House Of Cards TV Series

You might say that. I could not possibly comment.

no love for this... :-(

My parents loved it.

this is freaking phenomenal. how could i have been unaware of the existence of ian richardson for my entire life???

So good. Everyone should watch it.

I think To Play the King is my favourite of the trilogy.

Remembered watching when I was quite young and loving it, but heaps must have gone over my head. Have just been given the complete DVD set. Will enjoy!

X-post: Yeah, the whole destroy Prince Charles thing done very well!

The Sopranos comparison at the top of the thread is apt in that you objectively find the protagonist repugnant on every level, but can't help but root for him.

it's because ian richardson is quite possibly the most charming actor who ever lived.

he is just impeccable in this. so precise. so sure of himself. so vain.

there's a scene in the third episode, about 4 or 5 minutes in, when the PM has just announced his resignation. richardson comes into the MPs' washroom - where we/the camera are - and talks to us about it, his voice simply dripping with disdain for the PM.

i've watched this short scene about 5 or 6 times now. throughout his speech he is doing what you do in a washroom, down to the last detail. he takes off his jacket and hangs it on the door. he uses the urinal. still talking to us, of course, looking right in the camera. he goes to the sink, removes his ring, soaps up his hands, still talking. rinses them, shakes them violently a few times, dries them, heads back for the door, takes his coat, puts it on.. and with each of these small bits of business, linked seamlessly and naturally together, he emphasizes what he's saying. he uses all of it as punctuation to his speech.

apparently he modelled francis on richard III (francis even quotes from that play in one scene with his wife). i wish i could have seen him on stage.

The scene in question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylu3x72WHTs

"An admirable trait in a spaniel... Or a whore... But not, I think, in a Prime Minister."

I always feel oddly flattered when he addresses the camera, the audience is the only entity he treats as an equal apart from his wife.

LOVE this series

i have been on a bbc tear lately. this and edge of darkness are top-notch, i am reevaluating my opinion of british culture.

also cant stop irritating my coworkers by saying "YOU might think that... I couldnt possibly comment"

^^^as you are working in PR you may find that a useful sentence from time to time. Your coworkers will stop wanting to kill you the first time you use it on a hostile journalist.

I love this series - self and boyfriend at the time watched it when it first aired, riveted to the sofa.

apparently he modelled francis on richard III

I think I read that Richardson wouldn't come back for the third series unless something unseemly befell FU since he felt he'd made him entirely too seductive a vilain.

"Daddy!"

"Daddy!"

yeah this was definitely an EEP moment

have you seen tinker, tailor, soldier, spy?

nope but i want to

Love the way this ended, by the way (Part I that is)

My memories were that I liked it at the beginning but I got more resistant to his Shakesperian mask...the catchphrase wore itself out amidst those ever so ridiculous plots.

I thought the 3rd one was a bit disappointing, except his wife really came into her own in it.

Yeah I liked her more actually.

The third is the weakest, but it's still good. Geoffrey Boozer-Pitt is an excellent character.

man i've GOT to see this show, i must have missed it when it was on the bbc first time round. i recall the hype dimly. god knows what i was doing instead at the time.
was it 3 self contained series? is he the same 'rank'/ title in all 3?

I saw the first series and liked it a lot - it was on at exactly the same time as Thatcher's downfall, wasn't it? I've never seen the second or third ones.

was it 3 self contained series? is he the same 'rank'/ title in all 3?

They're all pretty much self-contained, but there are threads running through all three. Each series is four hour-long episodes. He's Chief Whip in the first, and PM in the second two.

watchin this again! :-)

Hey, they're on netflix! This looks good!

If he's Richard III then his wife is Lady Macbeth

totes

god the irish bloke in this...prob the worst paddy stereotype i've ever seen in a drama, not least cos it appears to be a genuine attempt at crafting a character. also...tories in the 80s, would they REALLY have an Irish press officer? like how many years after hunger strikes and shit? can't believe they'd want an Irish guy or an Irish person would want to work for them.

his name is Roger O'Neill and they mention him playing rugby a lot so is he meant to be protestant or something? V confused as a character, or second gen Irish?

this show is good but it's imperfect imo, some of the "sardonic asides" are a bit too comfortable/cosy.

so apparently kevin spacey and david fincher are remaking this... for netflix?

i actually think spacey could do pretty well, hes got that kind of menacing camp thing going on

for ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS

this is interesting news

could be awesome

'apparently aaron sorkin is scripting an ed gein biopic' - an entertainment news blog

No, terrible idea.

how so?

the original is good -- ian richardson kills it obvi -- but it's not like it couldn't be done again well. plus that was a four-parter, this is already 26 episodes, so it's not going to be the same.

aw this is gonna be 26 episodes? was hoping for a 12-episode hbo-style series

they've ordered 2x series of 13 eps, which is bold

2 arcs over 13 episodes each better than 1 over 16, i think

26, rather. esp with a show like this.

yeah. the really long 23-ep thing... <3 'the west wing' but in general 23 eps is too much for full-length shows. though im loving the hell out of the_killing.

It doesn't matter if it's not as good as UK series, cuz only US politics/BBC nerds hv seen Richardson version.

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2011/03/18/its-not-tv-its-netflix-fincherspacey-house-of-cards-set-for-late-2012/

will be interested in this version if villain is a Democrat btw

Just started watching this last night, great stuff. Richardson breaking the 4th wall every so often is ultra-effective. Also notable how different London looked just 20yrs ago.

so apparently kevin spacey and david fincher are remaking this... for netflix?

― max, Wednesday, March 16, 2011 12:27 AM (1 year ago)

this is filming right now... in baltimore

The new Netflix political drama "House of Cards" is now in production in the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas. The casting directors are auditioning actors in New York, Los Angeles and Baltimore/D.C. for guest starring, recurring, and day player roles. In addition to the acting roles, many extras are being hired throughout the season. "House of Cards" will be based on the BBC miniseries of the same name. That original BBC version was based on a novel from British author Michael Dobbs. Netflix has ordered two seasons of episodes.

Starring in "House of Cards" is two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey as Rep. Frank Underwood, a House of Representatives Majority Whip who, after not being appointed Secretary of State, derives a plan to bring down the new president and take over the Oval Office. Golden Globe Award nominee Robin Wright plays Frank's wife Claire Underwood; Kate Mara is playing Zoe Barnes, a reporter for a Washington paper who conspires with Underwood to land a killer scoop; Michael Gill plays U.S. President Garrett Walker; two-time Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson is Sen. Catherine Durant; Corey Stoll landed the role of womanizing Rep. Patrick Russo, and Kristen Connolly plays Russo's Executive Assistant Christina Malone with whom he has a torrid affair.

i tried to watch this recently, i found it oddly unamenable. does it become less arch after the first ten minutes?

Kate Mara = Rooney's older sister.

does it become less arch after the first ten minutes?

― human centipede hz (thomp)

Oh it's incredibly arch. I still love it.

The archness is great! He's like Richard III talking to the audience about his vile plans.

Boo hiss arch! This is one of the best tv shows of all time and an excellent primer for anyone interested in the way power, corruption and influence works in society. They should show it in schools instead of pse or civics lessons.

That scene chap posted upthread is pure choreography.

who's psyched

i'm curious

I’ve just finished enjoying watching the first episode for free and my head is spinning that I can watch the rest of the series in one go right away if I subscribe, mixed feelings about the idea, but very tempted to keep going tonight.

this is pretty good so far. spacey was a good choice

So far so good, one episode in. Makes sense that the show's creator also wrote The Ides of March. This won't give you new insight into politics, but everybody does great work all around.

Fincher sure loves diagonals.

Love how he shoots the first newsroom scene, since we all know we're looking at THE WASHINGTON POST.

Also nice seeing Constance Zimmer do something very different from Dana Gordon on Entourage.

I also love that Netflix basically released a 13-hour, $100 million movie today, seemingly without offering it early to critics. Now they're catching up in a way that reminds me of...was it Mason & Dixon or some other doorstop that wasn't released in advance?

