Rubicon

Rubicon doesn't have the glossy panache of Mad Men or the in-your-face confrontations of Breaking Bad, but I think that's a good thing. It establishes Rubicon as its own distinct creation from AMC.

There are some great characterizations and attention to detail. If you stick with the series, you'll be treated to a lecture on the perfect briefcase by the droll Michael Cristopher that's worth the price of admission. And if you think your office banter is entertaining, try swapping in-jokes with the intelligence community.

Challenging but engrossing.

If you enjoy slowly piecing together a puzzle without having first seen the final image, Rubicon is right up your alley; if not, the brainteasing will likely unnerve you.

That there are long passages without dialogue, or indeed without what we commonly call action, will surely put some viewers off--it will be the Rubicon they will or will not cross. But I am happy to bathe in its careful, bad-dreamy atmosphere, to go with its twisty flow.

If you enjoy following complex machinations, however, and enjoy watching smart TV characters try to figure them out, Rubicon is your ticket.

It's a little aloof, a spy show without the usual espionage theatrics. That may take some getting accustomed to, but in these early episodes, Rubicon makes a strong case that it's a series that's worth the effort.

The conspiracy here is grounded in human activity and ambition, rather than aliens or supernatural forces.

With its patient pace and restrained style, Rubicon may take a while to get to the truth, but at least as viewers we suspect that there will be something weighty to discover once it does.

The 13-episode series has all the early earmarks of distinctive drama and smart storytelling.

Rubicon is not a show for the impatience, and it has the kind of ambitions that could set viewers up for a letdown. But so far, I admire its intelligence.

Without feeling like it's leading us on, Rubicon is a tightly woven and urbanely acted tale for people who like to mull.

If you're a viewer into quick and easy answers and seek resolution at the 59-minute mark, this is probably not your show. But if you're interested in the notion that post-9/11 paranoia is justified in ways we haven't even realized (and perhaps it would be too chilling if we did), and you have a fundamental distrust of government doings, Rubicon could be your new mental puzzle.

The show creates a fascinating and wonderful hyperreal world of shadowy figures, secrets hidden in codes, and perhaps even the revelation of a giant conspiracy. It's not completely original, but there's currently nothing on TV even remotely like it.

After watching the first four episodes, I'm content to settle on the euphemism deliberate and to note that the performances-centrally that of James Badge Dale as an intelligence analyst named Will Travers-have so far been sharp enough to ward off outright drowsiness.

Rubicon unfolds at a languid pace, dispensing information at the rate a not-quite-broken kitchen faucet dispenses drops. You want it to speed up. You want some urgency. You want a few more thrills in this thriller. At least this average TV viewer does.

This pleasantly low-key drama has little trouble creating an atmosphere, but the pace is sometimes slack in the first four episodes.

It's harder to tell from this preview whether the atmospherics add up to a solid and complex mystery. The pilot isn't groundbreaking, but it is promising enough to justify waiting for the full two-hour premiere on Aug. 1.

AMC's likely earned a little rope with a small but passionate audience. Whether Rubicon manages to establish more than an edgy mood will probably decide how long even the most masochistic of those viewers sticks around.

Rubicon dares to be smart but, as conventional thrillers go, it's not very thrilling.

It's certainly intriguing. It sets a mood that we rarely see in a weekly TV series. Whether it can sustain that mood and keep people interested is the huge task Bromell & Co. have undertaken. Maybe too huge a task.

As it wrestles with Big Moral Questions, Rubicon is unquestionably smart but undeniably sluggish.

To the extent style points count, Rubicon looks good and boasts a fine cast, including Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson. They work hard, but the more they and their show strain for taut, the more limp the program becomes. And for viewers, that's a very hard bridge to cross.

It seems determined to eschew high style in favor of a flat, dark world that's appropriately grim yet also numbingly static.

It's a dull blend, a slow-moving mind-rot creeping on unsuspecting viewers.

In the early going, it's tough to tell what, if anything, motivates the main character in Rubicon. There may be fine rewards as the journey progresses, but it will take a special sort of viewer to stick with Rubicon's amblings and get to them.