When [It] Strikes Me

Although I’m apprehensive about its somewhat slow pace, I still think Rubicon has what it takes to grow into a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.07, “The Truth Will Out.”

There weren't a lot of good production stills for this episode, so I've gone back to the elegant image from the amazing opening credits.

I think I’ve figured out Rubicon’s problem. It’s not that it doesn’t work as a show… it does. It is just that it actually is cursed by leading into Mad Men. Although Mad Men has allowed Rubicon to hold onto viewership and actually increased its numbers in the last couple of weeks – the 1.31 million live viewers for Episode 6 reversing some of the bleed from the highly hyped second episode (the premiere event several months after the pilot first aired) – it also strikingly displays how far Rubicon has to go to reach that peak.

AMC is advertising it now as the show for your head, as Mad Men is for your heart. That may be true and I do believe that this has the potential to weave complex and entertaining storylines over 13 episodes, season arcs, much as Damages does. But as Damages is sloppy in describing the legal profession, Rubicon similarly struggles at times with maintaining the intelligence it should follow through on. This means getting literary, getting anal about detail and skirting some of the unnecessary character development that you must undertake in the first few episodes of a show’s run.

I’m hopefuly that that hump has been passed (or that Rubicon crossed, if you will) with this past episode. Not only was it the most action packed in the series run, but it also reflected the first time a character was integrated organically into the cast.

Read more, after the jump. Read more…

Although I’m apprehensive about its somewhat slow pace, I still think Rubicon has what it takes to grow into a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.06, “Look to the Ant.”

Travers escaped to a gaming cafe to execute some searches.

I had quite the busy week last week and insufficient time to do a full Quick Hits for Rubicon’s sixth episode. As a result, I’m typing this up both late and in an abbreviated manner. The episode was, on the whole, quite good. There’s been a marked, yet subtle speeding up of the plot. We also saw in this episode one of the glaring weaknesses and one of the potential turning points for the show as it possibly moves toward greatness.

I’ll open by hitting the weakness first. I really do think that they are a bit quick to fall into stereotypes. While Travers, Kale, Spangler, Katherine Rhumor and Miles have all shown potential to be very deep, complex and connective characters, there remains a tendency to go stereotypical with Maggie, some tangential characters and even Miles. In particular, the rendezvous Maggie had in this episode was just manufactured snooze fest.

Maggie herself is a character who seems fundamentally flawed. We’ve been introduced to her only in snippets, some of which worked (like her spying for Kale) and most of which didn’t (her far too forced pining for Travers and her bizarre unexplained relationship with her ex-husband, not to mention her somewhat worthless blog).  She disappears for extended periods in the show’s brief run and all of the screen time she does get is just a bit too forced, particularly in scenes she shares with Travers.  The show seems to want to push her character, but I think they’d do well to just let it go and let her drift into the background.

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I’ve been jamming of late to a new band that a buddy turned me on to. The sound is just epic, with an older, soulful vibe to it. To put it best, it’s the type of tunes that makes you feel happy and somewhat inspired to listen to.

In the world of “I Cannot Fracking Wait” debuts, AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on the graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman is pretty much atop my TV list… at least since the premiere of ABC’s V.  Well AMC just debuted a four and a half minute trailer for the series and announced it’s start date: 10 PM on Halloween night, this October.  Can… not… wait….

I think Rubicon might have what it takes to be a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.05, “Connect The Dots.”

At Spangler's wife's charity event, Katherin and Travers finally cross paths.

So in “Connect The Dots” the viewers start to get the first signs of some real payoff for the patience.  Yes, it may not pack the action punch that you’d get in Alias or 24, but we did get some forward momentum and the opening to the path toward some answers.  As I mentioned in my first Quick Hits for Rubicon‘s pilot episode, a show like this can, hopefully, operate like a crossword.  Shooting off clues to be woven into the patchwork thread.

Much as the opening credits paint an image of connecting loosely sprayed dots, the show (I hope) will be something to be collected as a patchwork and layered together in order to simplify the analysis. For the first time, we saw some actual movement to integrate some of the information we’ve learned.  Not the least of which was colliding the worlds of Travers and Katherine Rhumor.

