House of Cards - S1 on Netflix - Spacey & Fincher - *UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR ALL OF S1*

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Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Is this show sponsored by Apple?
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Apple doesn't pay for product placement. They do provide free devices, though.

While most companies have to pay to have their products featured in a TV show or film, Apple has managed to do so for free by simply offering as many free iPhones, iPads, and Macs as needed.

"Apple won't pay to have their products featured, but they are more than willing to hand out an endless amount of computers, iPads and iPhones," said Gavin Polone, producer of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. "It's kind of a graft situation."
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http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Gets+Free+Product+Placement+in+TV+Shows+Movies/article24679.htm
 
I really need a second season about now...
 
Watching ep. 9.

God, Claire is such a bitch. I had no idea she would be capable of stabbing her husband and Peter Russo in the back like that, sabotaging everything they've been working for. I actually liked her before, despite her coldness- now I just fucking despise the bitch. That was low. As bad as underwood is, I don't think he'd screw over his wife like that.
 
Paradoxal_Utopia said:
Watching ep. 9.

God, Claire is such a bitch. I had no idea she would be capable of stabbing her husband and Peter Russo in the back like that, sabotaging everything they've been working for. I actually liked her before, despite her coldness- now I just fucking despise the bitch. That was low.
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Why should she sacrifice everything in her life so he can get what he wants? She demonstrated to him that he can't keep putting himself first. These people are both on major power trips in life, and if you put two people like that together one of them has to give, but that doesn't mean they'll like it.
 
iammeiam said:
Question about how other people see something in episode 11:
You think there's any chance the show will use Frank's wipe-down of the car against him next year? He went to town wiping down the steering wheel, door handle, etc. I get that he did it to hide his prints, but if the steering wheel or door handle actually got checked for fingerprints you'd think their complete lack of anybody's including Russo's would be a huge red flag that Russo's suicide wasn't a suicide. I'm pretty sure, given how much time the rest of the season covered with nothing coming of it, that it's not going to amount to anything, but I really thought Frank was screwing up huge there when I first saw it. He could easily suppress further police investigation, but it's exactly the sort of thing our plucky reporter team could extract from their sources.
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But why even begin an investigation?

Known alcoholic and long-term drug abuser has relapse, implodes career, loses relationship, kids hate him, tried to get himself arrested--the behaviour leading up to his death makes his suicide far more likely than any alternate outcome.
 
Watched the first episode in SuperHD ;)...not crazy about the main character talking to us looking straight in the camera,it works well in House of Lies but it's a comedy,not sure here but overall,I liked it enough to keep watching...
 
JeTmAn81 said:
Why should she sacrifice everything in her life so he can get what he wants? She demonstrated to him that he can't keep putting himself first. These people are both on major power trips in life, and if you put two people like that together one of them has to give, but that doesn't mean they'll like it.
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Because as Frank points out, what Claire is doing is completely unimportant. Frank is working on a plan to become President of the US, and if his plan had gone ahead would have had Russo in his pocket as Governor.

Do you think $500k of water filters really matter? Hell the bill she just torpedoed was more valuable than $500k of water filters.
 
I do wish they had just doing the 26 episodes in one go, but I understand that production realities probably don't allow that to happen. And they probably have an interest in keeping people invested in the service and waiting for more.

That said, the arc its following is pretty great and they found a nice middle point to end the season on.
 
Acheron said:
Because as Frank points out, what Claire is doing is completely unimportant. Frank is working on a plan to become President of the US, and if his plan had gone ahead would have had Russo in his pocket as Governor.

Do you think $500k of water filters really matter? Hell the bill she just torpedoed was more valuable than $500k of water filters.
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Obviously what she was doing was just important to her as what Frank is doing is important to him. Maybe she doesn't agree that Frank becoming president is of the utmost importance? That's part of what I like about her, that she's her own person. She has her own ambitions and ideas.
 
