ass to Rafiq, Alex Talbot confesses he joined the State Department to genuinely make a difference in the world. He is also the only person in the embassy who bothered to learn Rafiq's name.
** Walter Larson may be an adulterous, philandering alcoholic and sex addict, but as Secretary of State he is adamant about avoiding war and casualties in the Middle East.
** Zeke initially appears as an uncaring, gung-ho American pilot with drug issues, lamenting on where he gets to 'bomb the shit out of' today. However, he is later very concerned to find out his mission is to bomb a heavily populated area and says he hates being used as 'cheap muscle' by politicians.
* MilitaryCoup: The main focus of the series. Pakistan is taken over by a radical former general in the Pakistan Army, due to him losing the recently held democratic election.
* MistakenForSpies: Rafiq's uncle is convinced Alex is a CIA plant in the US embassy, when he is actually a low level Foreign Service officer. [[spoiler: It is later revealed he applied to the CIA twice, but was rejected for not seeming tough enough]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: President Navarro is essentially a Hispanic stand-in for President UsefulNotes/BarackObama.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Julian Navarro, the President of the United States, is hispanic, making him a President Minority. He also starts out as President Clueless, but that's only due to the media blackout in Pakistan preventing the government from knowing what is happening.
* OnlySaneMan: Rafiq, which isn't all that difficult when he is forced to interact with the likes of Talbot and Robert Kittredge. And has to now live under the rule of General Zaman.
** Also, everybody else to Robert Kittredge, since the man is an extreme religious fanatic.

* ProperlyParanoid: PlayedForLaughs. General Zaman, the man leading the coup, believes the use of US drones in a Zionist conspiracy, and that the electromagnetic waves released by them are to cause sterility to the Pakistani people.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: After discovering Talbot and Larson are trying to diffuse the tensions in Pakistan, Ambassador Kitteridge tries to send Talbot to the US Embassy in Baghdad, so the plans fall through and the Apocalypse he has been waiting for can happen.

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: [=SecState=] Larson issues a brief but effective one to [=SecDef=] Gray regarding his lack of military experience and warmongering attitude.
--> '''Gray:''' You're out of line, Walter.
--> '''Larson:''' Am I? [[BadassBoast I was on the goddamn roof defending the last chopper out of Saigon before my 19th birthday]]. When you were 19 you were [[DateRape date raping]] Radcliffe girls.
--> '''Gray:''' Fuck you.
--> '''Larson:''' Or was it Harvard boys? Lucky for you your prick was so small they didn't have the heart to press charges!

* RetiredBadass: Walter Larson, the US Secretary of State, is Vietnam veteran.
* SecretPolice: How Rafiq and his family view the Pakistani military.

* SleazyPolitician: Walter Larson, but in a humorous and almost enjoyable way.

* WarHawk: Secretary of Defense Pierce Gray. Larson calls him out on it in the pilot episode.
--> '''Gray:''' We need to remove those weapons now.
--> '''Larson:''' Spoken like a true chicken hawk.
** Also:
--> '''Gray:''' General, who is the tip of the spear?
--> '''Larson:''' Tip of the spear? What a tool.

* FunctionalAddict: Lt Commander Zeke Tilson, and apparently half of the 5th Fleet on aircraft carrier he is stationed on are addicted to prescription meds to keep them awake and focused.

--> '''Larson:'''Trust me, arms can be twisted. An plus, I am mishpacha with all the Jewish senators: Boxer, Schumer, Feinstein.

--> '''Larson:''' Okay Puck, did Grover Cleveland make it home safe from the prom?

--> '''Admiral McBride:''' I have a high degree of confidence in the full array of assets we've deployed.

--> '''Admiral:''' I have a high degree of confidence in the full array of assets we've deployed.

* AcePilot: Lt Commander Zeke 'Z-Pak' Tilson. Though he has to be hopped up on all sorts of meds to function. When he can't

The first season focuses on a crisis in Pakistan, after it is taken over by a MilitaryCoup. Low level State Department employee Alex Talbot must act as the US governments [[TheMole guy on the inside]], as the only he is the only diplomat outside of the sealed US Embassy, whilst also dealing with his driver, Rafiq, and his family he has dragged into the problem. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Walter Larson must battle stateside to ensure a peaceful resolution, much to the chagrin of the WarHawk Secretary of Defense, who endeavours to use AcePilot Zeke and his partner to bomb Pakistani nuclear sites and potentially start WorldWarIII.

* {{Determinator}}: Larson manages to negotiate India's foreign minister into taking a deal from attacking Pakistan while his bladder burst. He is going to stop at NOTHING to keep the world from blowing itself up because of diplomatic hiccups.

* AcePilot: Lt Commander Zeke 'Z-Pak' Tilson. Though he has to be hopped up on all sorts of meds to function.

* AcePilot: Lt Commander Zeke 'Z-Pak' Tilson.

* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Larsons aide, Kendra, finds him in the pilot episode in a hotel room, with an Asian hooker, wearing nothing but a red ribbon around his wrists.

* TheFundamentalist: Ambassador Kittredge, who believes the tensions in the Middle East to be a sign of the End Times.

* HookersAndBlow: How Alex Talbot knows Larson. He procured him various hookers during a diplomatic visit to Islamabad before the events of the show.

** Walter Larson may be an adulterous, philandering alcoholic and sex addict, but as Secretary of State he is adamant about avoiding war and casualties in the Middle East.
** Zeke initially appears as an uncaring, gung-ho American pilot, lamenting on where he gets to 'bomb the shit out of' today. However, he is later very concerned to find out his mission is to bomb a heavily populated area and says he hates being used as 'cheap muscle' by politicians.

--> '''Talbot:''' Thats no gay pride parade.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Julian Navarro, the President of the United States, is hispanic, making him a President Minority. He also starts out as President Clueless, but thats only due to the media blackout in Pakistan preventing the government from knowing what is happening.

* AcePilot: Lt Zeke 'Z-Pak' Tilson.

* FunctionalAddict: Lt Zeke Tilson, and apparently half of the 5th Fleet on aircraft carrier he is stationed on are addicted to prescription meds to keep them awake and focused.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Rafiq's uncle, a psychologist, having treated the general leading the coup years before. He still has the mans medical file, which Talbot is able to fax to the US government who have little information about him.

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