Yes, their first interaction was a bit awkward, complete with a simple flirtation toward each other (even if the widow and widower did so almost reluctantly).  They met at Spangler’s wife’s charitable event (the introduction of which was a bit too compressed in the storyline… in that Travers and the other team leaders were only invited last second), at the bar while ordering vodka tonics.  With it, you had each admitting to somewhat addicted and depressive behavior, with Travers lamenting the moments drinking alone and Katherine referring to her vodka tonics as oxygen.

But it was the second connection that held more weight.  You had Spangler telling Mr. Roy (The Wire‘s Clay Davis) to push off attention from Travers (who was recorded telling Bancroft to stand down) and focusing it on Rhumor (who had rebuffed suggestions from all parties to get rid of MRQ Alternatives, the company her husband had left to her at the last second).  Looking on in the background was Bloom, who apparently was brought into the surveillance by Kale.

This followed Katherine’s continued efforts to look into her husband’s activities.  Although we’re only privy to the conspirators being aware of Katherine refusing to sell off MRQ, she had been slowly digging and learning.  In this episode, she paid a visit to MRQ’s headquarters.  MRQ Alternatives ended up being a clothing company.  But I’m not sure we should have expected much beyond that, as Katherine suspected, it was a drop of sorts.  In her quick examination, she was drawn to and examined a news clipping stating that “CCNY Professor Bradley Ruled Suicide.”  Perhaps the most revealing thing to us was that Katherine continued to be affirmed of her husband’s love for her, using their anniversary as the combination lock entry (despite the fact that Master Lock does not, to my knowledge, allow customization of locks of the variety that Katherine cracked).

In any respect, click on through for my quick hit thoughts on the episode. Read more…

I think Rubicon might have what it takes to be a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.04, “The Outsider.”

The episode provided no new insights into the "clover" conspiracy, but did feature Miranda Richardson (as Katherine Rhumor) to a greater degree.

There are some distinct disconnects with the character of Will Travers, who he wants to be and where he actually is. These were made readily apparent in the most recent episode. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet, as this is a show that is still trying to find its voice and the nature of its characters.  Even the characters themselves are trying to make sense of things, as reflected by the competing, book-ended unrequited smiles from Travers and his across-the-courtyard neighbor-lady.  Both are trying to see who they are, and who the other is.  In doing so, each commits somewhat of a gaffe.

Indeed, there are maddeningly simple screw-ups in Rubicon, so far. These may simply be situations where accuracy in settings don’t matter that much to the producers, but easy errors belie the idea that Rubicon is a show that, like Mad Men, seeks to nail the details. It certainly has the feel of a top notch period piece set in a very pen-and-paper intelligence community. There is also a great focus, at least early on, at paying attention to the details in developing characters.

And yet there are so many careless errors. From a set design perspective, we have three in this very episode that were hard to miss. The first was that Travers and Spangler travel by Acela to Washington DC. Except instead of shooting at Penn Station (where the Acela operates), they shot in Grand Central Station at the Metro-North hub and platforms. Fine, middle America might not notice the difference and might find Grand Central more elegant than the linoleum of Penn Station. That doesn’t mean it isn’t deliberately sloppy.

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Click through to enhance your midichlorians levels with some completely unnecessary, but nonetheless interesting information on Star Wars, courtesy of the folks at Online PhD.

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I think Rubicon might have what it takes to be a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.03, “Keep the Ends Out.”

As in past episodes, a scene without dialogue was deftly shot to narrate the story.

The third episode of Rubicon made me, for a moment, question whether the series was going to be too slow in its pace for its own good.  I love that the show gives you the time to process and I’ve enjoyed watching each episode so far a couple of times.  That said, not everyone is going to deal with a lack of action well… particularly when you draw some comparisons to the more high octane spy genre.  But the series continue to hint at big payoffs for the investment viewers are making.

The bicycle scene in Travers’ apartment best exemplified my excitement over this show. For the third straight episode, the finest segment was a nonverbal run-through by an actor seeking answers and wondering if what they’ve found is just new questions, rather than any resolution.

