"Rubicon" on AMC

Did anybody else watch the “sneak preview” of this new series last night? It premieres next Sunday, but they showed the first episode this week, which is sorta confusing. Anyway, it was satisfyingly complex and intriguing right off the starting block, and has the potential to be a solid winner for AMC as a lead-in to “Mad Men” on Sundays. The actors are obscure and B-list enough (for me) so there aren’t many expectations of how the characters are going to be portrayed. The drawback to a series of this type is that people coming in halfway through are probably going to be hopelessly lost, and I’m not sure how they are going to sustain a conspiracy plot over several seasons without jumping the shark early on or boring the audience to death.

I did start watching it but dozed off about halfway through. I don’t blame the show for that because I was very tired when I started watching. It’s on DVR so I will get it watched when I’m wide awake. I noticed a few actors from The Wire in the cast, so that, for me, is a good sign.

I never got into Numb3rs because their idea of complicated math wouldn’t fool an attentive 9th grader. I just hope the puzzles and codes and whatnot in this show are more challenging.

I’ll watch some more before making up my mind, but right now, with half an episode to go on, I’m rating it at maybe 6/10 or 7/10. That may be unfair, but it does indicate that I’m willing to give it a shot. AMC has done well with their other original series, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt at this point.

It’s interesting - not hooked yet, but I’m impressed with how well they’re managing the tone of the show. It could have been a whizz-bang, neat-tech, sexy-actors-and-explosions sort of show - but instead there’s a real tone of sadness, grief, and loss to the thing. This is not going to be a happy series. And if they keep it that way, it’ll be interesting.

I liked it but the above is my biggest concern.

I was interested enough by the previews to set my Tivo, but it started about one minute after Mad Men ended, which was about 10:55, and the Tivo didn’t kick in until 11:00. So I watched until the first commercial break so I’d know what was going on.

I guess I’ll watch the rest of the first ep. The first 15 minutes, while not gripping, was enough to make me want to finish it.