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Also just realized that the lead reporter chick is played by Rooney Mara's sister.
...that thing currently leaking out of my head is my liquefied brain. It, having exploded, from realizing that 2 of my dream girls are sisters.
Wow.
I felt like a dumbass earlier today when I went to Kate Mara's IMDb and saw that they were sisters, because it was SUCH a revelation for me. I've been aware of her for a couple years, I KNEW her name was Kate MARA... When I was watching the first episode yesterday I was thinking, "Man, it's weird how much this girl sounds like Rooney Mara when David Fincher directs her." Never made the connection.
Anyway, through episode six, show keeps getting better. The fourth wall breaking shouldn't work as well as it does, but Spacey's so charming, he makes me feel like we're buds and I'm in on a secret.
Last edited by C-Spin (2013-02-03 07:56:37)
2 of my dream girls are sisters
Which - if I am doing the math correctly - adds up to three dreams...
BigDamnArtist wrote:2 of my dream girls are sisters
Which - if I am doing the math correctly - adds up to three dreams...
Well I was trying to be gentlemanly about it... but your math isn't wrong.
Well to add to the weirdness....
I had the netflix page for House of cards up on my second monitor last night and I kept looking at the picture of Kate on their and thinking she would be perfect as a reference point for the kind of actress to play a part in something I'm writing right now. Separate to that, I had also been using Rooney as a reference point for another character in that same project. The two characters are well...more than friends...quite a lot more than friends, if you catch my drift.
Yeah...my brain has had a hard night.
EDIT: In case you were wondering...I still haven't had time to watch any of this show yet...should probably get on that. Tbh though, been a little busy watching s5 of the West Wing.
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2013-02-03 07:43:21)
Boy there's a double feature. It was actually really funny that when I finished the last episode, the Netflix recommend thing immediately said "if you liked this you should watch the West Wing". Its so weird to jump between the two, with how happy-go-lucky and optimistic West Wing is.
House of Cards is like the "Seven" to West Wing's "Lethal Weapon".
Oh wow...considering where TWW is at right now that makes me freaking psyched for how dark HoC is gonna go. lol
I've now finished episode 13
Really enjoyable, a lot of fun intrigue and power struggle stuff to watch, but glad they started planting the "What's the point?" angle in the last couple episodes. Started tiring of a show where it was just a bunch of very compelling jerks buzzing around each other.
I find him to be lacking any interesting motivation or reasonable propellant force outside of brash greed and thirst for power. To me he's the least compelling lead character on the show.
No, that would be his wife. 
Finished the season.
Last edited by drewjmore (2013-02-28 04:34:49)
"Netflix’s data indicated that the same subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevin Spacey or directed by David Fincher. Therefore, concluded Netflix executives, a remake of the BBC drama with Spacey and Fincher attached was a no-brainer..."
I just put the first episode on and watched it in bed then got out of bed made breakfast and watched the second.
Awesome!
First episode is far, far better than anything in season 1. The writing has improved tremendously.
Spoiler for episode 1
I strongly disagree so far. The show has been strong for being super grounded for the most part up to this point.
Kinda disappointed so far.
I strongly disagree so far. The show has been strong for being super grounded for the most part up to this point.
SPOILERThe murder in this episode is a great wtf moment for the audience, but totally shatters the believability of this series, and plays like something out of 24 or a far goofier show. I don't buy for a second that Underwood personally kills someone in that public of a fashion. It feels contrived as all hell, there would be a million cameras around, and someone as public as him would never risk it (like that disguise is fooling anyone). It's total bullshit frankly, and the susbsequent episode starting to delve into the "darknet" feels like something out a 90s hacker movie and doesn't belong in this show.Kinda disappointed so far.
Also, for the record,
Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2014-02-14 20:24:38)
+1
Nine episodes deep, and I'll say this about that thing that happens in the first episode. It gives the whole season a sense of dread, and a tension that the first season sorely lacked. The power plays in season 1 were engaging in their own way, but every season 2 episode after the first is terrifying because if they can do THAT, they can do anything.
By the way, anyone else notice that the Feng storyline is lifted straight from The Dark Knight?
Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2014-02-15 02:03:09)
bullet3 wrote:I strongly disagree so far. The show has been strong for being super grounded for the most part up to this point.
SPOILERThe murder in this episode is a great wtf moment for the audience, but totally shatters the believability of this series, and plays like something out of 24 or a far goofier show. I don't buy for a second that Underwood personally kills someone in that public of a fashion. It feels contrived as all hell, there would be a million cameras around, and someone as public as him would never risk it (like that disguise is fooling anyone). It's total bullshit frankly, and the susbsequent episode starting to delve into the "darknet" feels like something out a 90s hacker movie and doesn't belong in this show.Kinda disappointed so far.
I'm with you on the hacker stuff. So fucking cheesy and awful. Zoe's death is different, though. I think it's a good move. A big problem I had with season 1 is that Frank had no one who measured up to him. He did everything right and never faltered. Killing Zoe was a split second decision, and even though he turned her around so that it would look like she tripped, it'll almost certainly come back to bite him. His relationship with Zoe was always a dangerous one, and his handling of her in this instance left loose ends (Lucas) that he has no way of knowing about. I'm okay with this move, providing that the murder plays a large role later on in the season. Also, it's an awesomely shocking move to kill off the third most important character on the show in the first episode of the new season.