I'm on episode two, enjoying it. Spacey outclasses his castmates and fakey-WashPost and not-the-Kennedy-Center made me giggle but for the most part it's totally diggable. And unlike the premiere of The Americans, there's no rape scene in the first 20 minutes!

Is the narration to the camera an import from the UK series?

the exterior of fakey-washpost is the baltimore sun bldg

Is the narration to the camera an import from the UK series?

yes

my other initial impression here is that Netflix made its big play and "hit it out of the park" or some sports metaphor

and yes Morbius, the villain is a dem

yay, the actual Metro! On TV!

warms the cockles of my homesick heart

This is very good, Spacey is no Ian Richardson in terms of pure malevolent evil, but my initial worries about the pacing over 13 hours have largely been allayed.

If this is what the brave new world of television looks like, count me in.

i think they released it to critics early... nyt had a big review yesterday morning

There are some etiquette questions surrounding this. What can I talk about and it not be considered a spoiler?

and yes Morbius, the villain is a dem

Well that would make sense as they're actually in power (now and, fingers crossed, for the foreseeable future), but the original was devised and written by a Tory of course, in fact I saw him popping up in the House of Lords recently

i think they released it to critics early... nyt had a big review yesterday morning

Missed this until now, only saw the NYTimes feature on it and a bunch of other reviews yesterday saying "OK, as we get through all 13 hours..."

Man I eat this stuff up.

Crits got two episodes.

There are some etiquette questions surrounding this. What can I talk about and it not be considered a spoiler?

Was wondering about this, too. Everyone will be watching on their own schedule.

I'd say just establish a date when this thread goes from no-spoilers to full-season spoilers. Or start a spoilers thread. Either one?

I plan on watching 3-13 in the next couple days, personally.

Really enjoyed the first ep. NYTimes review got this one all wrong.

I'm 3 in and enjoying it if not exactly convinced of where it's going. Felt a huge difference between Fincher and James Foley.

aw dang, they switch fincher out? i'm in the second ep and was getting so psyched for a 13-hour fincher movie

Foley directs a few, some other guy I can't remember, and...Joel Schumacher...

uhhhh

That was my reaction

The cinematographer is the same, so the palette remains but Fincher is too idiosyncratic to not notice the difference.

Not a spoiler, but episode 3 deals with the infamous Peachoid of Gaffney, South Carolina. Never expected to see that.

Ok so 2 eps in I think the show is really good but I am also worried abt it being tooooooo cynical and cold hearted. Like both spacey And robin wright ex-penn are super Machiavellian manipulative archetypes and they're married and for some reason have this weird routine where she puts out his cigarette. Like Kate Mara is obv the ellen parsons character but

When I get through with u

friend who loved the original hating this one so far.

you… owe… i…

2 eps in and it is super cold. Also somewhat simple. Like they keep referring to this bill as simply "education". Hey prez, what bill are you going to try to push through first? Will it be FOREIGN POLICY, DRUGS, or EDUCATION?

People don't talk about politics like that. It nags at me.

later on they start calling it by name occasionally.

super cold is awesome. this is p. dope. all-at-once release is kind of a weird experience though. i expect it to get less talked up than a 'normal' show.

I loved the first & 2 episodes in this one is nearly as good. Spacey is great. Maybe the Foley episodes will change my mind.

IIRC in the early stages of its existence the healthcare reform bill was mostly just referred to as... "Healthcare reform." Meanwhile now Obama is working on... "immigration." There's a lot that feels wrong or off abt its depiction of politics (and even more of journalism) but that's not one imo

"The first" = the original series

bit ~on the nose~ in places but that's maybe to be expected

ploughed through the first two epis; on board for now at least

the Gaffney, SC stuff is kind of lol. Spacey's accent not very Gaffney at ALL.

he's good though!

reined in spacey is best spacey. the boiling underneath spacey. fell asleep watching the first one last night but will resume tonight. i hope they had lots and lots of creative meetings about the whole turning to the camera thing. could definitely do without it. a voiceover would have been enough.

Like the turning to the camera thing. Very Richie III

Or maybe Lovejoy. Either way!

yeah, there are some parts where it works and others not so much

it takes me out of things. i'm easily jarred/distracted though.

i totally dig the turn-to-the-camera but i maybe im used to it from the og series

i haven't seen this remake altho i totes will but yeah i generally like turning to the camera fine because of, yes, richard 3

think spacey was a good idea

it's used p gratuitously though - like there's a speech in which a turn to the camera aside is used as an intercut midway through & you sorta wonder what it is it's meant to be undercutting, whether they've built up a setting just to facilitate it being undermined. & there's still something about spacey's voice that makes those asides seem pretty clunky, like they have the exact same formula of syrupy inflection & downhome idiom every time.

whether they've built up a setting just to facilitate it being undermined

well... yeah? i mean what else are they gonna undermine, its not a documentary

sure. but I just mean that there's a kinda limit to many sassy asides we need given that they're part of the same structure as everything else, ie spacey implicitly acting tactically & in a mischievous way elsewhere. if they only serve to remind you of the guy's machiavellian streak that's fine, they do their job, but there are times at which it's hammering one note a little too hard, like we don't need so much blunt exposition. this isn't a big criticism, anyway, i am down with yeah, there are some parts where it works and others not so much

spacey's accent sucks

It's bad but he's good in the role so it doesn't distract me much. I'm used to terrible phoney-baloney southern accents at this point.

besides the streak i think they need the asides to remind you of the plan - after a while it can be not too obvious that this is somehow all designed to be a grand plan to fuck the president or someone over in some complicated unspecified way.

how poorly cast does the president dude seem

it's like a bizarro world where jon huntsman won

first ep made this seem decidedly duff

Is that good?

is duff good

no not really

Spacey is a terrible actor and this got off to a slow start but once the intrigue got going I was hooked.

ian richardson was just so fucking good at making you feel privileged to be invited into his confidence. it was thrilling that someone so clever would seem to be On Your Side and in turn it made you want to be On His Side, which neatly mirrored the game he was playing with the reporter, so that you had no doubt why she got so sucked in. he may have been evil but he was just deliciously so; you were almost ready to just join him and let the world be damned. if he had started by breaking a puppy's neck i'm not sure that would have worked. they sort of failed to allow spacey to charm you at the beginning, which seems like a pretty big mistake. that said, this is a different show and i'm going to watch the hell out of it and try not to compare. but it's hard!

It’s been a weekend of this interspersed with the m b v album, and I’ve worked my way through all of them. Enjoyed this a lot, and love the method of delivering it. I thought the ending was very underplayed though.

Spacey's accent is so distractingly hilarious.

i was hoping for a total overthrow of the government, american society, etc.

Ok, episode and a half in now. It works for me if I pretend that Spacey is so evil that he's faking a southern accent (because, uh, i don't know).

If he was Roy Cohn gay, that'd be a good twist, too.

Like they keep referring to this bill as simply "education". Hey prez, what bill are you going to try to push through first? Will it be FOREIGN POLICY, DRUGS, or EDUCATION?

People don't talk about politics like that. It nags at me.

I've no idea whether this is how politicians actually talk but I bought it in the scene where Zoe is talking to Kevin Spacey, because while it may not be how people talk to politicans in general she's a gauche young reporter brazenly trying her luck and in way over her head.

I enjoyed the first episode, never seen the original, but I'm curious to see how it develops. Spacey is good I think.

They would probably call it Education Reform irl, but yeah that is how they talk about big initiatives

the original was cool but got really stupid eventually.

When Spacey starts sparring w/ the Union guy it gets a bit silly

i've started watching the original now

the first series is everything trace says it is but the second so far seems more like a gleeful alien vs predator style matchup between richardson and an (amazingly thinly-veiled portrayal of!) prince charles, that meddling do-gooder. v entertaining

isnt it weird how michael kitchen kinda literally is the british michael keaton

also cool how this series is all coming up now as richard iii himself is being dug up

forgot about this, in the original, which i see i mentioned upthread:

god the irish bloke in this...prob the worst paddy stereotype i've ever seen in a drama, not least cos it appears to be a genuine attempt at crafting a character. also...tories in the 80s, would they REALLY have an Irish press officer? like how many years after hunger strikes and shit? can't believe they'd want an Irish guy or an Irish person would want to work for them.

his name is Roger O'Neill and they mention him playing rugby a lot so is he meant to be protestant or something? V confused as a character, or second gen Irish?

ha i forgot about that character, hes totally cartoonish

http://ellenandjim.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/roger_visits_urquhart.jpg

wow. he's irish?

he has a worse accent that spacey

good call on damages. this fits into the same sort of niche, except maybe with less suspense, since its basically all from patty's pov.

