Rubicon and the Little Green Clover: A New Mytharc Begins

If anyone is looking for something to add to their Sunday night viewing or DVR lists, AMC’s new series Rubicon has its two-hour premeire tonight (August 1st) at 8 pm/ 7 central.

The show’s tagline is basically a BYOTFH (Bring Your Own Tinfoil Hat) notice…

Rubicon: Not Every Conspiracy is a Theory.

When I watched the sneak of the Rubicon pilot (the first hour) on my OnDemand earlier this summer, this was the opening placard that appeared:

“A financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.”

Who said this?

Fidel Castro

or

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I just went back and double-checked and that’s still what shows up via the OnDemand version of the sneak peek, at least on my end.

But, here’s what showed up on the online version I came across later:

“An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

Who said this?

Ted Kacyzinski, The Unabomber

or

Woodrow Wilson

Anyhow, I just found that difference between the two versions curious. I’m hoping the tee-vee-powers-that-be stick with the first quote (Castro or FDR) for tonight’s premiere, because the show had me hooked right there. Regardless, I really enjoyed the pilot.

This teaser gives a good overview without giving everything completely away, if you haven’t watched the first hour yet:

Rubicon has a mytharc that is very intriguing and intelligent so far, and the lead Will Travers, played by James Badge Dale, is a great brooding protagonist. I was looking for something to help tide me over while Breaking Bad is on hiatus, and as an X-Files fan, I think Rubicon looks like it just might do the trick.  It had an X-Files nostalgia to it, without the paranormal bouquet and the little green men. Rubicon just has a little green clover. But the defining moments of the Rubicon pilot had a similar feel to the early episodes (“Pilot,” “Deep Throat”)  that started the X-Files madness. It’s that same shadowy Watergate spookiness being recreated in a compelling way, only it’s been updated to the year 2010. The subject matter couldn’t be more topical, given all the financial mess that’s around us today. I hope the second hour is as promising as the first.

Rubicon is also the kind of show that makes me glad that I have a “clicker” (as our Dork-in-chief called it on the View) that allows me to rewind and put the closed captioning up so I can catch each and every detail. And, on that note, I’ll just invite everyone again to cross the Rubicon tonight, catch every detail for yourself, and get hooked on what looks like a terrific new addition to AMC’s original programming juggernaut.