“Rubicon”
Even if you live in the States, you’re probably not watching AMC’s Rubicon . . . and that’s a damned shame because this espionage/conspiracy series deserves your attention, especially if you, like me, remember (and still watch) with great fondness the dark and strange paranoid films of the ’70s—The Conversation, The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and Winter Kills.
Some critics condemn the series’ deliberate pace as “sluggish” but I’m glad—and relieved—that Rubicon’s creative team believes storytelling trumps manic editing. The pace matches the occult mood. This story demands slow revelation.
In four episodes, Rubicon has become my favourite TV show—although, to be fair, I’ve found little to thrill me since Battlestar Galactica and Lost went off the air.
Last night’s episode, “The Outsider”, may have been the best yet, especially with its frank and intelligent treatment of intelligence assessment. “I’d rather live with the consequences of my action than my inaction,” says Miles, a frustrated intelligence anaylyst, explaining why he’s willing to greenlight a missile strike against an Al-Qaeda leader—who may or may not be inside a safe house—an action which will definitely kill civilians.
Rubicon is a dark show—in theme and appearance—but as I contend in my own fiction, the secret world simply (and horrifyingly) reflects the known world.