Really enjoyd the British tv version, bought the trilogy as a book but it's just sat at the end of my bed for 2 years plus.
That ageing tory guy really is machiavellian ain't he?

good call on damages. this fits into the same sort of niche, except maybe with less suspense, since its basically all from patty's pov.

Haha I was about to say that no one mentioned Damages, and then I remembered my drunk post. Even apart from the character similarities, the opening titles are *very* Damages: the prestigious-looking typeface (Trajan?), clouds moving over the skyline in time-lapse, quick shots of busy city streets, lingering shots of hallowed stone statues, everything turning from dusk into night.

I'm going to start watching this back-to-back with episodes of The West Wing

miss the damages theme song something serious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IsrqKMFdEE

blimey this was a shock

omg

both maria and i were reminded of ayn rand watching the 2nd episode of this last night. kill all the losers! haha! the non-profit loser lady. let her work at walmart! the old lady in the coffee place who can't even work a cash register. what a loser! old reporter hag at the newspaper. step aside, loser! they really make you root for the strong sharks.

You thought it was making you root for Spacey's wife over the office manager she was firing? Seriously?

Sorry, trying to make you root for her, I should have said.

I mean I get that you are meant to root for Spacey's character. His wife, I'm not so sure. That may be bad casting/writing or it may that the charity storyline doesn't seem to fit anywhere yet.

Whether you're meant to root for him or not, Spacey's character is def an anti-hero.

I'm ten episodes in and I think it's gone from 'compulsively watchable' to 'actually quite smart', at least character-wise. Agree that some of the political manoeuvring is a bit silly.

the non-profit loser lady. let her work at walmart! the old lady in the coffee place who can't even work a cash register. what a loser! old reporter hag at the newspaper. step aside, loser! they really make you root for the strong sharks.

I thought the cash register scene was to show ex-Mrs. Penn having a pang of conscience about throwing her old employee back out into the job market where she'd have to be schooled by 18 year olds.

My BF and I had a debate about this scene, I also thought it was a moment of remorse, he thinks it was more confirmation about getting rid of the old, and getting younger people in, hence the younger women fixing the issue. Who knows?

I could see the second reading only if the younger employee had come out and fired the old one

they keep playing with the idea of whether or not the wife is as evil as Spacey-- especially w/ the hospital bed scene

Can we talk about the ending in this thread?

maybe in another week

I thought the cash register scene was to show ex-Mrs. Penn having a pang of conscience about throwing her old employee back out into the job market where she'd have to be schooled by 18 year olds.

Either that or we as viewers were supposed to have a pang of conscience and it was showing Mrs P not to give a shit. But you could read it either way right now.

Given the general direction her character has gone, I think we can assume it's the pang of conscience.

I'm only two episodes in. Gah this format makes online discussion impossible.

"You thought it was making you root for Spacey's wife over the office manager she was firing? Seriously?"

totally. she was a loser. and a whiner. and i KNEW mrs. spacey was gonna have her fire everyone and then fire her. i thought that was funny. old charity worker. old political newspaper writer woman. i don't mind the dog eat dog thing on t.v. they made those characters really unsympathetic. well, especially after the newspaper woman called the young one twitter twat and metro hack.

lady in the coffee place was a loser too. i'm just getting into the spirit of the show. still think spacey should have broke crazy homeless guy's neck though while he was cuffed to the pole.

most unreal scene to me so far the early a.m. b-b-q visit. for some reason. he would have his ribs delivered.

He wants them fresh

I thought the lady in the coffee place reminded Mrs. Spacey why she must be hypervigilant at all times not to decline at all.

YES!

with the sad charity lady i wanted to say to her lady that's right you are 59 years old and you should have kept your head down and done what that bitch told you to do. you better recognize...

Old charity lady, why do you hate african children?

i mean how would you like to work with that sad lump for 10 years? 10 years you'll never get back!

its possible she just so closely resembles an actual person i would hate to work with or for that i became gleeful when she got whacked.

I still haven't finished ep 1 of this, but a big - maybe principal - pleasure of the OG series was seeing suckers getting served, even if - or because? - it wasn't fair.

well there ya go

Definitely read the Starbucks scene as a pang conscience.

Robin Wright is so fucking blank, though. I can't tell if it's great or terrible acting, whether her character is a complete sociopath, etc.
I suspect she might end up the most interesting character.

I found that Starbucks scene heartbreaking, personally.

you would, loser.

hahaha, kidding. this show has me going.

Wright was terrific on Enlightened S1 as the sociopathic hippie frenemy

Scott - probably because you've got your own shop and you're your own boss, you've forgotten what a nightmare it would be to work with people like Zoe Barnes.

i remember. that's why i have my own shop.

Finished! I recommend.

For those wondering, Allen Coulter directs the last two.

haven't seen the uk series (plan to now), but my sense is the u.s. one was very smart in making zoe as much a ruthless climber as everyone else rather than some sort of ingenue.

i love that too. so far. don't know how far she goes yet. gonna watch more tomorrow. loved her aw shucks t.v. interview. that's when i knew she was good at this thing.

ok, at ep 6 the hospital scene is super great for the wife.

Underwood is a totally underhanded badass politician. Underwood for President!

watched two more. felt so bad that he had to go down south and deal with all those losers. ugh. it must be so hard for politicans to go back home to their dumb states.

that bit reminded me v. much of "in the loop". but in the loop probably picked up stuff from house of cards to begin with.

ok, I'm kind of mad at the ending.

I know, even ignoring comparisons to the UK version

End of first half, with 13 more episodes to come...

ending of UK version was fucking perfect.. that red light...

Kate Mara masturbating on her bed for Kevin Spacey is a mental image I could have happily done without.

THE NEW POLITICO seemed like a 1999 vision of a Web 1.0 startup's office, only with MacBook Pro Retinas everywhere.

Slugline-- wonder why no one has snapped up that name

End of first half, with 13 more episodes to come...

yeah, I didn't realize that. but still that wasn't a good ending for an episode let alone for a season finale.

i liked the military gay choir school episode. that was a good one.

The scene with Russo on the phone with his daughter was devastating to me. And without trying to spoil anything there's a certain major element of Underwood that's reminiscent of Cheney, no?

also in retrospect idg the watershed bill, but I guess I'll have to wait to have someone explain that part to me.

Ah, OK, half-way through explains a lot. I was wondering what I was supposed to make of that very open ending.

still working my way thru the bbc originals, but i'm excited to check this out -- ppl's enthusiasm here is really encouraging because it looked pretty dumb in preview

a lot of my skepticism is sort of... constitutional, i guess. going from MP to PM is a little bit more of a direct line than going from congress to the presidency. but i'll guess i have to watch it.

Spacey = Gerald Ford

uh goole, spoilers

"Most of them write on their phones!"

whotf came up w/slugline

id even gi

I think a slugline is an insider journalism thing, like a summary for the editor

new commemorative dn

use words, man

wk: i'm guessing! i mean, wikipedia has the dimiwittedly non-spoilery "The series stars Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, a ruthless politician with his eye on the top job in Washington, D.C."

i doubt they mean chair of the ways and means committee

yeah, i still don't know what Spacey's ultimate goal is, but you have to assume its getting to the top

booker on the a sunday show

ah, ok. I didn't read anything about the show on wikipedia, just started watching it out of the blue. where it ended up going was a little bit of a surprise for me. at first I thought he was just going to set up his own shadow government to manipulate everything behind the scenes.

