Rubicon

A truly excellent series, splendid characters and actors particularly Michael Cristofer as the wonderfully eccentric Truxton Spangler and Arliss Howard as Kale Ingram. It was television drama at its best, the sort that needs one to concentrate on the dialogue. For me they got the pace spot on.

Whilst initially I was disappointed that there was no second series, in retrospect it was right to bring the story to a close as it did. A second series would have undoubtedly lost its impetus and at least one vital character Certainly the best English language series of its kind so far this year.

After watching the 12th episode of this show, I found myself thinking just how good it is.

I have to admit that it started slowly, but what seem to have been random actions or scenes have been woven into a deeply intriguing plot.

I am a big fan of Breaking Bad and expected a lot from AMC on this one. I am not disappointed. This is one of my favorite shows and my favorite new show.

The acting is very good and the scenes are very believable. The interior shots of their workplace are a great backdrop.

There are a lot of characters, but each has its place in the plot. Each character is subtle but over time distinguishable from each other.

I have finished watching the first season of Rubicon, and I am in love with the show. I am in love with the atmosphere, the tension, the amazing subtle and effective writing. Let's start from the beginning...

The Pilot of Rubicon is a very good opening, although flawed. You can immediately tell that this is a show more worried about telling a good story than action, which is all to good, yet is also backtracks on itself. The Pilot is the one that opens a mystery, and for the first few episodes it might seem like the show has nowhere to go, but keep in mind that it is a very carefully paced show. By episode 5 I was hooked. From then on, the show gets better and better, leading up to amazing story lines, and not just having to do with the overall mystery. The last four episodes of the season are masterful, as perfect as television can get. There might be a problem in that many viewers after 2 or 3 episodes might decide to give up on it simply because of the slow pace, and if that is the case then what a shame.

Another thing that has to be noted about Rubicon is the great cast. James Badge Dale is very effective and a great lead, and Miranda Richardon does great in her limited screen time. Lauren Hodges as Tanya is the best of the females, carefully portraying a confused and misguided analyst who is not sure what her life should be. Arliss Howard and Michael Cristofer are the best in the series, for the fact that they are two of the most interesting and intriguing characters in TV in years. They masterfully play their characters to the highest order.

Along with the great writing and acting, we have the great cinematography, which is the quality of the best films out there. It is on par with AMC'S other great series, Mad Men. Ultimately, Rubicon stands as one of the strongest shows I have seen in years, but it's slow pace, while completely refreshing to me, will give it a harder time to find a larger audience, which will then be the reason for it's demise. If that's the case, then we have a great mini-series, and the last scene plays perfectly for that, leaving viewers in a state of desperation.

"connect the dots, work the dots" "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer" "find out who he sits and moves with" - FWIW. anyway - I for one applaud these folks for the slow pace a lot of folks have a problem with - we are bombarded with half hour or hour shows where the formula is presented - "all is relatively quiet, then chaos erupts, then there is a mad scramble to put Humpty back together,and in the last 45 seconds Humpty is restored, followed by a communal sigh of relief" - (break for commercials, then trailers, a swell of music, roll credits, on to the next predictable time waster) also i like the critic who opined that this is the "anti 24" - so what if Rubicon doesn't have the guns blazing and mouth breathing - been there, seen that. hope the powers that be don't cancel this show because of the current low ratings, but won't be surprised if they do.

When I saw this series advertised in the TV guide I thought I'd give it a go even though I hadn't seen any trailers on TV and it was being shown on BBC4; a channel usually showing 'cultural' programmes and the occasional subtitled European series... certainly not where one would expect to find a US spy drama. I'm glad I did watch it as it was gripping through out even though it had little of the action typical of the genre; in fact much of the drama took place in an ordinary looking room where the characters discussed various pieces of intelligence they had received. The series follows Will Travers, an analyst at an intelligence agency in New York, who finds himself promoted to head of his department when his friend and mentor is killed in a railway 'accident'. He and his small team follow a lead that starts in the Middle East but leads to an imminent terrorist attack in the United States; if this isn't enough for him he is also investigating a local conspiracy which will put him personally in real danger.

I've tried to keep plot description to an absolute minimum as this is the sort of series best watched with no prior knowledge of what is going on; that way the story will slowly draw you in and as each episode draws to a close you will be left wanting to know what happens next. Of course a good series needs more than a good plot; it needs a great set of characters and it has them here; Will Travers, played by James Badge Dale, might not be an action hero in the Jack Bauer mould but he is believable and doesn't seem invulnerable. The rest of his team are equally ordinary; they are after all analysts, it is their job to identify threats, not to eliminate them. The only character that has any real sense of danger about him is Will's superior Kale Ingram, excellently played by Arliss Howard, you get the sense that he is the type of person who knows how to make people disappear. The only disappointment I had with this series was learning that it had been cancelled after only one series... without a proper resolution.