Maybe the entertainment stakes are so serious with “Game of Thrones” and “True Detective” and frivolous with “Veep” that HBO felt the need to strike a balance with a sobering mix of comedy and drama, or what is called “dramedy” in the rarefied atmosphere of show business.

However one may wish to characterize the Sunday night lineup of “Ballers” and “The Brink,” two new series that seem oddly derivative, HBO succeeded in picking leading cast members with wide appeal beyond the narrow confines of the television medium.

Few big screen stars, particularly of the action variety, are more popular today than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Actually, we can drop “The Rock” moniker, because this massive, hulking man (more of a gentle giant) is so much more than the sum of his muscles and brawn.

Nevertheless, it seems fitting, if not exactly the usual typecasting, to put Dwayne Johnson front and center in “Ballers,” which explores the whirlwind lifestyle and real-life problems of a group of former and current football players.

Johnson’s Spencer Strasmore, a retired NFL superstar, is trying to reinvent himself as a financial manager for current players in sun-drenched Miami, where pretty girls in bikinis are more plentiful than pink flamingos and everyone seemingly drives a fancy sports car.

It does not seem coincidental that show creator Stephen Levinson was the mastermind behind “Entourage.”

Spencer has his own posse, an inner circle that includes Ricky (John David Washington), a talented wide receiver, and Charles (Omar Miller), a reluctantly retired lineman.

Tapped by his jerk boss (Rob Corddry) to deliver well-heeled athletes as financial clients, Spencer has trouble adjusting to his new position, and things are made more complicated as he tries to lure rookie sensation Vernon Littlefield (Donovan Carter) to a big contract deal.

Life in the world of “Ballers” consists mostly of raucous yacht parties, fast cars, copious drugs, and topless women cavorting in spas.

There’s some football practice thrown in just to keep it real, but other than that, it’s like an adolescent fantasy paradise.

Keeping it real, however, is Dwayne Johnson’s charismatic star quality. To be sure, the always likable action star is fun to watch.

And yet, an undercurrent of solemnity touches on the subject of neurological damage suffered from Spencer’s playing days.

As “Ballers” unfolds over 10 episodes, this series may have more on its mind than the just the wild and crazy antics of football players.

The thinking behind “The Brink” may be a little more difficult to fathom. Is it a satire on foreign diplomacy, or a comedy about the absurdity of geopolitical intrigue?

On its face, “The Brink” could be viewed as a contemporary take on “Dr. Strangelove.”

The fate of the world hinges on the actions of disparate characters: a sex-obsessed secretary of state, a bellicose secretary of defense, a fighter pilot high on morphine, and an inept, low-level bureaucrat at the American Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The linchpin to the possible outbreak of World War III just might be the idiotic Alex Talbot (Jack Black), the lowly Foreign Service officer who uses the Embassy driver Rafiq (Aasif Mandvi) to take him to the local bazaar where he can score the best weed.

Meanwhile, street riots break out as the lunatic General Zaman stages a coup to install himself as the new leader of Pakistan.

Talbot takes refuge at Rafiq’s home, promptly putting the entire Pakistani family in danger of political reprisals.

Back in the United States, Secretary of State Walter Larson (Tim Robbins) is hoping to defuse an international crisis, while the secretary of defense (Geoff Pierson) is urging the president (Esai Morales) to launch a preemptive strike on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal before Zaman can use the weapons.

Having trouble keeping his pants zipped, Larson is perpetually horny but somehow manages a frenetic schedule of shuttle diplomacy.

Even though in need of urgent surgical treatment for a kidney stone, Larson hops over to Pakistan and India to mediate disputes, all the while sizing up opportunities for his next sexual conquest.

By sheer dumb luck, Talbot scores incriminating psychiatric documents about the mental instability of General Zaman, which he’s only too eager to parlay into getting a plum assignment to the Embassy in Paris.

On the other hand, the nutty American ambassador to Pakistan (John Larroquette), thinking that the apocalypse is at hand, blames local unrest on Talbot and considers that his best option is to send the obscure State Department employee to a post in war-torn Baghdad.

Aircraft carrier fighter pilot Zeke (Pablo Schreiber) and his dim-witted co-pilot Glenn (Eric Ladin) mistakenly ingest mind-altering drugs instead of painkillers and veer off-course while shooting down foreign satellites.

They end up grounded by the Taliban and then stranded in the desert, only to be found by an eccentric British couple.

“The Brink” has a scattershot approach to its targets and renders almost every character little more than a grotesque caricature. Considering the increasingly dangerous geopolitical landscape of our times, it’s not an easy job getting laughs, but there is some oddball humor to “The Brink.”

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.