“Rubicon is an incredible story about trust and power born out of the desire to find a way to capture the intensity and mystery of the best conspiracy thrillers in a series. It is a show that appeals to everyone who has some skepticism about the relationship between big business and our government, which we think is pretty much everybody,” said Joel Stillerman, SVP of original programming, production and digital content for AMC. “Our stellar cast and creative team allow us to continue to present premium television on basic cable.”

The series cast includes James Badge Dale (The Pacific, The Departed), Oscar®-nominated actress Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow), Dallas Roberts (Walk the Line, Flicka, The L Word), Jessica Collins (The Nine, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Christopher Evan Welch (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Lauren Hodges (Law & Order), and Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket, Natural Born Killers, The Sandlot).

AMC’s Stillerman along with Susie Fitzgerald, senior vice president of scripted development and current programming and Jeremy Elice, vice president of original programming, will oversee the development and production of the new drama.

Rubicon’s pilot was produced in New York City and was directed by acclaimed film and television helmer Allen Coulter (The Sopranos, Hollywoodland, Damages, Nurse Jackie) and Kerry Orent (Michael Clayton, Rescue Me) is the producer.

Greenlit to a full series order in June 2009, Rubicon marks AMC’s third original series.  In summer 2007, AMC debuted its first original dramaMad Men, which went on to receive unprecedented critical acclaim and garner history-making awards recognition, including back-to-back Emmy and the only series to ever win the Golden Globe, three times in a row, for best drama series on television. The series returns for a fourth season this summer. In January 2008, AMC premiered its second original series, Breaking Bad, which landed on countless critics’ top ten lists and also won back-to-back Emmy Awards for outstanding lead actor for Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of lead character Walter White. The series returned for its third season on March 21.

And then, lucky for me, a man named Russell T Davies resurrected the series in 2005 and introduced incredible plots, characters and an updated feel, which still staying true to the classic series. During Davies’ reign over the Time Lords, we were introduced to the 9th and 10th incarnation of the doctor, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant respectively. This is the time when I fell in love with the show, as well as it’s more adult-oriented spin-off, Torchwood. Over the next 5 years, Doctor Who never failed to disappoint. I still don’t know how Davies managed to make each season finale more epic than the last.

And then the word came down that in 2009 David Tenant would be hanging up his T.A.R.D.I.S.. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Russell T Davies was leaving the show as well. I just KNEW my time watching this show was up. And it didn’t help that i hated who they casted for the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith. That was until I saw the fifth season premiere. By the end of the episode, Smith had solidified his spot. And the new keeper of the franchise, Stephen Moffat showed that Doctor Who was far from dead.

Catch the current season of Doctor Who at the BBC UK | America

About Doctor Who

“I’m the Doctor, run for your life!” The Ninth Doctor came and conquered and died saving the universe and his companions from the cursed Daleks. Regenerating for the ninth time, the Tenth Doctor is here to show you more of the secrets and dark sides of this universe. Past, Present, Future and beyond! Saturday 19th March 2005, saw a Who night of The Story of Dr Who, Some Things You Need To Know About Dr Who, and Dr Who Mastermind. The first episode ‘Rose’ aired Saturday 26th and featured the return of the Autons and new companion Rose joining the time traveller. And the journey continues… This new Who show features new ideas like the new TARDIS interior and a new Doctor Who with a modern dress-sense, however old concepts have returned, like the old Delia Derbyshire theme tune updated and the Autons, Daleks and an old foe returning and previous companions like Sarah Jane Smith and K-9.

After a high-octane, fast-paced pilot, the show slowed to a crawl for the next several episodes. The whole theme of the show was survival. The main storyline was survival. And every episode seemed to find the crew running out of food or water or air, etc.. At first is was interesting. The Battlestar parallel wasn’t a bad thing. But as the weeks drew on, I was ready to stop my weekly regiment by the end of the mid season finale. Luckily when they came back for the last half of the season, we found the castaways fighting aliens, planetary elements, and finally themselves as the civilians and the military drew sides. I was loving this. This is EXACTLY what Start Trek Voyager should’ve been. And as the 16th episode just finished this week, i feel like Stargate Universe is on the right track. Hopefully it’ll gain a good enough audience to keep it on the air for the next few years.

About Stargate Universe

In 1994, mankind discovered a network of Stargates that took them to the farthest reaches of the universe and unlocked some of history’s greatest secrets. Since that time, they’ve carried us through travels to numerous planets and battles against relentless villains. They’ve brought to the surface the wonders of Atlantis and led us to conflict with the dreaded Wraith. Now, humanity is about to cross a new threshold with the activation of a new Stargate that links to incredible Ancient technology. Welcome to Stargate Universe.

A group of soldiers, scientists and civilians, fleeing an attack, find themselves stranded far from Earth on a mammoth Ancient ship known as the Destiny. They must live in the limbo of time and space, cling to the notion of hope, locked on an unknown course in search of home. Now the group’s fates lie at the mercy of the ship as they face the challenges of meeting the most basic needs of food, water and air. Through the danger and adventures, some will be revealed as heroes, some will be shown as villains…and some won’t make it out at all.