JeTmAn81 said:
Why should she sacrifice everything in her life so he can get what he wants? She demonstrated to him that he can't keep putting himself first. These people are both on major power trips in life, and if you put two people like that together one of them has to give, but that doesn't mean they'll like it.
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Whatever, what she did was inexcusable. She could have refused to meet with them, instead of that kind of betrayal. Also, she knew the stakes, this wasn't only about her husband but something much bigger, and she compromised him and so many others in so many ways. It fucked a shitload of people and had huge fallout. From what we've seen he's never done anything to that level to her. Sad, because I hate every scene with her now. He's at least always been open with her about things and respected her. Although neither of them are 'good' people, I enjoyed the dynamic they had with each other, and didnt treat each other in that kind of underhanded way. She completely fucked that.
 
JeTmAn81 said:
Obviously what she was doing was just important to her as what Frank is doing is important to him. Maybe she doesn't agree that Frank becoming president is of the utmost importance? That's part of what I like about her, that she's her own person. She has her own ambitions and ideas.
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Exactly. It's not about the water, it's not about the bill, it's not about Russo. It's about her being too dependent on her husband (remember, she had to fire all of those people in the pilot because Frank miscalculated with the Secretary of State position; this was her reminding him of that and getting back at him). Of course it's not right. So what? That's the whole point of their relationship—they're both always in the right, they're both always in the wrong. This isn't about morality, it's about a power play within the relationship. That's what's so fun about it compared to every other romance on TV.
 
JeTmAn81 said:
Obviously what she was doing was just important to her as what Frank is doing is important to him. Maybe she doesn't agree that Frank becoming president is of the utmost importance? That's part of what I like about her, that she's her own person. She has her own ambitions and ideas.
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You don't think having your husband in a more powerful position, puts you in a more powerful position?
 
QuantumBro said:
So is Claire going to be the new Skylar?
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No, because she chose this life. Both Claire and Frank knew exactly what they were getting themselves into, so it avoids the annoying-prying-wife archetype that's pretty common on TV these days.
 
Acheron said:
if his plan had gone ahead would have had Russo in his pocket as Governor.
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Here's a question...
The original plan was to actually get Russo elected, right?

Zoe assumes that Frank was going to get Russo to implode all along so Matthews would run for Governor, which makes sense since the whole point was to get the Vice Presidency.

So how would getting Russo to cinch up PA going to help his goal to get the Vice Presidency? If Frank was always going to sink the Russo campaign, the vote really didn't matter. They just needed to make sure the campaign would collapse at the right time.
 
jtb said:
No, because she chose this life. Both Claire and Frank knew exactly what they were getting themselves into, so it avoids the annoying-prying-wife archetype that's pretty common on TV these days.
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She doesn't
know that he murdered Peter though... presumably
. (late series spoiler... I honestly don't remember what episode it is atm).

I do find it strange that people could hate Skylar or Claire though. Especially Skylar since she is clearly the victim in that case.

Also, given that Richard III's remains were just found, some people have been doing pieces on the play and its relation to House of Cards:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/02/richard-iiis-house-of-cards.html
 
Paradoxal_Utopia said:
Whatever, what she did was inexcusable. She could have refused to meet with them, instead of that kind of betrayal. Also, she knew the stakes, this wasn't only about her husband but something much bigger, and she compromised him and so many others in so many ways. It fucked a shitload of people and had huge fallout. From what we've seen he's never done anything to that level to her. Sad, because I hate every scene with her now. He's at least always been open with her about things and respected her. Although neither of them are 'good' people, I enjoyed the dynamic they had with each other, and didnt treat each other in that kind of underhanded way. She completely fucked that.
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Honestly, I don't know what the real negative consequences of the bill not passing were. Fat-cat ambitions got put on hold, but none of the things they were doing were really supposed to benefit ordinary citizens anyways. Restore 5,000 jobs two years after cutting 12,000 for no reason? Does that sound like progress? Everything's just a power grab. I think Claire knows that, and consequently doesn't value that situation more than her own.

