We tried out the pilot and first episode of Rubicon, a new conspiracy-themed TV show. The protagonist is an intelligence analyst, who has just been promoted to fill his boss-and-mentor’s shoes, after said mentor’s death in a train “accident.†But of course, something is not quite right: the superstitious mentor parked in space 13 the day of his death, and the protagonist wants to know why. Perhaps it has something to do with the commonality of certain crossword clues that recently caught his eye.
There’s not much more to report, because the show moves at a glacial pace. That pace, in itself, is not a problem. In fact, I rather enjoy the feel of taking the time to pick at threads the way an intelligence analyst would; it feels true to both character and premise. As a lifelong worrier at stray incongruities, I can relate. Combine the pace with a convincingly run-down office—in contrast to something glitzy like a James Bond control room or CSI crime lab—the personality split between career managers and the drones who process the data, the fact that everyone isn’t pretty, and similar small details, and you’ve got a show that adds a lot of welcome verisimilitude to an implausible genre. I’m tempted to invest emotionally in the show.
But that same glacial pace holds me in check. In itself, the slow pace is fine, but it also convinces me the show will be a flop. Television audiences generally, and American audiences especially, are not renowned for their patience, and the story has been so slow to date that it may already be too late to inject some kind of “grabber;†it may not even draw audiences to a second episode, much less a season.
I have a terrible record when it comes to investing emotionally in television programs. Better Off Ted, Middleman, and Firefly were the last three American shows I cared to continue watching, and I expected all three to win reasonably large and utterly committed fan bases. Each show’s demise came as a mild surprise and a thorough disappointment. How, then, to bring myself to commit to a show I don’t expect to survive the season?
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