I think slugline is a washington inside thing having something to do with coke and snot

I dont' get the thing with the call girl in hiding...who was she? the one who was in the car with pete earlier on? (I'm halfway through)

yes

i always forget about hookers until i watch t.v.

just got so excited when they broke out the vote-counting whiteboard in ep 4

lbj didn't need no fuckin magnetic poetry strips tho

so far spacey is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay below richardson (altho part of it might be that i prefer the bluff cheerful english brand of sociopathy) but the rest of the show is probably an improvement. or maybe it's just slicker and has a lot more room to work. (i've only seen the first series of the o.g..) i like that there's more focus on mara's character's own ambition -- that was present in the original, i guess, but it kinda got overwhelmed once she started calling him daddy. i mean mara's prob gonna end up calling spacey daddy too but not in an episode and a half. i was gonna say that there's way too little Actual Whip Stuff but then they started counting votes.

some of the to-camera speeches are pretty painful tho, yeah. spacey can't manage the transition nearly as well as richardson.

was rad to see noted top five the wire character norman as the guy w the ribs place

I started watching the original, I'm kind of struck by how differently it works on a big-screen tv. Everything is shot so much closer.

Just finished episode 11. The origami thing at the end is a little too on the nose.

President is such a dunce

yeah u r

all done!

liked the part where Kevin Spacey was declared king of america

the scene where he takes of his skin and eats the mouse really came out of nowhere, huh?

and when Rosalind Shays fell down the elevator shaft

College episode added nothing to the storyline

Filler is a grand tradition in serialized TV.

I have 2 eps left and I dont want to watch the rest cuz it is so bad

lotsa suspension of disbelief but whatever.

like what the vice president ends up doing. i am soooooooooooo sure. and then the president going for his plan. i am sooooooooooooo sure. but entertaining.

also, the president only has one person to make decisions with! i am sooooooooooo, etc, etc.

it gets pretty overtly Shakespearean at the end. Takes it more from a sausage-making procedural thriller to melodrama/tragedy. Which isn't terrible; I enjoyed it all the way through. Except for some of the "this is the 90s!"-style dialog various characters (esp. Zoe) had to utter about Twitter and stuff.

Oh god, the debate with the union guy and auto tuning Frank.
Big chunks of this aren't going to age well.

I h8 how they continuously and obviously signal how much time has passed throughout the series during various conversations

Not liking ep6 at all. Probably not a coincidence that Joel Schumacher was involved.

Frank goes from subtle, masterful Machiavellian to openly using the mother of a dead kid? Really?

Oh FFS

they get to do all the things they want with the plot all the time

did the end of the college bros episode rely heavily on someone's crib notes taken at a viewing of Brokeback Mountain?

it made perfect sense to me to be subtle and crafty on the hill, but make big huge crass gestures to manipulate the general public.

Finally finished this last night. Enjoyed it, but got annoyed with Mrs Underwood. She went all weak and menopausal. I was enjoying thinking she was a total hard nut, and then she turned squishy.

Except for some of the "this is the 90s!"-style dialog various characters (esp. Zoe) had to utter about Twitter and stuff.

wait huh? twitter didn't exist in the 90s iirc?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIlSgsXYqdw

it made perfect sense to me to be subtle and crafty on the hill, but make big huge crass gestures to manipulate the general public.

didn't say ridiculous. def crass though -- total opportunist political theatre.

but, by that same token, smart and effective.

Episode 10 - in which shit gets really real

I wondered about the dead kid thing, in the UK being that brazen would backfire so badly. Suspect it doesn't work too well in the States either.

Utterly confused by ep13.

a few eps/plot points bugged me but overall i really liked this & i dont usually go in for political dramas @ all. i think a big part of it was that it was so un-sorkin-y

For a political drama with a lot of talking (like, it's 95% talking quickly) it was mercifully absent of zingers. For all that, I thought that the political plot line wasn't as convincing or interesting as I would hope? I don't know what I expected, but I was wanted a bit more stone-hearted evil from Frank. Thought the soap opera bit of it was a lot more convincing. Don't understand the criticisms about it being to allegorical or whatever - it's a political drama, what do you expect?

The Claire Underwood character is pretty much the star of this imo. It kept looking like she was about to crack (like when he lobbyist dude comes onto her at a dinner or something), but only for a millisecond, then she composes herself and gets back on track. Such a good performance - it's easy to do ice queen, but hard to make that ice queen a human rather than a cipher.

Paper swans = I HAZ FREE SPIRIT!!!11! is a meme in waiting, clunky 6th form symbolism needs to GTF.

so has this been out long enough to talk spoilers? so wtf was the point of the watershed bill part? his wife kills the bill and ruins their plan but then wait, their plan was always to ruin the guy anyway, so... huh?

his wife wasn't supposed to kill the bill! the bill passing was supposed to have the added bonus of making Frank look good.

but why did it all matter if the plan all along was to destroy russo?

because the plan was also to boost his own credentials.

I don't know, it just seemed so important for about one episode and then didn't seem to matter at all just a couple of eps later. and in between it didn't feel like there was some epic dramatic struggle to salvage his plans and get everything back on track.

i was also confused-- the failure of the bill barely harmed his overall plan, so I couldn't figure out why it was so important. The fallout of the failure should have been bigger, I guess.

also, how did the watershed bill reflect on underwood? I can't remember. it seems like getting russo elected is what was supposed to boost underwood's credentials, but if he was always going to ruin the guy, then the scandal would have hurt underwood's credibility either way because it would have looked like he backed russo without vetting him properly, right?

btw, the cheney connection I mentioned upthread is that cheney also headed up the vp selection process and then ultimately selected himself, didn't he?

yup! cheney was the first thing I thought of when they used that plot idea

My take is that while the watershed bill was conceived mostly as just a pawn on Frank's chessboard, as he tells us, he hates being wrong. He's the Whip, and his ability to get the whip count right is why he's the whip. Regardless of its importance to his plan, he is capable of being distracted by a little thing like losing a vote.

It's either a supermassive plot hole, or it'll come out in S2 that Frank dbl-xd his wife and meant for the bill to crash and burn.

silby otm, I think

why did it end like that, seems like they left some stuff hanging

what was weird is that they didn't necessarily leave it in a bad place plot wise, but it was soooo poorly executed that it felt like they did.

yeah like maybe if the final scene had been the vp announcement and you know the slugline investigation is hanging over his head

also how they refer to it as slugline dot com is so unrealistic no one has had dot com in their name since like 2002

It was a strangely underplayed cliffhanger.

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/house_of_cards_is_bogus/

bill-ted.jpg

I heard real community colleges aren't like what you see on Community

scales-eyes.gif

it seemed so realistic!

I think you have to suspend a lot more disbelief to watch and enjoy HoC (which I still enjoyed btw, but I can see why Kornacki who is pretty immersed in national political scene wouldn't) than you do to watch and enjoy Community.

Most (all?) Political dramas from RIII onwards have been allegorical morality plays, HoC is no different.

HoC trying to have it both ways though: allegorical morality play AND real behind the scenes DC power-brokering.

i really dont think its trying to be realistic, i hope not

lol Veep is prob more realistic tbh

I don't think HoC was trying to be realistic in the documentary sense - the first scene is Kevin Spacey strangling an injured dog! The whole thing is pretty theatrical down to Spacey's stage-whisper asides.

It wanted to be 'realistic' as a dramatic version of everyone's darkest DC fantasies.

the o.g. HoC was clearly going for a pulp-shakespeare kind of a thing.

check it:

This is an act of mercy. Truly. You know the man now. You can see he has nowhere to go. He's begging to be set free. He's had enough. And when he's finally at rest, then we'll be free to remember the real Roger. The burning boy in the green jersey. With that legendary, fabulous sidestep and brave, terrified smile.

lol Veep is prob more realistic tbh

― Roz, Friday, March 22, 2013 10:36 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

veep seems ridiculously unrealistic and kinda a big disappointment, esp coming from ianucci. haven't watched house of cards yet, probably will eventually when i'm bored enough, but i'm guessing for cynicism and entertainment it doesn't approach scandal - am i wrong?

