alternative title, Rubicon's twisty mystery character drama a real LOST-like production.
Let me start off by listing some of the things that I enjoyed about LOST:
- Engaging and smartly written drama.
- Characters and their development through the story arc
- Cinematography
- Musical score
Those were some of the tentpole characteristics I found in the show way before it started knocking my socks off in the sci-fi-ish genre of the later seasons. Season 1 of LOST stole my heart because it was a smart, well written show that focused on the whos of the plane crash not the whys or the hows.
With that, let me begin to profess my love of the AMC show Rubicon. Rubicon started late summer and has gone through its initial 13 episode run, and is currently in a holding pattern at AMC awaiting official word of whether it should get a season 2. While I'm a strong advocate for another season of Rubicon, this blog is also hoping to give you a reason to watch the first season. Because, simply: It. Is. That. Good.
Initial criticism of the show focused on its slogging pace, slow development and seeming non sequitur scenes. As the season built, loyal viewers were rewarded with more puzzle pieces coming together as mysteries were slowly revealed, solved and puzzled together. Much like LOST's first season of dropping crumbs of mysteries later solved in later seasons these mysteries were in addition to character development, not as a substitution.
And boy do we have some characters in Rubicon:
- Will Travers - Introverted, brainy, puzzle solver that finds himself promoted to a position previously held by his father-in-law, David Haddas, at the American Policy Institute. API is a government intelligence contractor, so it has access to top secret government resources, but it's not completely under the oversight of the government. As he begins to figure out his new position he stumbles upon a string of clues left by his deceased father-in-law that was killed suddenly by a tragic commuter train crash.
- Kale Ingram - The second in command at API and an ex-Marine with more history working for The Company (CIA). He's mentoring Will Travers while also trying to placate the needs of API's number one, Truxton Spangler. While one of the most cryptic characters he's also very supportive of his proteges Will and Maggie Young, a single mom secretary trying to stand on her own two feet.
- Truxton Spangler - The eccentric leader of API who has a daily habit of consuming Corn Flakes for lunch. He also has ties to a group of gentlemen that seem to have ties to world events, and are trying to manage their interests in light of affairs that happen in the world.
Those are the main characters, but they are surrounded by a wonderful cast of API analysts, and peripheral characters that slowly builds into a compelling mystery that gets wrapped up neatly in the season's penultimate episode. The final episode is where people are confused about the state of Rubicon's second season. We're left with some major cliff-hangers in the aftermath of the mystery solving in the second-to-last episode and the growing audience has a thirst to find out what happened next.
Have you watched Rubicon on AMC? Does this little tease get you on the bandwagon? Pique your curiousity? Let me know in the comments...
