Monsters of Television

“FROM ONE PAWN TO ANOTHER.”

“THEY HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT.”

Rubicon thus far, is an interesting study in just how much genre and style matter. Its slow burning, methodological pace and meandering characters reminded me of Mad Men in a number of ways (no idea if this is an AMC thing since I haven’t seen an episode of Breaking Bad, but now have plenty of time to catch up on it). Mad Men‘s high modernist-influenced slice of life approach infuriated me to no end because it wasn’t that nothing happened, but that so little happened that I cared about to characters I couldn’t care about, and it happened very slowly.

Rubicon, on the other hand….well…there’s nothing to spoil because nothing has happened, also kind of like Mad Men (consider that my comment on Matthew Weiner’s idiotic mentality toward spoilers). But I find myself engaged with these two episodes even though very little happens, and the characters are not exactly complicated or willing to say things out loud. From it’s set design to its sound mixing (which has been accused of looking cheap, but I say is very purposeful) to the drab costuming and opaque plot developments, Rubicon embraces the 1970s spy thriller film, and doesn’t look back (or at least I hope it doesn’t).

Rubicon takes the paranoia of Watergate and Vietnam that the films in the 1970s used and decided to update the context but, it would appear, not the technology. People are still figuring things out looking at massive bundles of files and index cards taped to the walls (very few people in the American Policy Institute appear to have computers in their offices). This is a nice contrast to the spy thrillers that occur in the contemporary time, but rely on the overuse of manipulating government satellites, traffic cameras, and cryptic computer messages (along with lots of explosions and guns).

Like Mad Men‘s return to Sirkian-esque melodramas, Rubicon returns to films like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View, but unlike Mad Men, Rubicon isn’t attempting to exposure the surface of those films are depicting a better society; instead Rubicon is asking us why we’re not more paranoid. While I’m not sure what, exactly, I need to be paranoid about, aside from four-leaf clovers and a shady cabal of men who probably control the United States as a fourth branch of the government, the series certainly makes me paranoid about crossword puzzles.

There’s very little doubt in my mind that Will’s search for connections will eventually lead him to meet Katherine, and while the deliberate pace could be called listless (I’ll go with deliberate since I like the show), I am curious enough to see how they end up meeting, and what happens after that point. Will lost in thought-ness is compellingly played by James Badge Dale that I really couldn’t tear myself away from the series (except during a thunderstorm that interrupted my viewing).

I’ll add an alternate reading to the series. Nothing seems to motivate Will’s work beyond an ability to solve puzzles. There’s no patriotic zeal to it or desire to make the world better, but unlike other narcissistic puzzle solvers (Gregory House, for example), Will doesn’t seem to be doing it for himself either. Ultimately, it seems like the puzzles are just a way to occupy his time, a way to take his mind off the grief he’s still carrying with the loss of his wife and daughter. And in that way, I think Rubicon may ultimately be a meditation on grief that just happens to be wrapped up in an enigma.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• I understand why music is so prevalent in the episodes (you need something to keep people from getting bored watching Will think), but I do find it a little on-the-nose sometimes. Thankfully, Peter Nashel’s score is good enough that I don’t always mind.
• Jaime Weinman followed up that piece I linked to the intro with another one that’s also wroth a read.
• I know I railed against Sherlock for using a book code last week, and I didn’t complain about it when it happened in Rubicon. The difference is in that Sherlock provides me with clues to solve the mysteries, Rubicon, thus far, doesn’t. I’m okay with Will staring at books to solve David’s code because of that.