'it is realistic', 'it is allegorical' - how are those the only options???

sry those are the only options.

c) it is a cartoon with anthromorphic animals.

d) its all in yr head

e) it is an occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Realistic and allegorical are not the only two options, but they're maybe on either end of a scale. In which case, HoC sits a looooong way from verisimilitude.

yeah welp i got to 'that scene'

idk this is ok. i'm into it but never really sold.

Original or new? New one gets better as it goes on, by halfway I was hooked.

i dunno what 'that scene' is (the pussy eating scene?) but i like this show. haven't seen too much yet tho.

yes, ian.

i like most things about it but the political gamesmanship strikes me as totally off. not that i really know what it would REALLY look like.

i love their take on the stamper character, he's my fave so far. that and peter russo' girlfriend.

ooh original is up on Amazon Prime. will watch!!

i have no desire to watch US version, kevin spacey gives me the creeps

well this will not help

good to know

scandal does the same thing better, i now think.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25200000/Dodgeball-A-True-Underdog-Story-Interview-alan-tudyk-25232578-640-480.jpg
http://reddoorreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Screen-shot-2013-02-07-at-12.57.28-PM-584x365.png

I'm four episodes in. A few notes:

(1) The newspaper intrigue is easily the weakest: it's the worst parts of Season Five "The Wire." I mean, the writers actually include a "print is dead!" "No it isn't!" exchange. American male directors still don't know how to portray female ambition without making the women look like Stepford girlfriends/wives. The caricatures aren't vivid (the Kay Graham publisher, the milquetoast editor).

(2) I've disliked Robin Wright Penn for years but she's fantastic -- easily the best person here. She gives quiet line readings and doesn't overdo the physical acting. Her smoking moments with Spacey are the best in the series.

(3) Were we really supposed to believe an editorial in a college paper thirty years ago can bring down John Kerry? Cuz holy shit. Swift Boat people, you sucked this year!

and lol @ at the Serious Liberal Woman whom Mara replaces dressing like Joni Mitchell in 1972.

I did like the Jeananne Garofalo-esque Gen-X writer that had the "twitter twat" line

the British Stamper was the best though - sooooo crepey

http://pixhost.me/avaxhome/2007-12-01/1Q04_Stamper_meets_Princess_Charlotte_orig.jpg

S2 available to stream from tomorrow. V psyched, enjoyed S2 a lot.

Need to get round to Orange is the New Black.

*enjoyed S1 obv

http://31.media.tumblr.com/1e095130a21d9e93037830fb047db313/tumblr_n0stetlBGM1ts8u03o1_500.png
http://25.media.tumblr.com/c62a3a4c5961e83e94315b036db7d846/tumblr_n0stetlBGM1ts8u03o2_500.png
http://25.media.tumblr.com/67e4b1a0659b73e78bc9b621d4c01f6e/tumblr_n0stetlBGM1ts8u03o3_500.png

hahaha

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/is-em-house-of-cards-em-tv/283805/

'not tv'

only watched the first episode but there's a genuine holy shit moment in it

I just got 15 minutes in and realised I don't remember 80% of what happened last year so I've got to hit up a recap

My greatest hope for this season is that no one calls Kevin Spacey "daddy" during sex.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/arts/television/house-of-cards-returns-with-more-dark-scheming.html?_r=0

man this first episode was ludicrous from start to finish, starting from the absurd locks that Mara's editor lover has grown.

Everything I've read about this = no desire to see it. The US political scene should only be played as doomsday farce; there's nothing Shakespearean about that brothel on the Potomac.

Good to know.

- Carl Franklin directed episode 1
- Molly Parker

Did the main things in this first episode also happen in the British series?

each of the british series was only 4 episodes long so i'd imagine it's pretty different

Main main thing hapenned at the end of the first UK series.

BBC 2nd series was about deposing the king (sorry, spoilers) so idk what the US analogue would be

deporting bieber? /dad

lol'd at cufflinks

Need to hack phone records.

lol, this show is hilarious. as soon as the words 'dark net' were uttered i was like 'o god yes'. finished episode 3 today, show really is an inverse west wing. west wing was liberal fantasy rxn to age of clinton: what if we had a good, smart, moral likeable liberal who didn't fuck around on his wife in the white house, o to dream!, this is similar rxn to age of obama: what if we had some democrat that knew how to work the system, someone who wasn't afraid to get dirty, was able to stand up to and outsmart the tea party, what if we had someone who GOT STUFF DONE. huge lol that the big deal fu managed to thru his machiavellian genius and cunning managed to get thru the senate was a deal that gave the tea party 98% of what they wanted after they'd already moved the goal posts and gave the president nothing except preventing a shutdown and a 'bipartisan deal'. i'd almost think that was intentional if i thought this show was capable of insight or subtlety.

then you better have a scotch before watching Episode Four.

Lol @ that one sex scene near the end

Mr Fang, emissary of the Chinese government.

goodness me the vice president's portfolio has expanded since the days of Adams.

Balls otm

ah clean em off with a hose

LOL

'what do you think, jean?'

'fuck 'im.'

ep 5 all the civil war stuff was incredible.

i like how just deeply mordent the show can get, surreal flashes of bleak imagery.

(oh and obv. he's not getting anything important done, that's i think one of the reoccurring themes -- that getting anything done [much less anything right done] matters less than looking like you're getting something done, which matters only because that's how you get more power)

still on ep 1 but lol morbs accidentally giving this show credit for being shakespearean

'he's worried about his marriage counseling, as he should be.'

'if you're worried about your marriage counseling, you shouldn't be.'

Loved Ep1. Loved the whole pregnancy/makeup/ageing thing going on, I've got a feeling I'm going to enjoy this season a lot. Oh, and [spoiler] that happened in ep1 actually happened at the end of the British S1, iirc.

one of the lines above was the "taste the bone" bit in the civil war ep. another of those was the "slow bleed" bit from freddy. super writerly, but i like the idea of a world where at any moment an unexpected person just slips into that -- reminds me of all things, of onion's porkin' across america.

I'm almost done. Lurid trash, it turns out, and all the better for it.

Seriously, Robin Wright's just amazing. Known a number of women like Claire (minus the evil part) and haven't seen them portrayed so fully. She's a master of nuanced head-tilts.

I'm almost done. Lurid trash, it turns out, and all the better for it.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 16 February 2014 16:15 (1 hour ago) Permalink

otm, they're really embracing that this season. consequently it's way more entertaining.

so much of this season is so ridiculous (the Underwoods insisting on transforming their brownstone into the veep's manse, the obviousness with which Spacey telegraphs unctuousness, the First Lady's jealousy) that the producers should say fuck it and let Robin Wright lead. I love the way she makes erotic neutral colors like slate; it's like her acting.

they should say fuck it and follow congresswoman molly parker around, ungh

BBC original has been remastered in HD if, like me, the crappy , sub-DVD version on Netflix gives you a headache.

Just finished episode 11. I'm sure there were far fewer sexy times in S1 as there is this time round, even including FU and the tiny journalist. Tho I suppose interrogating the ways that sex=power is integral to both this and the BBC series.

just finished the season. bummed about stamper. presumably season three is the house falling down. threesome was lol.

I'm an episode and a half from the end. We saw Chinese Guy's exploits. Is there another involving a certain Secret Service guy?

I think this show is better when it's being ridiculous. When it's trying to be "political" it's complete garbage.

Major LOLs at serious IT guy whose iphone doesn't have a passlock (and the HACKER knew it wouldn't have a passlock). Also TV interview outing rapist was hilarious. Reminded me of all those other gotcha interviews where politicians/wives called out their victimizers on live national television.

season 3 he becomes king of england, season 4 emperor of the galactic republic.

season 5 he runs for condo board

I loled at the idea that a Machiavellian as pronounced as Frank Underwood wouldn't know that ribs guy's son was a felon.

just finished the season. bummed about stamper.

ever heard the word "spoiler"? It's not like we can all make it through this in 6 days

it's a new era grandpa

ok future boy

sorry

*SPOILERS*

frank underwood betrays someone and emerges victorious

claire underwood appears as ruthless as her husband but there are moments where you can see cracks in the facade

bummed about stamper

omg kinky

when you play the game of thrones you win or you die

*SPOILERS*

warning: if you have not finished season 1 of house of cards do not read the above

Jackal Onassis is surprisingly good with puters

not reading this whole thread for fear of spoilers but let me just say I pegged the xtian lezzing from the first time those two were together on the bus

and now I want to start a dating site called XTIANLEZZING.COM

I hope that the Rachel character does better in the next season, but I'm sure not holding out hope

well, she did kill a dude, so it's not like the world is gonna be disposed to cut her any more breaks than it already hasn't

mcpoyle as adrian lamo maybe signaling charlie day as glenn gould in next season?

mcpoyle to use his dark net skills to finally figure out who shot him and his gf in vallejo, july 4th, 1969

I kept thinking of him as a mcpoyle brother and it was only mildly distracting

Meechum is so fucking hot.

ha really?

