WORDS Sergé Alifanov
Once exams are over a lot of students are struck with the reality of having to find an activity that will keep them occupied for the next four months. While battling the vicissitudes of Irish weather during summer is fun for some, many people will often find themselves indoors staring into their laptops consuming one TV series after another. Not long ago Netflix entered our lives, offering instant access to hundreds of TV shows you always wanted to watch but never really had the dedication to catch at a certain time on a certain TV channel every week. Recently, it had the audacity to attempt to replace TV networks altogether by offering its own original series House of Cards, starring Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey in the lead role, alongside almost equally illustrious talents: Robin Wright, Kate Mara, and Corey Stoll. The series made news not for its quite impressive lineup of actors, however, but for the audacious decision by Netflix to make all thirteen episodes of the first season available to view on the same day. Arguably, this approach removes the stranglehold of weekly TV ratings from the producers, while the $100m commitment by Netflix to produce two seasons at once is designed to give Finch and Spacey (who is the series’ executive producer) more creative control over the project.
Not long ago Netflix entered our lives, offering instant access to hundreds of TV shows you always wanted to watch but never really had the dedication to catch at a certain time on a certain TV channel every week.
While production and distribution of House of Cards can be described as revolutionary, the series itself is anything but. Not that many viewers expected it to be, after all an adaptation of an adaptation can hardly be labelled ‘revolutionary’. Keeping in mind the success of the 1990 BBC version of House of Cards, remaking something that’s considered a classic is a path that must be tread with caution. Despite all that, House of Cards has so far been a resounding success. This political drama unfolds around Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who is the Democratic House Majority Whip, and his wife Claire (Robin Wright), head of a charity organisation Clean Water Initiative. They form a political power couple and they relentlessly battle alongside one another to achieve their own aims, while maintaining their non-traditional marriage ideals. Let’s face it, U.S. Parliamentary Politics are not everyone’s cup of tea. During the era of an exponential increase in access to online content and a steadily decreasing attention span of the general population we have to acknowledge the hard work of the producers, including David Finch and the scriptwriter Beau Willimon (The Ides of March), who manage to keep the casual viewer interested and in the loop of the political stratagems employed by senators and lobbyists in the show.
While production and distribution of House of Cards can be described as revolutionary, the series itself can be described as anything but.
In my opinion, the series was very successful in showing the viewers what they expected to see – an immoral, corrupt and all too often unpleasant political scene of Washington D.C. Politicians in general tend to be unpopular as ever during the age of economic hardship, so portraying Capitol Hill as a breeding ground of immorality fuelled by blind ambition gained the show some cheap kudos. The protagonist Frank Underwood, a Machiavellian personage by all accounts, spearheads this perception. In the very first scene of Episode One he strangles a suffering dog, noting that someone has to do “the unpleasant thing; the necessary thing”, and in many ways it becomes his personal motto. Cheated out of his promised Secretary of State appointment, he sets the bar higher and stops at nothing to punish his opponents and rise to even greater power. Unscrupulous and charismatic, he is the ultimate ‘Marmite’ character – you either love or hate him. Underwood is portrayed as a great schemer in the centre of a political web, building his own house of cards in Capitol Hill. Anything goes, be it blackmail of and pressure on fellow senators, lies, or an unnecessary affair with Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara). Zoe herself is a person that is very easy to hate. She starts off as a news reporter looking for her first big break and becomes one of America’s most coveted journalists thanks to her questionable (yet apparently common) modus operandi of sleeping with a person of stature in order to get what she wants. The ill-fated U.S. Representative Peter Russo (Corey Stoll) and Underwood’s taciturn assistant Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) provide a much needed variety to the characters in the series, in so far as they both defy addiction to be where they are and that they don’t share the hunger for power that others do.
Unscrupolous and charismatic, Frank is the ultimate ‘Marmite’ character – you either love him or hate him.
All things told, prevalent negativity and cynicism within the series does not lessen the highly captivating narrative, the dramatic twists and the heavy doses of irony. Frank Underwood’s breaking of the fourth wall during key scenes gives the viewers much needed insight into his train of thought and his motives, perhaps a trademark feature of House of Cards. True to their renowned names, the cast deliver an impressive performance in this well-written cinematic drama. Watching the series is certainly time well spent and you might pick up a thing or two about politics while admiring Underwood’s elaborate handiwork in building his house of cards.
House of Cards Season One is available online in its entirety, on demand from Netflix Ireland.
