House Of Cards TV Series

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.

I'm glad the new season wasn't overloaded with Trump references--suspect that most of it was filmed before he became overlord of the world. Not surprisingly, Nixon and Clinton allusions dominated. If they were trying to be timely, I'm guessing Conway was a stand-in for what they thought would be a Rubio nomination.

Not sure I can (nor want to) picture Rubio starting his mornings that way. Maybe Justin Trudeau?

Also: Kevin Spacey has become a dreary, predictable, terrible actor.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I don't usually see his films, so can't speak generally, but I watched Margin Call for the second time last week, and I think he's excellent in that.

he's OK until he has to cry for the dog

I saw him in Moon for the Misbegotten on Broadway in 2008 and it was an...interesting performance. I liked Spacey in general in the 90s tho.