Threesome was lol but I'm not entirely sure why it was there. I'm not sure it developed anyone's character and I don't think it was referenced anywhere else. Was the point to contrast with the protestors to illustrate that the Underwoods do lots of stuff you wouldn't approve? Cos that's weak.

they did threesome because evil people are all bi, duh

emphasize the relationship dynamic between the Underwoods, imo. they only work well together when they're screwing somebody else.

ha really?

― balls,

He's okay. Unlike a lot of actors who get stupid when they loosen their collars he was cool laughing and slugging bourbon. On the other hand, no secret service guy who's spent months chauffering his guy to a young reporter's place would not only have the acumen to guess his boss is bi but the audacity to caress his hand.

plus meechum's not really secret service.

The Citadel episode was one of the best in Season One, and showing Frank as having had a relationship with a dude there--so this seemed like a good continuation of building the complexity of his character. Also harkened back to all interesting open-relationship dynamics between Frank and Claire in the first season.

There were definitely a lot of differing sexual dynamics at play in the season, from Stamper's creepy addictive stalking to the cold open to that one episode with Feng paying off that couple for his asphyxiation play session

The A-plot is so convoluted this season it's kind of boring.

You mean "play billionaire against his friend, the president, until both self-destruct?" There are a lot of pieces that vary throughout the episodes but it's pretty straightforward.

Finished this the other night, enjoyed it a lot more than the first season because it was just so much more lurid. And there was minimal Zoe Barnes in it.

The Stamper/Rachel plotline was definitely the best though, Doug was such an awesome character.

just finished it last night. am i a simpleton for growing to hate the underwoods and wishing for bad things to happen to them, along with Stamper? I was all "good. he deserved it."

and yes there were many, many twists that were just so ridiculous. the threesome being example #1. except it wasn't really a twist - it went nowhere fast.

Also finished this last night (whoa). I had a hard time following the specifics of Franks machinations tbh but that didnt affect my enjoyment of the show too much. I kinda dont get why anyone would conspire with him; clearly he's a slimy traitor.

because you could end up being vice president or w/e

Absolutely loved season 1, but what's all this nonsense with guinea pig crushing, civil war reenactments and sinister auto-erotic asphixiating Japenese businessmen?

That businessman was Chinese?

civil war reenactments are totally a thing in Underwood's part of the country

Like massive days-long reenactments where people never leave character?

Oh yeah duh Chinese sorry. I am racist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#Progressive

I went to gettysburg college chap, it's a huge thing

Season 3 trailer is crazy. Frank gets super jingoistic and invades what seems to be Nigeria as prez: http://youtu.be/sFu5qXMuaJU

to save the girls?

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/really_house_of_cards.gif

^^^ show's major achievement

Frank going from President to Erik Prince would be a good move.

i kinda love this show but i really really love how tv crits can't stand this show

it's funny that they're treating it like 'seasons'.

it seems more like 'we're gonna make you watch this other long-ass thing again next year'

http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/smuggif_zpsa5513c84.gif

Fan-art contest:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpuOdgCCMAASs2u.jpg

Going up in the middle of the night tonight.

Doug uses a lolWindows phone

just started. fuck's sake, how's he still around??

At a certain momennt in the second episode the president gets, ah, a rise out of something that reminded me this show's forebear isn't Advice and Consent but "Dynasty.

"

Someone at work has been bugging me to watch this; found used copies of the first two seasons (?--sounds like the concept doesn't apply) last week, watched the first episode last night. (Sorry, late.)

I don't know. I hope it gets a lot better very quickly before I invest too much time in this. (Advise and Consent did cross my mind, primarily because of Spacey's corny accent.)

I sunk about an ep and a half into this before deciding it wasn't for me. I prefer my cartoon villains maybe a little more seductive, a little more inflected

At a certain momennt in the second episode the president gets, ah, a rise out of something that reminded me this show's forebear isn't /Advice and Consent/ but "Dynasty.
--guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

of course. it's up-market Scandal. i will say that the first ep wasn't bad at all. the changed dynamic - frank under siege and not owning everybody right from the get-go, is an improvement.

i was bored by this last night, and i used to really like this show. it's no longer thrilling to see how shameless frank is

i never finished the 2nd season. maria did. i got bored the more implausible everything got. just too much to ignore as far as unlikely situations go.

Yeah, when the show presents itself so seriously and cynically, the aspects that are naive and implausible are that much harder to swallow.

there are lots of scenes in all the netflix shows i have watched where there are, like, two people in a room and i can't help but think that there is no way in hell there would only be two people in the room. you can't really be clandestine with the president. it doesn't work like that. just the fact that frank and his wife and ONE lobbyist basically ran everything....a bit ridiculous.

that agent scully Fall show drove me up a wall. HUGE serial killer case in a big city and she's sitting there watching footage of the killer and one of his victims by herself! that seattle show with the mopey cops was the same deal. big high-profile murder case in a major city and those two doofuses are scurrying around by themselves in the dark with nobody else around.

i know, drama and suspense and all that. but still...all these people in real life are completely surrounded by other people.

show has greatly stepped up its cameo game, that's for sure

I'm in love with the biographer: Edward Snowden with a hangover

i know, drama and suspense and all that. but still...all these people in real life are completely surrounded by other people.

yeah I think it's unlikely that Obama would be left all by himself to urinate on his dad's grave

Enjoying the quasi-Putin and the "as themselves" cameo in ep. 3.

halfway through the new season, it's a total snooze-fest.

season three does a reasonable job of giving multiple characters story arcs, but it's Stamper's that's probably the best and most harrowing

he really has three phases: broken man, possible redemption as a decent human being, and nasty political assassin creature with little humanity (his existence prior to season three, really)

The assassin part is...not credible. Not even incredible.

@DennisThePerrin
Watching the new season of HOUSE OF CARDS is rekindling my faith in the criminality of the US political system.

i mean, he's not wrong, but that's also sort of like saying bond villains really made you understand that terrorism was bad

burrow into eight more levels of sarcasm

Finding this dull reminds me of when folks watching The Sopranos got mad when not enough people were getting whacked per episode.

It's dull but Frank's moment of weakness with the victim of the drone attack was maybe the best character-moment in the series.

I wasn't paying full attention to Ep2 - someone want to spoil what happened with Frank when he was laying there and RWP hopped on?

Meechum sat on his face.

xp she is just RW these days, probably to the benefit of her long-term sanity and happiness

this show is about as dull as a wet fart

^^underrated Frank Underwood quote

yeah this became unwatchable for me in early s2 (not because it changed). it has a pompous color temperature.

I gave up on this early S2 as well. I think I just couldn't suspend disbelief enough for it.

thats's what i said! i'm right there with ya, poo.

maria still likes it okay. i dunno, i'm also kinda TV'd out this winter. lotta nights curled up by the warm netflix and hulu. i even got tired of Vikings after the son of anarchy became Viking king.

I've tried watching an episode of this but am having trouble not comparing it to the UK 90s version. Should I stick to it?

i've actually been looking for movies to watch on t.v.! can you believe it? positively dickensian. watched les blank garlic documentary the other night.

"Should I stick to it?"

the first season is really the best, so, if you don't like that...