In this particular scene, Travers examines the bike that David left him, which he’s brought up to his apartment. After spending the night tearing it apart over a few beers, Travers flips through the Norton Commando’s manual, finding a photo of David guiding his son Evan on the bike. Doing so, you could see the resignation in Travers that he did, indeed, have to return this prized possession to David’s natural son… but on looking closer he noticed an anomaly.

In a show so keen as to ensure the veracity of his griminess with dirt under fingernails, Travers finds a something slight askew and keys in on it immediately. In the photo, the bike seat did not include a stripe down its middle. Examining it closer and peeling back the white, he found a series of ciphers: 10 Arabic numeral digits across and scores of lines down. He also noted that the bike seat had been stitched down the middle. On opening it up and reaching in, he finds and pulls out a Glock.

This epitomizes the show so far. There’s basic, on the surface activities that are relatively innocuous and drawn by regular activities and desires.  But there’s the promise of real pay dirt.  Yes, they haven’t yet delivered on promised action, but much like a sexy starlet will repeat, sometimes the big fun is in what’s not shown but anticipated.  We’re being granted questions and data to puzzle over, but only offered the promise of great action not seen.

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Does Extract stand a chance at getting a laugh out of you?

On a recommendation from my boss, I checked out Mike Judge’s Extract.  I actually was quite jazzed to watch it, as I am a big fan of Jason Bateman and his work on Arrested Development, as well as Judge’s prior workplace comedy.  Office Space was one of the funniest movies of the 1990s and perfectly encapsulated the tedium of cubicle life.  Its cast was very well chosen, featuring an oft-overlooked, likable guy (Ron Livingston) and a beautiful female lead trying to break out of TV (Jennifer Aniston).

Extract has a similar formula, with Bateman and Mila Kunis headlining the cast.  Judge managed to surround Bateman and Kunis with a stellar supporting cast including SNL standout Kristen Wiig, headliner Ben Affleck and top notch character actors JK Simmons and Clifton Collins Jr.  With a great supply of human capital to work with, Judge tried to tap back into the winning formula he struck with Office Space.

Bateman plays Joel, the owner and operator of a flavor extract manufacturing and packaging company.  Although he’s hardly the cog in the wheel that Livingston’s Peter Gibbons was at Inetech, Joel suffers from a sort of middle age malaise.  He’s ready to sell and get out of the extract business, hoping to retire and be able to spend time filling his life with something to enjoy.  Unfortunately, his home life is stale and his friendships consist solely of a relationship with local bartender Dean (Affleck).  When Kunis’ Cindy, a serious bid on the business and various other pratfalls enter his world, Joel’s life gets turned upside down.

Click on through to read my thoughts. Read more…

I think Rubicon might have what it takes to be a real winner and a hit. As such, I’m putting some faith in it and am anointing it with instant recap status.  To read prior Quick Hits for the show, click here on my posts tagged #Rubicon.  Here are my Quick Hits for Episode 1.02, “The First Day of School.”

The second episode of Rubicon kept up with the promise of the first.

There’s always a bit of a worry that episode two will not follow up to the excellence of a well run pilot.  This is because it is often the case that a pilot sees far more production glare and refinement.  I think Rubicon may avoid that problem as the season moves on, in part because the pilot was not so ambitious as to overreach.  Many pilots are designed to be able to operate independent of a greater story; they attempt to create an experience which is fulfilling so as to guarantee their good stead.  The producers here did not seem to sacrifice the story-telling methodology I’ve identified to date.

“Gone in the Teeth” served a role of introducing certain characters and themes without opening up too much or being too aggressive.  “The First Day of School” followed in that tradition.  We continued to see a bit more into the character of Travers, while getting a better glimpse of Maggie and our first real look at Katherine Rhumor.

It is with Katherine that the episode really hits home.  In an emerging pattern, the producers do seem to like their dialogue-less, visual storytelling.  In the pilot, we saw this twice with scenes featuring Travers identifying the crossword code and, later, searching David’s office.  In each case, they played the delicate balance well of conveying the dutiful intensity of Travers with enough intrigue to keep the audience intrigued.  Watching someone work a crossword is not exactly what most of America considers entertainment, but the producers were adept enough to make it interesting.

Keep on reading, after the jump. Read more…