Okay, well here's my thoughts about the Season Finale of this show tonight, that I just posted on mp.com
good finale! Although it sort of donned on me towards the end, and in most of Spangler's scenes. He's engineering these events for some larger purpose, like historical. Almost in a Butterfly Effect sort of way. The deaths are necessary evils for the greater good of the future of mankind. Or maybe it has some religious motivation? Spangler muslim?
But some great moments in the finale. What exactly was Andy's agenda? Why did she run off after seeing Katherine Rhumor collapse? or for that matter, why did she just allow her to stand there in the middle of the park, not doing anything to protect her from the incident that killed her? How exactly did she die? Did that guy have a needle with some kind of toxin in it? It was so subtle, it was almost impossible to even guess.
What is Kale Ingram's agenda? Why didn't Will contact Ed? Why did Maggie say he could trust him? And what was in David's message on the DVD? Where did the DVD end up? I might guess at the police station or something.
Also the scene where Grant has to tell Will that he was promoted, was rather funny in a way. It almost reminded me of some of the scenes in Office Space with Ron Livingston hearing things about his job and not having any regard for it.
Obviously a lot of things they can explore next season. It just sucks we have to wait until next Summer to find out answers to a lot of these questions.
Maybe The Walking Dead will tide us for over until whatever other new show AMC brings on, because between Breaking Bad and this show, I am totally hooked.
But there's more to add about this in general. Originally, the pilot episode aired following the Season 3 finale of Breaking Bad back in June. And while I didn't hate what I saw that evening, it was only mildly intriguing. It almost had a dry, slow, non-energetic feel to it. The characters and even cast just weren't all that engaging really. The premise sounded possibly good. But the truth was, it was kind of an afterthought. So much so, I had no idea when it was going to be airing again. Maybe it was a special film or mini-series or something. I forget.
So, come August, I noticed some discussion about it and I decided to record it on my dvr. I missed at 1east 1 episode, but they re-aired it which I recorded along with every episode for over a month. So, then about a month ago I was needing to clear out some DVR space as I often do, and decided to try and give this show a shot. My memory of the pilot wasn't even perfect, and certainly things about the pilot episode that didn't grab me too much still were present in the following episodes.
But then after a couple of episodes, I just got sucked in to where the story was going.
This show is about conspiracies and an intelligence agency aimed at trying to stop World disasters from happening. The main character, Will Travers heads up a team or Think Tank of sorts, that works for this group called "API" (American Policy Institute) whose job is to try and determine who, what and why terrorists attacks occur and how to prevent them in the future. But of course there is a lot more to what goes on. Will's mentor David Hadas is killed in the pilot in a train accident, and there's too many fishy details about the accident.
So, the show has been largely about Will's research and investigation into how David's death and other circumstances seem to be connected. At 1 point his apartment is bugged and there is someone who tries to murder him.
I guess for me, what has sucked me in to this show is all the uncertainties about each character's ultimate agenda. Who can Will trust? Kale Ingram, his boss in effect, seems to be one whose at least opposing the group Truxton Spangler is involved with, but he's clever enough to not get exposed. He ends up helping Will and some others in the process, but for some reason I just think he has multiple reasons for acting as he has.
I really like some of the support characters like Ed Bancroft and Hal. Both seem to be helpful to Will, and the scenes they have been in have often been rather significant in the story.
I wonder if more about Atlas McDowell will come out next season. Maybe some of the characters are actually still working there, but undercover at API?
For now, this show stands as my favorite new show of the year/season (with Fox's The Good Guys being a close 2nd, although that show may not be on too much longer unfortunately). I wonder if it'll end up receiving any Golden Globe or SAG recognition in a few months. And Emmy's, of course they love Breaking Bad and Mad Men from AMC, and given BB won't be eligible next year, maybe Rubicon will find it's way on to the awards? (or maybe it won't be eligible as well, since technically it could have for this 1st season).
