Ahead of its time, AMC spy thriller remains relevant
Say the name “Truxton Spangler,” and a certain sort of TV fan’s eyes will light up. Fair warning: Once Spangler’s name has been dropped, mentions of Kale Ingram, four-leaf clovers and breakfast cereal are likely to follow.
If these references sound as if they belonged to an arcane code, that’s appropriate, given that they spring from the obscure AMC spy drama “Rubicon,” which ran for one season in 2010. TV loves spy serials, which can provide ambiguity and explosions in equal measure. But few espionage sagas had a cast of characters as specific and as brilliantly portrayed as the rogue’s gallery of “Rubicon.”
The good news is that the ranks of Spangler acolytes may grow now that the network’s paid subscription service, AMC Premiere, has added all 13 episodes of “Rubicon.” A rewatch affirms that it holds up — and in many ways was ahead of its time.
The show follows a set of analysts and managers at the fictional API, a private company that synthesizes data provided by various American spy agencies. Now that conspiracy theories have moved from the fringes to the center of political life, the questions “Rubicon” asks about the manipulation of truth and the ways that the powerful intentionally obscure their agendas are more compelling than ever.
It would be wrong for a piece about a spy drama to reveal too many secrets, but there is much that can be discussed without ruining a “Rubicon” binge. Its star, James Badge Dale — who also appeared on “24” — brings a well-calibrated mixture of determination and doubt to the role of Will Travers, an analyst who is promoted to API management. Travers is shy and relatively awkward, but he’s not a pushover, and much of the season revolves around his attempts to figure out if his bosses — and the bigwigs they answer to — are using the intellectual output of API employees in shady ways.
A fair bit of “Rubicon” can be enjoyed as a delicious workplace drama. Travers’ immediate boss, Kale Ingram (Arliss Howard), is a cool cucumber who boasts of a resting pulse of 46 beats per minute.
We are led to believe that the motives of this intelligence veteran are honorable, but that is by no means a sure thing, certainly not as far as Travers is concerned.
The eccentric but ruthless Spangler (Michael Cristofer), API’S top executive, is even harder to figure out. Often munching on a bowl of cereal, Spangler tries to manipulate both his staff and the government types who pay API’S bills in ways that are every bit as addictive as anything on “Mad Men.”
Complicated friendships and tasteful ambiguity, however, don’t always pay the bills. Ratings (remember them?) mattered more when “Rubicon” debuted, and it didn’t attract a big audience.
The show’s greatest virtue may be that, unlike too many serious dramas of the last decade, it’s never a slog. It perks along at a steady pace. The specificity of the characters and the able deployment of spy-show tropes — conversations in garages, tantalizing codes and scenes of characters tacking handwritten clues on walls — make it fun to follow the characters as they fall down various rabbit holes.