Today we do something a little different for the TV review as I review a show that isn’t currently on the air and got cancelled about this time last year with little fanfare. Now, before some of you think I’m off to explore irrelevance while this new TV season has literally dozens of new shows for me to review (none of them that good if we’re being honest), let me explain…
Rubicon is one of those great, buried TV treasures that burns brightly for a singular season or merely a handful of episodes and gets yanked off the air before it’s time. It aired on AMC (probably the best TV network right now with Breaking Bad and Mad Men but also by default as most other networks have completely given up as evidenced by “Charlie’s Angels” remake, “X-Factor,” and the long, slow suckfest that is “True Blood” from the formerly great HBO) and that network somehow made the inexplicable decision to cancel it but green light a second season of The Killing, the worst show this network has. So Rubicon earned the dubious distinction of being the AMC network’s very first cancelled show…and also unfairly dismissed. Now you might be saying “Great, great, we know the backstory, now what is this show about that we’ve never heard of and will have a hard time watching?”
Well, at it’s heart Rubicon is a conspiracy thriller, made all the better because the conspiracy in it is entirely plausible. It builds on post-9/11, “truther” fears that the military industrial complex is out of control and a few prominent businessmen in those industries might be orchestrating everything from terrorist attacks to coups. Their motives are mysterious right up until the very end of the season, but needless to say being able to predict oil price volatility or knowing that the stock price of a train company might plummet after a train bombing would be extremely profitable.
What really gets Rubicon going is the final three episodes where we fully understand the big plot the conspirators are up to: pretending that Iran orchestrated a terrorist attack in Houston as a pretext to go to war. Now you see why I’m talking about it?
To be clear, I’m not saying that the two Iranians accused of trying to assassinate the Saudi ambassador (supposedly by paying the Zeta cartel to do it…that’s right, Iranian “spies” collaborating with a Mexican drug cartel to kill an ambassador on U.S. soil) are some conspiracy…because, generally, I try to avoid sounding like Iran’s batshit president. It’s just a little far-fetched, and especially worth watching Rubicon now. Like all the best shows, it was ahead of its time, and definitely worth catching up with now.
Supporting Scene Stealer: Arliss Howard as a master spy and the most complex gay character on television since Omar Little picked up a shotgun on The Wire. Also, Michael Christopher as the leader of the conspiracy (and also the hero’s boss) is great at playing sinister joy.
Hi! i’m Re-twit you post: to my @iceqeaks twitter
lets be clear. Rubicon had great reviews and decent audience. It was cancelled because america does intend to attack iran at some point and this sort of stuff muddies the waters the wrong way.