It’s a river in northern Italy; it marked a sort of point of no return for Julius Caesar’s army when they crossed it on the way to Rome in 49 BC, which is where the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” comes from. I know that not because I paid attention in history class, but because Brian K. Vaughan wrote it into a brilliant scene of Y: The Last Man, which I won’t spoil here.

Rubicon is also the new show from AMC, the US channel that brought you (the consistently impressive) Mad Men. It’s on that basis, and the strength of a fairly glowing NPR piece by David Bianculli, that I took the first opportunity that came along to start watching. And I’m glad that I did; the show really holds up. Shot in an understated, reserved style which lingers on the characters’ faces and the architecture of their elegantly unkempt offices and apartments, it doesn’t have the quick-cut editing of say 24 or CSI. Approaching the show I was expecting a similar tone to Tony Scott’s 1998 movie Enemy Of The State, but instead the show’s producers wisely adopt a steadier pace; unafraid to leave threads unresolved over multiple episodes, and allowing characters to reveal themselves slowly, instead of giving you everything there is to know about them upfront. Perhaps there is a touchstone to be found in series producer Henry Bromell’s previous work on Homicide: Life On The Street, and one also likes to think that AMC have been emboldened by the critical plaudits that have greeted their other show despite its glacial pace.

But mastery of pace and tone would be nothing if the characters and situations were uninteresting; luckily Rubicon has intrigue, imagination and inspiration in good measure. The pre-credits inciting incident of episode one still feels a long way from being explained after five episodes, but in each installment it does feel like a good deal of progress is being made in terms of both plot and character development. The lead character of Will Travers is both instantly likeable and possessed of detectable depth enough to retain your interest; unlike with a Jack Bauer (in many respects a one-dimensional caricature which later seasons attempted to over-complicate), there is obviously more to Will than we are being shown this early in the show’s run. In fact, despite the occasional too-clever touch which falls flat (eg a character with the surname Rhumor), each of the characters seems to offer the possibility of worthwhile further exploration.

Set firmly in the mold of ‘decent guy finds himself in the middle of something bigger than he thought’ it remains to be seen whether the show can retain its genuine sense of craftsmanship, or whether it will fall into the trap of being convoluted in place of being clever. From what I’ve seen so far it certainly deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Rubicon comes to BBC Four later this year.