I'm liking season 3 more than 2 so far (I finished the first four last night). the main problem for me believing that Underwood is any kind of Democrat when his big plan is scrapping SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

I'm liking season 3 more than 2 so far (I finished the first four last night). the main problem for me believing that Underwood Clinton is any kind of Democrat when his big plan is scrapping SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

season 3 indeed

heh

ok during spacey and robin wright's big fight at the end of episode 6 he just completely drops his southern accent for 15 minutes in a row, did this intensely bother anyone else?

like all season he's saying "hwhat" and "hwhere" and i do declare but suddenly becomes glengarry glen spacey and no one on the set noticed? does he have that much clout?

his accent is terrible anyway, he should just drop it for good

his accent sucks but whatever, this season was great, last episode best of all three series.

best ep of this season was the debate one

overall this show is a drippy wet bloated embarrassment tho

what do you want for your televisual entertainment?

less hubris, more intelligence & humor, same amount of satisfyingly crisp set design & lighting

Loved 1, hated 2, still undecided whether to bother with 3.

final confrontation b/w Claire and Frank is the worst

yeah, it took me 3 tries to get through the last 3 episodes - kept falling asleep.

the Stamper subplot was plodding as hell but it was the only appealing bit because it was legitimately creepy and the only real connection to the original story arc.

the politics/foreign policy was batshit crazy - which it basically has been since the beginning but it gets distractingly batshit this season.

and the frank/claire interpersonal stuff that was intended to get deeper this season just goes around in circles the whole time.

should have stuck to what made it fun in the beginning, the machiavellian political plotting and reporters vs pols cat and mouse stuff.

should have stuck to what made it fun in the beginning, the machiavellian political plotting and reporters vs pols cat and mouse stuff.

― Brio2

You should watch the UK original, it is pretty much all this.

Stamper subplot, toward the end, felt like generic sadist network TV (the plot-drivers I've seen when flipping through NCIS, Hawaii 5-0, Cold Case, etc.), not what I showed up to watch.

The key to so many good HBO shows, and true to this one as well, is that when they're at their best, these stories could only happen in the specific city in which they're set. Even if there's corruption and sex everywhere, it's the D.C./Baltimore/Hollywood/Jersey/Manhattan details that make it worth the time for me. Stamper as a character was compelling in this way, as a portrait of a D.C. workaholic, but his story by late in the series felt almost from another show.

how many of these shows get BETTER after the first season? feel like i watch a lot of great first seasons and then...

comedies tend to get better as they develop. not so much these kind of shows.

maybe i'm talking more about netflix shows in general. HBO has a pretty good track record.

not every show can be the good wife...

xposts
Yeah, good points for sure - but it really was follow-through from the initial plot. Whether or not he could bring himself to kill her has been a plot point from the first season on. So I know where you're coming from but to me anyway it seemed like they'd been building toward it for a long time... but generally I totally agree about the specificity of the world and its players being the strongest stuff in the show and this arc did wander off from that.

The Wire got better – its first season was an above average cop show – but after the second season.

the fall and the killing were like that for me. such strong first seasons and then they just get sillier and less believable.

i haven't watched lillyhammer. felt a little too high concept the sopranos goes to norway to me. but maybe its great! (have no desire to watch marco polo either...)

the killing i hated the middle seasons but came around on the final season. the fall season 2 was a letdown.

I think I enjoy this show more for its ridiculousness. In more grounded programming I tend to wind up proactively bumming myself out knowing that the more fantastical plot devices hinted at won't actually come to fruition, whereas nothing's off limits on this show. A VP can murder someone on the train station without being detected! etc.

which isn't to say that makes the show above critique obv, but by s1 ep 2 it was already straining credulity anyway.

Four episodes into season one. In general, getting better, with one major exception where I can't see that I'm ever going to change my mind: Spacey. He just seems so corny to me, especially when he addresses the viewer directly.

deleted scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LCsiWL6gn0

lol

I really hope the bad accent is leading up to a Season 4 reveal that he's actually from Cleveland Ohio and his real name is Casper Fielding

Is it a bad South Carolina accent?

Sometimes.

it's wildly inconsistent. I remember asking my friend (who was a big fan) "dear God does his accent get any better" when I started watching it.

This seems like a pretty thorough breakdown of what he's messing up. Seems like a good point that a South Carolinan of Underwood's class and age would talk like Lindsay Graham:

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/27/8119829/house-of-cards-spacey-southern-accent

and have Graham's secret habits.

also, lindsay graham is a woman. but that's common knowledge. not much of a secret.

http://i.imgur.com/1ZZWN4y.gif

k-pax-banana-scene-gif

Troels Hartman made such a great Evil Putin Clone that I was prepared to overlook the ridiculousness of him agreeing to share a table with Actual Pussy Riot.

Whole thing is at its best when its at its trashiest.

Agree with previous posters that the first season was best but imo that's no surprise. I'm not a big fan of this "new wave of serious TV-shows" or w/e (actually I feel that a lot of people/critics fail to recognize flaws and problems with 10+ hour dramas on "low" budgets without much "style") but I do enjoy them because they are so addictive. Anyway, I was wondering: Whenever a sequel to a movie comes out, a lot of people feel skeptical like "oh this is just an easy way to make money" etc. but the attitude towards modern TV-shows seem entirely different. Is this weird or just me?

(with regards to announcing 2nd, 3rd, or 4th season of a show)*

there's plenty of criticism for shows that overstay their welcome, or tarnish the memory of earlier seasons.

yeah - I think especially since the (by all accounts) terrible ending of Lost and the triumphant last season of Breaking Bad, people put a pretty huge premium on the idea of a dramatic series ending well and building toward something rather than fizzling out.

I've been assuming that Underwood is going to die at the end of this season but I've got a way to go. Three seasons feels like a perfect dramatic arc.

Jesse Pinkman finally concludes his cross-country journey by driving into a crowd of people while extremely high. One of his victims, sadly, is President Underwood, who was giving a speech at a local fruitstand.

I've been assuming that Underwood is going to die at the end of this season but I've got a way to go. Three seasons feels like a perfect dramatic arc.

― Matt DC

I skimmed some interview with big Kev where he said that he could forsee HoC lasting ten seasons or something ridiculous like that, god help us.

The rib shack burns down with Frank inside, and a pack of wild dogs descend.

4 seasons will make 52 episodes

season 10 he's secretary general on the UN

season 9, Claire pissed off Presidential Library not named after her.

Two performances I really like through episode 6: Michael Kelly (Spacey's advisor) and Corey Stoll (Russo).

On a less positive note, the resolution to the teacher's strike was preposterous.

not to be spoilery but you'll be so nostalgic for that style of House of Cards preposterousness soon

The common thread on the show:

*Francis gets sandbagged on an issue
*Stares into space in his office talking to himself
*comes up with Eureeka moment at the 25 minute mark
*solution is really obviously manipulative and harmful to everybody but Francis which nobody seems to notice even after he's fucked them over multiple times
*rinse repeat

Yet it's often entertaining despite that derpishness.

yeah except now the solution is usually just for him to YELL AT EVERYBODY REALLY LOUD

he used to be way more entertainingly tricky

Yeah his temper tantrums have been much more OTT.

Not as exciting either.

I feel that Frank and Claire are more sympathetic in this series. They're still bad people but it's not like they're totally evil I don't think

For the first two series I think HoC was the only TV show where I have not liked the main character at all. Obviously the likes of Tony Soprano/Walter White/Stringer Bell are fairly unpleasant individuals but I was still rooting for them a bit.

Finished the first season. Don't read this if you're even farther behind than I am.

I found the last few episodes pretty absorbing. It's definitely not as good as Mad Men--trying to get someone at work to watch Mad Men led to her getting me to watch this--but it's got something, enough to keep me watching. Maybe I'm just getting used to Spacey, but he seemed to tone it down a bit as it went along. His role in Russo's death kind of boxes them in, though; what you want from such a character is that you're of two minds about him, but that becomes pretty difficult when he's murdered someone. I guess they weren't aiming for that. Noticed Carl Franklin directed a couple of episodes, two of the better ones, I think. I'm a little unclear as to what the original plan was, before the watershed bill got killed--which clearly Spacey wanted to pass, right? Was it essentially the same, just with Rachel brought in at a different point in the campaign? Anyway, as far-fetched as it all is, like I say, absorbing. And pretty much every performer besides Spacey is good to excellent. Sorry to see Corey Stall gone, but I continue to be really impressed by Michael Kelly, also Gerald McRaney, and while Kate Mara seemed kind of obvious in the beginning, she gets more interesting towards the end.

