Goodbye cable, I always hated ye!
For those uninformed, House of Cards is a thirteen episode
television series funded by and exclusively on Netflix. It is produced by David
Fincher and stars Kevin Spacey and by golly is it sure fantastic.
The story revolves around four characters, but centers on
Francis Underwood, a congressman played by Spacey, who tricks, sneaks, and
manipulates his way into further positions of power. The other players include
his equally devious wife, a young female reporter with dubious ethics and
another congressman dealing with issues of drugs, drinking and prostitution.
These three characters are all interesting and have their own story arcs, but the
main focus is on Underwood and how he uses them all for his own benefit.
Spacey’s Underwood pretty much amounts to a political
super-villain. He’s an anti-hero that the viewer can’t help but root for even
when his actions cross the line into true villainy. Outwardly, he displays a
demeanor of humble, southern charm, but on the inside, he is smug and confident,
cold and heartless, and only out for himself. We learn this through frequent
breaks in the fourth wall where Underwood addresses the audience directly,
usually mid scene. This technique adds a kind of theatrical feel to the
production and it works perfectly in the melodramatic proceedings that pack
each episode.
There’s not much I can really go into without spoiling the
fun, but rest assured that you will like the show if you watch it. Even if you
have no interest in politics, the show will appeal. The characters are so
strong that their setting barely matters. The writing and acting are superb and
the production is equivalent to (or better than) anything you might find on
other more prestigious television networks.
I read an interview online wherein one of the Netflix higher-ups
said that Netflix is working to become HBO before HBO can become Netflix, and I
think that House of Cards gives them a huge boost towards achieving that goal.