This is about the BBC series-
Last edited by Jimmy B (2014-02-15 02:40:56)
Alright, I finished season 2. Here are my thoughts.
When you finished the last episode, did you notice how this season was identical to season 1? I did. The rhythm of the narrative was exactly the same. Peter became Doug, and the Vice-Presidency became the Presidency. At least in season 1 it was clear that Frank had a plan to become the VP. He becomes President through a convoluted, coincidental, and difficult to swallow series of events. In season 1 he had to work for it. In season 2, it falls into his lap. Are we supposed to be happy for him? If so, sorry, no dice. Walter White was a monster, but at least he was an emotionally compelling monster whose crimes always came back to bite him. Frank Underwood is a monster who gets away with everything, and the show goes out of its way to make sure that there's no possibility of his evil deeds becoming known. Hell, we spend half the season watching Lucas get oh so close, before getting locked up, never to be seen again. But maybe we're not supposed to pump our fists when he wins. The final shot of the season is fantastic. Even in victory, he's still ready to pounce, and you feel like he's about to reach through the screen and tear your throat out. He's a figure to be feared for sure. If this is the case, then the show is trying to make a point about how this is a morally bankrupt world and the good people all fail because they have honor. Game of Thrones does that too, but a lot more intelligently. And at least GoT has characters who are fun to be around. This grim vision of America isn't nearly as interesting as the show thinks it is, because it's so cartoonish and ridiculous. Raymond Tusk is a mustache-twirling baddie of the highest order. He crushes a bird in his fist because it wouldn't stop squawking. He's supposed to be Frank's only match, but the two don't face off all that much overall. He's just there to be evil, and so that we'll have someone to compare Frank to who can make Frank look better.
And don't even get me started on the ending of Chapter 24, because it's the exact moment when this show crossed over into Shitsylvania. Not only is it totally out of character for all three of the people involved, but it has NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on the rest of the season. It's just there to be shocking. Speaking of which, Zoe's death was another shock value scene that was ultimately meaningless. It gave the whole season a sense of dread, and I was genuinely on the edge of my seat at certain moments. Too bad nothing ever actually happened. I felt so cheated at the end. There was nothing surprising about this season after Zoe fell onto those tracks, even though that pretended to herald lots more surprises to come. Frank becomes President. So? He's practically a superhero, is this supposed to be surprising in the least? And like I said, it's the exact same thing that happened last season. Oh, and by the way, what was up with all the dropped subplots? It's like a totally different writing staff took over for this season, and they wanted to correct the things they all hated about season 1. The woman who's suing Claire? Gone after one episode, never mentioned again. Zoe? Dead and forgotten by everyone except Lucas. Lucas? Away in prison for a long time, never mentioned again after he gets locked up. Hell, Peter Russo's extremely suspicious "suicide?" No one cares anymore. But apparently they really liked Rachel Posner for some reason I can't possibly fathom, so we spend an inordinate amount of time with her in a plot that has no bearing on anything else that happens. Funny thing is, though, I actually enjoyed her subplot best of all. It wasn't exactly original, but at least it was recognizably human. Everyone else on this show is a robot or a sociopath. Or both.
This was just so boring, looking back. Frank had been built up so much last season. I wanted him to face some real, genuine stakes in this one. I wanted characters who were real matches for him, and who had the means and the will to take him down. Watching Frank's political gamesmanship isn't interesting at all if he keeps winning. It's like playing a video game after you've unlocked invincibility and unlimited ammo. Sure, it's fun at first to have a crazy, unrealistic amount of power. But without any challenge, it gets old real fast. After the triumph of the Underwoods in season 1, you'd expect that it would all come crumbling down in season 2. Like, oh, I don't know, a FUCKING HOUSE OF CARDS.
SPOILERThe whole darknet thing is pretty silly.
Well, here's the pith of my disappointment:
In S1 these side characters interacted with Francis and Claire in ways that smoothed over the fact that Francis is a Bond villain-type character. He has no internal conflict, no conflicted feelings, no real demons but for his thirst for power--which is an asset more than a demon in his line of work. I get that he's styled as a Shakespearean power-hungry leader (complete with the whole thinking out loud to the audience thing), but there's no complexity there. Like he says himself, "Dogs are so predictable." Indeed.
The rub is that this makes it rather unremarkable when he does something atrocious. He pushes a woman in front of an oncoming train, and we think "Yeah. That's what he does." And he has the same thought. Yeah. That's what I do. Sociopaths are not interesting as characters for this reason. There's no moral calculus whatsoever, just twisted software running on a sick brain. This is why good movies about serial killers tend to be about the people trying to catch/get away from the killer, not the serial killer.
For all the top-notch acting, directing, and lighting, HOC is a soap opera. This is obvious, but I think S2 makes clear (to me anyway) that it wants to be regarded as such. Sure, its pretensions are to be a "serious" drama that's about real shit--the pragmatic horsetrading and skulduggery that is Washington. But it's main aim is as cynical as Francis' power seeking: it wants to keep us watching, to keep us smacking our lips at Francis' delicious quips, gasping at the threesomes and lesbian sleepovers and other such intrigues. Soap opera. HOC no more wants to comment on the ugliness of beltway politics than General Hospital wants to be an expose on our broken healthcare system.
And I'm fine with that. I'm fine with soaps. It's when soaps strut their stuff as if they're Shakespeare that will make me roll my eyes and, hopefully, will drive people right into the arms of Orange is the New Black (a better show).
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