Acheron said:
You don't think having your husband in a more powerful position, puts you in a more powerful position?
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I do, but I can see the achievement of that kind of position tasting pretty bitter if it came at the cost of losing something you were working towards.
 
fallengorn said:
Here's a question...
The original plan was to actually get Russo elected, right?

Zoe assumes that Frank was going to get Russo to implode all along so Matthews would run for Governor, which makes sense since the whole point was to get the Vice Presidency.

So how would getting Russo to cinch up PA going to help his goal to get the Vice Presidency? If Frank was always going to sink the Russo campaign, the vote really didn't matter. They just needed to make sure the campaign would collapse at the right time.
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I rewatched ep 11 recently and it's quite clear
that he was improvising. At least in that particular moment, though I suspect in many other moments as well. I think, from the start, he wanted Russo to succeed because he would have a pawn as the governor of a key state to the President/DNC. So, they'd rely on Russo and in turn rely on Frank. It's only when both Russo and Claire revolt against Frank that he decides to crush his resistance, and seize the opportunity for the VP. I don't think, even if Frank might want us to believe it, that the VP was his play at the beginning. At least not this soon.
 
firehawk12 said:
She doesn't
know that he murdered Peter though... presumably
.

I do find it strange that people could hate Skylar or Claire though. Especially Skylar since she is clearly the victim in that case.

Also, given that Richard III's remains were just found, some people have been doing pieces on the play and its relation to House of Cards:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/02/richard-iiis-house-of-cards.html
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True (also, you might want to put the episode # before that MAJOR spoiler).

I think people hate on Skylar because she's written in a manner that's easy to hate. She wants the right thing, but the protagonist doesn't (and we naturally root for the protagonist)—so when she's constantly (and, from a writing perspective, a bit lazily) standing in his way, it's just irritating because she's such an obvious mechanism to slow the plot down.
 
More late series spoilers:

Salvadora said:
I presume Peter's fall was planned but not his murder.
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Either way, she seemed shocked enough by the news that it helped her make up her mind about going back to him and leaving Galloway for good.

jtb said:
True (also, you might want to put the episode # before that MAJOR spoiler).

I think people hate on Skylar because she's written in a manner that's easy to hate. She wants the right thing, but the protagonist doesn't (and we naturally root for the protagonist)—so when she's constantly (and, from a writing perspective, a bit lazily) standing in his way, it's just irritating because she's such an obvious mechanism to slow the plot down.
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I find it crazy that people would still find Walt sympathetic. lol

I suppose there are people watching this show that think Frank is sympathetic as well though.
 
I'm not sure how valid the methodology was in acquiring these numbers, but here are some web traffic numbers that Variety got their hands on:

- Variety: 'House of Cards' lures binge viewers
Netflix may be mum on how many subscribers watched "House of Cards," but some creative number-crunching from a broadband technology firm offers a revealing look at viewing patterns for the series on one broadband network.

Extreme binge viewing was in full force during the first weekend "Cards" was available to subs, according to data from Procera Networks, which found on one broadband network that about one-quarter of those who watched the first episode motored through all 13 episodes.

Procera won't identify the ISP because of client confidentiality. But given that the company measures usage across the networks of five of the top 10 cable operators and three of the top 5 DSL operators in North America, Procera has as good a glimpse of audience behavior as there is to get outside of Netflix's HQ.

Netflix declined comment on the numbers. "We won't have any data to share," said a spokesman for the company. "We're happy with the great reception the show has had, both in the traditional media and on social media as well as the many great reviews our members have written on Netflix.com."

By Procera's yardstick, just over 2% of Netflix subs on the network watched the first episode of "Cards," a number that fell to 1.3% for the second episode. By the 13th episode, .59% was still hanging on.

While those numbers might seem tiny, consider that "Cards" is just one 13-episode piece of a massive vault of film and TV content. And the retention level alone across 13 episodes speaks to the early emergence of a diehard fan base for "Cards" willing to take 13 50-minute chunks out of their weekend.