The cool thing about this show was even though it was an action thriller, it focused more on the complex characters and their actions with walked a very thin line between right and wrong. You could’ve called it an updated film noir style with amoral heroes and villains and plots that flip flopped and twisted with every commercial break. And once Peta Wilson got out of her stiff acting by the middle of season 1, she became a complex character that you cheered for, even though you knew she was in way over her head in the villainous, yet good “Section One”.

The real star of the show was the music, both original and selected fore the episodic soundtracks. Music composer Mark Snow, seems to bring everything into the show’s overall dark, yet chilled feeling with songs from Depeche Mode, Mandalay, Engima, Curve, Afro Celt Sound System, Enigma, Gus Gus, Morphine, Mono and others.. and it all worked beautifully. It’s a shame how a lot of shows took the successful elements from Le Femme Nikita without acknowledging how important the show was in the evolution of television series. Watching now, i can see how JJ Abrams to the ‘model’ and crafted ‘Alias’ into a more fine-tuned premise.

All in all, it became my Sunday Night must see show. It ran for 5 seasons and I think Season 2 was their high point. But watching the entire show start to finish should be cool.

La Femme Nikita (or simply Nikita in some countries) is a Canadian/US television spy drama based on the original French film by Luc Besson, co-produced by Jay Firestone (Firestone Entertainment) and Warner Bros, and created for television by Joel Surnow who later co-created 24 with fellow La Femme Nikita executive consultant Robert Cochran. This television series debuted in the United States on USA Network in January 1997 and ran for five seasons until March 2001.[1] La Femme Nikita was the highest-rated drama on American basic cable during its first two seasons; also distributed on television in Canada (as Nikita) and, ultimately, internationally, it continues to have a strong cult following, according to the definitive book on the series written by Christopher Heyn in 2006.[2]

Despite being advertised as an action-oriented series, the series’ uniqueness primarily stems from its deemphasis on action as such and greater reliance on well-crafted dialogue and complex plot structures more common to the genre of sophisticated spy fiction as influenced by film noir and neo-noir. Since its inception, the series did not have a large enough budget to finance complex action sequences (as seen in later dramatic spy fiction or spy thriller TV series such as Alias or 24). Its creative team exhibited great ingenuity marshalling its modest resources, channeling their energies into the writing of episodes with more complex plot structures, fuller character development, and more substantial dialogue for the series’ talented actors (all of which aspects are less costly than filming special effects in action sequences).

The autonomous nature of Section One allowed the writers of this series freedom to explore areas not usually associated with this genre on television. Nikita’s voiceover in Season One establishes the Machiavellian motif of Section One. While founded as a counterterrorism organization (traditionally represented within fiction as good), Section One uses (as a standard) immoral means to achieve its objectives, while still citing efficiency and “service of the greater good” as justification for its actions. Its standardized implementation of draconian procedures include the use (upon both terrorist and innocent) of intimidation, torture (“The White Room”), murder (“cancellation”), assassination, abduction, suicide operatives (“abeyance” operatives), false imprisonment, and terrorist cooperation. In one early episode, for example, in exchange for crucial information Section One hands a woman over to a sadist knowing she will be carved up.

Unlike most organizations engaged in counterterrorism, Section One’s key personnel work neither for monetary gain nor for “pure” ideological devotion; instead, since most of these operatives are purportedly reformed criminals (though their backgrounds are often ambiguous), they work out of fear of execution for substandard performance or disloyalty (fear of being “canceled”). Such a dynamic based on fear fosters a bleak social environment in which there is little interaction among members (except regarding issues relating to work). This rather paranoid environment, combined with the futuristic hyper-realist setting of the organization, the brutally real nature of counterterrorism, and Section One’s particular mantra of efficiency, results in a dark, minimalist ethos reflected or expressed in all aspects of the television series. Most particularly, this is present in its design of costumes and selection and original composition of music, as well as in aspects of dialogue, plot, themes, lighting, and acting modes and camera styles. Also notable are intriguing camera angles and frequent close ups on actors’ facial expressions, focusing especially, during pauses in dialogue or in reaction shots, on their eyes in long takes.

Owing to the harshness (both mental and physical) of the environment in which operatives have to perform, the writing tends not to romanticize any potentially positive aspects of the organization or of most of the series’ characters (excluding Nikita, Birkoff or Walter, and, at times, Michael at his most vulnerable). The series generally exudes a dark tone in keeping with the organizational philosophies, the counterterrorist (frequently dangerously violent) situations, and the requisite tactics used by operatives of Section One. Unlimited operational resources for missions coupled with human propensity to hide ulterior motives and individual personal moral relativism lead to widespread intra- and interdepartmental infighting and recurrent secret alliances, backstabbing, blackmail and abuses of power between and among the characters, especially among those in the highest levels of power: Operations, Madeline, George.

The series raises, explores, and offers fresh insights about ethical and moral issues emerging from the paradoxical nature of a counterterrorism organization which resorts to terrorist methods to succeed in its own ostensibly altruistic goals, and the commensurate dilemmas in which the generally unwilling operatives in such an organization find themselves. Nikita’s unwavering belief in a kind of moral absolutism (as opposed to Section One’s prescribed philosophy of situational ethics) consistently and coherently motivates the underlying dramatic plot conflicts in the majority of the episodes.