I did a search for this and didn’t find anything–my apologies if the hamsters have failed me.
I just finished watching all episodes of House of Cards. For those of you who are unaware, it’s Netflix’s first proprietary show, available on streaming. It’s a political drama starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. While the somewhat stilted dialogue and occasional fourth wall-breaking can be a bit jarring at first, once you get used to it it has a sort of Lion in Winter quality to it. And the relative unknown Corey Stoll has quite the future in acting, I hope, because he damn near equals Spacey in scene-chewing.
I’d like to discuss it further with those who, like me, have watched all of them. Any other fans out there?
Just finished the series tonight. I don’t have much to say yet, but I am bummed there weren’t more episodes to watch. Everything about the show has been top notch.
I thought the acting was excellent and I’ll watch next season, but IMO there was too much meandering, navel gazing and annoying shades of gray in the plot. The original was up front and in your face about its evil doer[s], the satire was sharper, funnier and more compelling.
What koeeoaddi said. I thought the Netflix version was fine, but the British version was more entertaining. And if – like me – you’re not up to date on British politics, it won’t seem dated.
I know! I’ve been watching the British version of House of Cards and Francis Urquhart is awesome. Good stuff. There’s one thing that bugs the hell out of me about the American version: Francis Underwood is a Democrat yet he does NOT act like a Democrat in the American sense at all. He’s anti-union, pro-charter school, anti-collecting bargaining, and referred to other people in his caucus as “bleeding heart” liberals. IMO, Francis should’ve been cast as a Republican if he were going to have these views.
He’s a Democrat from South Carolina. An anti-union and pro charter school Democrat from the South isn’t that rare at all - there is even a name for them, Blue Dogs. Though I didn’t see Underwood as anti-union rather than showing the union that he’s in charge of them rather than the other way around.
I loved it … although when in the first episode (or so) Robin Wrights fires her entire staff, and then the woman she made do the actual firing, I was sick to my stomach! I guess the season finale brought her full circle in her evildoing.
Frank’s method of dealing with the guy from Pennsylvania — hoo boy, brutal. While we were watching it, pretty near every night for a few weeks, the Republicans shut down the government. I saw eeeeevil everywhere I looked in real life! Francis Underwood under every rock. :eek:
I was thinking Francis would somehow get the President embroiled in the scandal, then force or encourage the President to resign with the promise of a pardon. Sort of a replay of Nixon-Water Gate.
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry]
I loved it … although when in the first episode (or so) Robin Wrights fires her entire staff, and then the woman she made do the actual firing, I was sick to my stomach! I guess the season finale brought her full circle in her evildoing.
[/QUOTE]
I thought Underwood almost became a sympathetic character towards the end of the first series, which contrasts strongly with Urquhart from the UK series, who oozes evil from start to finish.
I was also a bit frustrated that the end of the first season was left a bit dangly (clearly because they are setting up for the next season). The British version was much more of a self-contained play, with a strong finale which wrapped everything up. They went on the make two further seasons of the British version (To Play the King and The Final Cut), but these too were very self-contained. I thought the US version started very strongly but withered a bit towards the end.
It does also see a bit odd that he’s a Democrat. Urquhart was a Tory/Conservative from the landed gentry (Boo Hiss). This gelled well with his supreme sense of entitlement and general dismissiveness of people beneath him.
Loved the series, thought almost every episode was solid, agree that the ending was disappointing. All that build-up for… more build-up.
I didn’t find him to be pro-charter-school, just pro-knowing what has to go into a bill to get it passed. Machiavellian. But definitely an old-school Democrat, not a Progressive.
Corey Stoll was my favorite part, so I’m, er, disappointed we won’t be seeing him in Season 2.
I agree. I like Underwood, and I never ever not even a little bit liked Urquhart. Liked as in felt sympathy for. I loved him as a bad guy though. So evil!
Just finished the whole show at last, all six seasons. Always-watchable dark political satire. I’d enjoyed the British original, but the American remake was good in a different way (although Ian Richardson was more gleeful in his evil, while Spacey was more often just surly).
The show certainly had its ups and downs, though, and was always pretty implausible, but I think it really fell apart in the last season, after Spacey left. One thing after another that just didn’t make sense: Claire picking Mark Usher, a GOP campaign consultant, as her Vice President; Usher not actually making use of the dead writer’s body to bring her down for murder, after twice threatening to do so, and then meekly resigning; her pretending to have a nervous breakdown (that mascara-streaked photo!) and then stepping back out as President without any apparent problem; her having a prominent reporter, the Secretary of State and a senior advisor all murdered over just a day or so, also all without any apparent problem. WTF?
Her stabbing to death of Doug Stamper at the very end in the freakin’ Oval Office itself was also just too much. How is she going to explain that away? Yeesh.
I will say, the nighttime murder of Tom the reporter in the deli, moments after telling his poor dog to be a good boy and clipping a memory chip to its collar, then standing up for the killing shot, was one of the most powerfully heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen on TV. I still think about it.