Although TV industry execs have called on Netflix to release viewing stats for its bold foray into original series, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company has its own justification for keeping those numbers data close to the vest. In Netflix's view, providing ratings information would make little sense considering that the initial sampling levels so crucial to a premiere episode in traditional TV is meaningless to a company that measures the value of a series over the life of its run.

Netflix has noted before that binge viewing of acquired shows can get pretty intense on its platform, but never for its own originals. Last year, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos disclosed that 50,000 subs watched the entire 13-episode fourth season of "Breaking Bad" the day prior to its fifth-season premiere on AMC.

But while whole numbers of just how many subs were watching "Cards" were not made available by Procera, analyst Cam Cullen noted that overall traffic levels across North American ISPs did not register a significant uptick over Friday and Saturday.

That's surprising given not only the advance interest "Cards" kicked up via marketing both online and off, but that Netflix was offering a free month to new subs as well. The first episode was also available to non-subs.

Cullen studied "Cards" viewership behavior across three different ISPs. On one, he noted that while Netflix commanded about 30% of overall traffic volume, "Cards'" portion of that traffic peaked at 5%. There was some variance from network to network, with another ISP peaking at 11%. Those numbers are not for the first episode of "Cards," but for consumption of any of the 13 available.

While Netflix offers little visibility into viewing patterns on its service, execs have repeatedly emphasized that no one piece of content tends to dominate usage.

One grain of salt: that assertion is typically made after Netflix loses a major licensing partner as it did with Starz, where the point is to minimize the impact of the loss.

Of course, viewing levels only means so much to a streaming service that doesn't carry advertising. What percentage of those watchers are new subs is the most important data point.

With its investment in "Cards," Netflix execs are hopeful that the show and other original programming to come will drive in a fresh wave of subscriber gains across a worldwide footprint that is currently 33 million strong.
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Dany M said:
uuuuhm, is this a spoiler? I can only infer what this means considering the popular joke about Skyler on this forum.
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It spoils nothing. They're both the wives of protagonists, that's where the comparison is from.

You'll see immediately from the pilot that Claire's relationship with Frank is fundamentally different from Skylar and Walt's.

firehawk12 said:
I find it crazy that people would still find Walt sympathetic. lol

I suppose there are people watching this show that think Frank is sympathetic as well though.
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Well, it's just natural to sympathize with any protagonist, even when it's someone truly despicable like... say, Humbert Humbert from Lolita. You're invited into their world, and get the occasional glimpses of their humanity. I root for Frank to win because Frank is the protagonist. I don't think Frank (or Walt, for that matter) is a good person, not in the least. But they're sympathetic.
 
Full seasons spoilers
firehawk12 said:
Either way, she seemed shocked enough by the news that it helped her make up her mind about going back to him and leaving Galloway for good.
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She could have realized that Francis had crossed the point of no return and that if the plan was to be successful she would have be beside him. Possibly.
 
I'm about 3 episodes in, and so far I'm not sure I "get" the show. It feels like a lot of what happens (like the details of the education bill) are skimmed over and not important to the plot, yet I'm not entirely sure what the plot is outside of that.

I might watch a few more episodes, but I have absolutely nothing hooking me at the moment outside of "I wonder if this show gets a plot in the next episode". Maybe I'm being overly harsh, but I'm finding the show painfully boring at the moment. I also have a hard time caring about what happens to Spacey's character. I find nothing particularly compelling about him, and I find his talking to the audience to be incredibly irritating.

