Rubicon
Almost nobody tuned into the conspiracy thriller when it aired on AMC in 2010, even though it had the advantage of debuting twice – once after a season finale of Breaking Bad, and once after the season premiere of Mad Men. So, few of you are likely familiar with this intricate, intriguing opening sequence, a web of connections that hint at a convoluted and wildly entertaining series.
Relying mainly on a black-and-white color scheme with lines of penciled yellow crossing the screen, the opening feels both high-tech and personal at once. Your eye follows the links between various numbers, settings and redacted words. Some of the codes go by so quickly, you wish it could be slowed down at half the speed so that you feel as mentally prepped to enter this world as the characters. The series took place at a think tank as brilliant analysts tried to find the answers to bewildering world events, so the brisk opening credits – ones that flip a kind of page each time a new connection is made – is a testament to the complexity of the mysteries on the program.
Conceived by Imaginary Forces, the studio behind Mad Men’s opening, this title sequence makes it fun to try to track and investigate the entangled webs of words, numbers and codes. As the characters on the show used their mental ability to crack these puzzles, we try to figure out how the puzzle fits together as well.
Meanwhile, if you are one who gets spooked by wacky conspiracy theories and have the feeling that there are secrets out there just waiting to be unwrapped, this sequence is probably enervating. It’s a shame Rubicon only lasted 13 episodes – it would have taken more views to try and solve whatever puzzle the credit sequence may have featured.
