Directed Allen Coulter
Written by Jason Horwitch
Air Date: June 13, 2010
Starring: James Badge Dale (Will Travers); Jessica Collins (Maggie Young); Lauren Hodges (Tanya MacGaffin); Dallas Roberts (Miles Fieldler); Christopher Evan Welch (Grant Test); Arliss Howard (Kale Ingram); Miranda Richardson (Katherine); Roger Robinson (Ed Bancroft)
Rubicon was a serialized conspiracy thriller that aired for 13 episodes on AMC during the fall of 2010. Inspired both by the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s* and the post-9/11 climate of the 2000s, the series was a curious blend of Hitchcockian suspense and workplace drama.
The series follows the goings on at the American Policy Institute in New York City, a private intelligence gathering agency that works closely with larger apparatus of the National Security State. Unlike traditional espionage shows, which follow charismatic spies in exotic locales, Rubicon is solely focused on analysts whose job is to make sense of large amounts of data and intelligence.
The protagonist is Will Travers, a brilliant analyst who lost his wife and daughter at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Obsessed with crossword puzzles, he uncovers a strange message in a collection of clues from several major newspapers and takes it to his mentor and former father-in-law David, who dismisses the message as a joke among puzzle writers.
At their daily meeting the teams discuss parts of the world they are tracking - phone scammers in Pakistan, a Russian weapons salesman, and missile silos being constructed in Iran. The next day David is killed in a train accident, and a shaken Will suspects it was more than random. He does some investigating and finds evidence pointing to foul play and notices he's being followed.
Will's offered David's job by Kale Ingram, mysterious figure with a long past working intelligence for the Government, David reluctantly accepts the new position, despite his introverted nature. Later Will meets with retired (and haunted) codebreaker Ed Bancroft, who also suspects David was the victim of a conspiracy. After accepting the new position, Will is told to go "upstairs" and meet with his new superiors.
There's a nerdy appeal to Rubicon, in that the characters must use their minds to assess national security threats, not unlike the bookish analysts depicted in Three Days of the Condor. Will's personal connection to 9/11 brings a pathos to his character. Rubicon also excels at blending the mundane with paranoia, like any secret organization there are levels of access of knowledge with various parties with differing interests.
Conspiracies are always afoot, and as the NY Times retrospective review pointed out, Rubicon suggested the future political climate. Conspiracy theories are no longer fun parlor games for pop culture enthusiasts, but they've proliferated everywhere and taken a dark turn, shaping an array of multiple realities, and altering political positions. Nothing is what it seems on Rubicon - and reality itself these days.
(The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and All the Presidents Men are cited as major influences)
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