It could also be because I'm watching this after coming from Wallander, which is stellar in pretty much every way.
 
jtb said:
Well, it's just natural to sympathize with any protagonist, even when it's someone truly despicable like... say, Humbert Humbert from Lolita. You're invited into their world, and get the occasional glimpses of their humanity. I root for Frank to win because Frank is the protagonist. I don't think Frank (or Walt, for that matter) is a good person, not in the least. But they're sympathetic.
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Heh, it's funny because I'm the opposite. I mean, I'll just say I love how The Shield ended. lol

Salvadora said:
Full seasons spoilers
She could have realized that Francis had crossed the point of no return and that if the plan was to be successful she would have be beside him. Possibly.
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Ending spoilers.
That's a possibility. I'm really interested in what they end up doing with Claire either way. She does seem to be at a crossroads of sorts at the end.
 
hamchan said:
Kristen Connolly is so hot in this.
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siXJg.gif
 
Just finished the season. What an amazing fucking show. I was tense throughout the entire last episode. Just so fucking well done. The writing, the acting- everything. The wait for S2 is going to be painful- if there even IS a S2. And that's a horrifying thought for a show this good. God knows how well it did, and if they got return on the investment. If it gets dropped would be one of the biggest disappointments in TV history for me. I've never wanted just ONE more episode of any show, ever.
 
Paradoxal_Utopia said:
Just finished the season. What an amazing fucking show. I was tense throughout the entire last episode. Just so fucking well done. The writing, the acting- everything. The wait for S2 is going to be painful- if there even IS a S2. And that's a horrifying thought for a show this good. God knows how well it did, and if they got return on the investment. If it gets dropped would be one of the biggest disappointments in TV history for me. I've never wanted just ONE more episode of any show, ever.
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It is definitely getting a second season.
 
Paradoxal_Utopia said:
Just finished the season. What an amazing fucking show. I was tense throughout the entire last episode. Just so fucking well done. The writing, the acting- everything. The wait for S2 is going to be painful- if there even IS a S2. And that's a horrifying thought for a show this good. God knows how well it did, and if they got return on the investment. If it gets dropped would be one of the biggest disappointments in TV history for me. I've never wanted just ONE more episode of any show, ever.
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Netflix ordered 26 episodes.
 
ClassyPenguin said:
I find the opposition to Netlfix by many media critics interesting. You'd think they'd be all over a new player in mkaing original content.
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A lot of these reviewers jobs' depend on week-to-week recaps. especially since episodic recaps/reviews is a pretty recent trend, so this threatens to disrupt the status quo just as everyone was getting comfortable. Before, they could dictate the discussion; now they're cut out of the loop.
 
Ricker said:
Watched the first episode in SuperHD ;)...not crazy about the main character talking to us looking straight in the camera,it works well in House of Lies but it's a comedy,not sure here but overall,I liked it enough to keep watching...
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For some reason it reminds me of Malcolm in the Middle.
 
Well, it's actually in the style of the original British show as well. Even a pretty distinct line is straight from that show.
 
[Episode 8]
I really liked episode 8, definitely one of my favorites. I thought it was interesting to find out the Francis had a fling with one of his male classmates way back when.
 
Just finished. Every main character is a horrible person and I love it. Plus, Kevin Spacey is really great in this, first time in a while I've been able to say that. I hope they continue to develop and reveal stuff about his character like they did with the college episode, instead of just show him as completely bad with no reason. Can't wait for season 2 to start.

Also, I normally hate the technique of talking to the audience, and I even groaned when Spacey first did it, but it really grew on me as it went on.
 
jtb said:
A lot of these reviewers jobs' depend on week-to-week recaps. especially since episodic recaps/reviews is a pretty recent trend, so this threatens to disrupt the status quo just as everyone was getting comfortable. Before, they could dictate the discussion; now they're cut out of the loop.
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Odd considering I really only like reading finale reviews and not the weekly stuff. I am exactly the customer that Netflix, Hulu and Amazon want.
 
jtb said:
A lot of these reviewers jobs' depend on week-to-week recaps. especially since episodic recaps/reviews is a pretty recent trend, so this threatens to disrupt the status quo just as everyone was getting comfortable. Before, they could dictate the discussion; now they're cut out of the loop.
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Good riddance, along with broadcast media.

I'd gladly pay $110/month (which is what DirecTV costs) for Netflix and HBO go and other providers provide a new show of this caliber per month.
 
Episode 10

Russo being drunk on radio was so painful to watch, just like Frank failing in that debate before.

Love this show.
 
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