BTW, thought it was peculiar that Dan Gilroy was an executive producer this season without having writing credit on any episodes.

Season 2, first episode: final shot of the cufflinks was fantastic. But Zoe Barnes, my goodness--if it hadn't already, it's officially abandoned any connection to the actual world. I guess I'll just enjoy it at that level.

BTW, thought it was peculiar that Dan Gilroy was an executive producer this season without having writing credit on any episodes.
--with HD lyrics (Eazy)

being a consulting producer basically means uncredited writer or at least script polisher as far as I know

xpost yeah it's amazing how Underwood knew exactly where to stand to be out of the line of view of the cameras and how nobody whatsoever saw the shove.

I mean to enjoy the show is to make peace with the fact that these career politicians are really easily duped by the same guy over and over again.

Fifth episode, season two, was the first one in a while I didn't like (Feng from China, the Civil War ceremony/reenactment). Seemed to wander off track--Rachel wasn't in the episode at all. The FBI guys swarming Lucas was good.

Don't answer this, obviously, but one thing that makes no sense is that they a) bump off Russo, b) bump off Zoe, but c) go to all this trouble to hide the one person who'd be the easiest to bump off without raising a lot of undue suspicion: Rachel. You would think Underwood and Stamper would begin their (improbable) clean-up with the runaway prostitute estranged from her family.

Underwood is the one who does all the bumping off and he can't get close enough to Zoe to do it without arising suspicion. There are other reasons why they don't but that would be spoiling the later episodes.

Err I mean Rachel not Zoe.

I agree that Underwood's everyday access to Russo made it easier to do what he did. But Zoe's murder was cloak-and-dagger stuff; he was in full disguise so as not to be seen. Don't see how him killing Rachel would play out any differently. Anyway, minor point, and you say explanations are on the way. (One reason might be that Stamper obviously has feelings for Rachel that go beyond sexual.)

Another thing I liked about the Civil War episode: the way Stamper sidles up to Underwood at the end and whispers "They got Lucas Goodwin." I suspect it was meant to be a direct echo of the way Rocco goes up to Michael near the end of The Godfather and whispers "We got them all."

Kevin Spacey throwing a baseball...I think that was supposed to be the character's ineptitude, no Spacey's. I really, really, really hope so.

The Tusk-Feng-Danton-Underwood-Lanagin maneuvering: I don't understand all of this, although it's probably pretty straightforward if I took a minute to work it out. Best thing on the show right now, a few episodes from finishing season 2: the Doug-Rachel relationship. Asking her to read A Tale of Two Cities off her phone was excellent.

Tusk-Feng-Danton-Underwood-Lanagin

one helluva law firm

I remember not really understanding a lot of the political maneuvering of season 2 either. I'm guess I probably could have figured it out if I put some thought into it, but it didn't really seem worth the effort.

I just finished season 3. If they would have compressed this season into 4-5 episodes, it might have been good, but a lot of this just felt unnecessarily long.

I came to this show cold, so everything's a surprise. I think Jump-the-Meechum moments should enter television vernacular.

I assume I'm correct in thinking that Underwood's long-standing plan to bring down Walker was a plan in broad outline only--that he's had to improvise along the way as circumstances warranted. I mean, you're not supposed to accept that everything that's happened was carefully calibrated from the beginning, right? That would be a bit much.

I like the Seth character a lot. He's as bland and as non-descript as cutthroat gets.

Finished the second season. I know there are other options, but I'll probably just wait for the DVDs to continue.

In the midst of all the detours, believable and preposterous, Doug Stamper strikes me as a genuinely tragic character--the last shot of him made me sad. (I shouldn't have, but I checked to find out if he was dead or not.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/what-is-going-on-in-the-missouri-republican-party/389075/

Meanwhile, a radio ad backing Hanaway featured a Frank Underwood imitator mocking Schweich as a Barney Fife lookalike and a "little bug."

Couple of more episodes and I'll be caught up. I'll put down some thoughts then, but I continue to find Doug Stamper a memorably haunted character. At one point there was a shot of him at the end of a hallway, and with his cane he reminded me of Everett Sloane Lady from Shanghai. I find those shots of him staring at that intersection on his monitor sad and moving.

"Everett Sloane from..."

omfg Ellen Burstyn we praise you

also I am SO pleased to see that this show has officially become House of Claire bcz she really has been imo the "main" character this whole time and now she's first and foremost.

man no one cares about this show anymore eh

Well, it certainly got less interesting after Frank stopped doing the really crazy stuff and now only does stuff that real politicians do. In retrospect I feel like they fired the big guns too early. Was a better season than season 3 at least. And I finished watching it in two days but I think that speaks more to my poor life choices than the show's quality

I'm still interested. But I'll have to wait until a co-worker gets it all onto a USB for me.

I'm so out of it sometimes as to the way things are done now. When she let me know on Friday that the new season was out this weekend, I said that that went along with theory that Claire would run again Frank, and that everything would be timed to the election in November. She then reminded me that the entire season was out this weekend.

really liked this season eventually -- slow start but set in place the right dynamics for later.

final shot is kind of chilling

HWHY?

Six episodes in, liking most of it. The problem with watching it the way I have--the first three seasons quickly, then a few months away from it--is that characters pop up and I've forgotten their entire backstory (and am too lazy to check plot synopses on Wikipedia). I can't remember why Dunbar is running against Frank, can't remember how Secretary Durant got where she is; when Zoe Barnes, the alcoholic congressman, and Raymond Tusk turn up, it's amusing to remember how central they once were. Doug Stamper remains my favorite character; loved "Now, why don't you threaten me again?"

Stamper is like a scary Terminator death machine ugh

he's like a sociopath without the charisma or someothing

As someone who loved S1 and disliked S2 should I bother catching up with 3 and 4?

Yes, definitely. I think the show has plotlines that could very easily write themselves into corners but they manage to shift gears and continue along in interesting ways.

if you enjoy the idea of "Melrose Place" in the Beltway.

I think that's a partly true characterization of Stamper, but the best and most complicated relationship in the whole series for me was his obvious love for Rachel pitted against his maniacal loyalty to Underwood--at least until that was resolved, he was this great tortured and haunted character. (He's moved more towards the Terminator side since, but I still find the character fascinating.)

Just watched episode 8, my favourite in a while. I kept thinking about how great it all looked--much closer to the shadowy cool of All the President's Men than Spotlight ever got, say. I love the juxtaposition of the main story with the Zoe Barnes investigation burrowing underneath--very glad that's been resurrected. I've avoided reading anything on the new season, so I'm not sure where it's headed.

Not sure about the finale, but overall, good season. I especially liked Remy turning into Hal Holbrook.

I'm assuming that the first 3 seasons are adapted from the British Tv series or straight from the books which both only go up to a 3rd volume as far as i'm aware. So is this 4th series completely original to the US tv writers or was there any input from the original author?

Ian Richardson is really good as the central manipulator in the UK version.

this show is terrible, the bbc one was terrible, and richard iii is also terrible, to arrange them in ascending order of intermittently fun camp

The editing on this is tight — we watched last night waiting for a place to pause it and go to bed but the scenes just snap one to the next until suddenly the episode is over.

Funny watching this season in light of Trump; almost seems like an outdated Pleasantville version of US politics, a venal candidate who still needs the cover of respectable political maneuvering to get ahead.

that's partly why the show's unwatchable for me in March 2016. I did experience a mild frisson at the sight of Ellen Burstyn.

Also: Kevin Spacey has become a dreary, predictable, terrible actor.

I don't know--if you like political maneuvering in films, this falls somewhere on a spectrum from Advise and Consent (the best) and The Best Man to lesser films like The Ides of March and The Contender. I thought Spacey was too much in the early episodes of the first season, but got better and better after that.