Seven Days: The Brink

Frank must go back to the asylum he recovered from his Somalia experience in when a man on a mission to blind a group of children turns out to have been sent by someone inside.

Not the most coherent plot synopsis, it's true, but that's as good as I can get at the moment. The event Frank is sent back to stop is horrific, with kids at a concert having their eyes literally burnt out, some even exploding according to Olga's report. Then again, what function this serves to George, one of Frank's former asylum inmates, remains a total mystery. We are told that several people from the asylum have been sent on missions when they leave, but aside from a spot of chaos-making, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for it. And with George's command over the entire asylum, you'd think the first thing he'd do would be to get himself released so he could spread his insanity throughout the world.

What we have here is a very simple Seven Days concept that attempts to acquire depth by having Frank suffer from terrible traumas and suggesting that returning to the asylum will make him crack completely. The problem is that it's all a lie. He suffers no adverse effects at all, and even after electroshock therapy seems totally unharmed while Olga (who's come to rescue him) is a gibbering wreck, simply through her subconscious telling her she'll die all alone. His claim that an image of Olga sees him through is sweet but likely to be of little real medicinal value. And surely someone who's fine getting shock treatment would be severely damaged in the brain.

In the end it just comes down to a fight between Frank and the allegedly very dangerous (although he does have a slight Hannibal malice to him) George. All this and Donovan shoots the man who blinded the kids originally without any regard for the people the body no doubt falls on top of. It certainly doesn't look as if he's cleared the arena. It's this kind of slapdash approach to reality that lets the show down time and time again, and it's a huge disappointment when none of the promised problems ever arise.

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