Kaboul Kitchen: Season One

This lively French TV comedy is much like something you would see on premium cable. In fact, HBO's new show The Brink definitely shares its darkly funny take on global geopolitics. Sharp, funny, and nicely shaded with authentic details, Kaboul Kitchen is loosely based on journalist and co-creator Marc Victor's experience as a restaurateur in the Afghan capital. Set in 2005, the series centers on Jacky Robert (Gilbert Melki), who runs a bar and restaurant dedicated to foreign revelers hungry for booze, pork, and French cuisine—but mostly booze. Jacky fancies himself a modern-day Humphrey Bogart—if Rick's Café Americain had offered nonstop debauchery and a swimming pool filled with bikini-clad women, that is. The episodes follow Jacky's entrepreneurial shenanigans as he bargains with black marketers, bickers with his nervous partner (Benjamin Bellecour), faces threats from local Taliban chiefs, and reluctantly goes into business with a lunatic army colonel (Simon Abkarian) who greases the political skids with briefcases full of heroin and U.S. dollars (his beloved dogs are named George and Bush). Adding to the chaos is the arrival of Jacky's estranged daughter, Sophie (Stéphanie Pasterkamp), an idealistic NGO relief worker who cares about changing the world as much as her father cares about money. Presenting all 12 episodes from the 2012 first season, this foreign series with a fine recipe of edgy dangerous fun is recommended. (T. Fry)