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

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panda21 said:
episdoe 4:

is that a ps vita?
i lol'd. shameless.
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You know, this didn't bother me so much since they had established that Frank likes to play video games. It may be a way for Sony to plug their own products, but I liked that quirk about Underwood. Enjoyed that they showed it more than a few times.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
You know, this didn't bother me so much since they had established that Frank likes to play video games. It may be a way for Sony to plug their own products, but I liked that quirk about Underwood. Enjoyed that they showed it more than a few times.
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Yup. And it's not like Frank is playing the latest COD game. I would've loled if he was playing a Move-game tho'!
 
Mully said:
Robin Wright

Hnnnngggggg
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vx1nNZ0.gif
 
Socreges said:
I've only seen episode 1.

Two questions:

- Will I get used to Spacey's accent?
- Will I get used to him breaking the fourth wall?

Both are pretty jarring to me and take me out of the experience. Otherwise I really enjoyed what I saw. Newsroom is a different show, of course, but somehow House of Cards helps me get over that disappointment.
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Its all a matter of tast of course but I would say YES and YES to those questions.
 
I'm up to episode 8.

I really quite like it. I am sometimes struck by the time frame though, for example, in the last episode Frank said to Zoe that he hadn't seen her for 3 weeks or something, so I imagined that roughly 3 weeks had passed since the last episode. But then, it turned out that Russo had been sober for a year... even though the 'within-100-days bill' was signed at the start of the episode?

Though, i'm probably just missing something, and it doesn't really take away any enjoyment. I do like the show, and I sort-of root for Frank, even though he is a bit of a dick. I did find both his 'Fail' TV interview, and the whole brick speech at the end of that episode a little out-of-character, two extremes which I didn't expect him to go to.

I didn't like Frank's wife at first, I guess mainly because you see her sort-of cheat on him before you really see what Frank is like. Now I find myself sometimes really liking her, then feeling quite off about her within quick succession.

Zoe is an odd one. I really liked her until recently, especially with the whole 'on the phone to her Dad' thing, at the end of the last episode that I watched. About the only truly likeable character is Russo, providing he doesn't hit the bottle or the drugs again, because despite his insecurities, you can see he is a decent bloke at heart.

That is no negative though. I think the best type of shows are the ones where you are interested in the characters, despite having serious flaws on show.
 
finally seen episode 1 on German sky.

Frank Underwood isn't quite as devious as Francis Urquhart yet, but I like him all right. Of course with 13 episodes instead of 4, I am expecting this series to move more slowly than the BBC version.

The most important part, in any case, is that I really enjoyed it. Tomorrow they are showing episode 2. (Wish I had the Netflix option of watching them all on a weekend)
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
You know, this didn't bother me so much since they had established that Frank likes to play video games. It may be a way for Sony to plug their own products, but I liked that quirk about Underwood. Enjoyed that they showed it more than a few times.
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they did? he mentions he plays games after the whole sony plug, but i don't remember anything before that, what was it?
 
panda21 said:
they did? he mentions he plays games after the whole sony plug, but i don't remember anything before that, what was it?
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it was in episode 1 already (the only I`ve seen). He is seen playing Call of Duty (I think) with headphones, which his wife takes off and tells him to go to bed.
 
Gambit said:
it was in episode 1 already (the only I`ve seen). He is seen playing Call of Duty (I think) with headphones, which his wife takes off and tells him to go to bed.
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oh that! I totally forgot about that. kind of cool if they include it like that, although the vita thing was still a bit cheesy
 
Gawge said:
I'm up to episode 8.

I really quite like it. I am sometimes struck by the time frame though, for example, in the last episode Frank said to Zoe that he hadn't seen her for 3 weeks or something, so I imagined that roughly 3 weeks had passed since the last episode. But then, it turned out that Russo had been sober for a year... even though the 'within-100-days bill' was signed at the start of the episode?

Though, i'm probably just missing something, and it doesn't really take away any enjoyment. I do like the show, and I sort-of root for Frank, even though he is a bit of a dick. I did find both his 'Fail' TV interview, and the whole brick speech at the end of that episode a little out-of-character, two extremes which I didn't expect him to go to.

I didn't like Frank's wife at first, I guess mainly because you see her sort-of cheat on him before you really see what Frank is like. Now I find myself sometimes really liking her, then feeling quite off about her within quick succession.

Zoe is an odd one. I really liked her until recently, especially with the whole 'on the phone to her Dad' thing, at the end of the last episode that I watched. About the only truly likeable character is Russo, providing he doesn't hit the bottle or the drugs again, because despite his insecurities, you can see he is a decent bloke at heart.

That is no negative though. I think the best type of shows are the ones where you are interested in the characters, despite having serious flaws on show.
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He had been sober for about a month, and was just lying to the interviewer, I thought.
 
I'm partway through episode 8, and at this point, I'm actively rooting against pretty much all of the main characters. Good show, though.
 
it looked like killzone from the visual style, but i triple checked by matching the huds earlier when i mentioned it as more sony placement in the thread as i didn't want to get it wrong and look stupid. it's killzone 3.
 
Just finished all of it. Got-damn this show grabbed me

FUCK
Episode 11
though, seriously. I really really liked Russo and he was probably my favourite character. Almost considered stopping after that, ballsy move by the writers though
 
Tobor said:
Source?
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Multiple interviews with Fincher, Spacey, Willimon, et al.

Here's one:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/01/kevin-spacey-house-of-cards-david-fincher#slide=1

"I had never worked in television before. Neither had David Fincher or Kevin Spacey," showrunner Beau Willimon told VF Daily. "But I do know that having 26 episodes guaranteed upfront, two seasons, liberated me as a writer, because my staff and I could really look at the story over a 26-hour arc, so we could do things early in Season One that could pay off late in Season Two. You don’t have that luxury with shows where you don’t have as many episodes committed."

The entire series is being written and designed as a two-season, 26 episode deal. The possibility of a third season isn't impossible, but given the talent involved and the intended arc of the show, it's really, really, really unlikely.
 
BertramCooper said:
Multiple interviews with Fincher, Spacey, Willimon, et al.

Here's one:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/01/kevin-spacey-house-of-cards-david-fincher#slide=1

"I had never worked in television before. Neither had David Fincher or Kevin Spacey," showrunner Beau Willimon told VF Daily. "But I do know that having 26 episodes guaranteed upfront, two seasons, liberated me as a writer, because my staff and I could really look at the story over a 26-hour arc, so we could do things early in Season One that could pay off late in Season Two. You don’t have that luxury with shows where you don’t have as many episodes committed."

The entire series is being written and designed as a two-season, 26 episode deal. The possibility of a third season isn't impossible, but given the talent involved and the intended arc of the show, it's really, really, really unlikely.
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I don't read that as 26 episodes being the ceiling. More like 26 episodes is the floor.
 
Barring this being a catastrophic financial failure, this will get a third season I'd imagine.

Fincher is the biggest question mark but he doesn't have to direct any of the episodes and his input is probably pretty limited as is.

Willimon doesn't have any other plays to be adapted by George Clooney anytime soon so his schedule's free.

Spacey hasn't been doing much of anything in Hollywood since American Beauty, and Robin Wright and others are basically resigned to bit-part roles these days. The talent's availability won't be an issue, especially not when Spacey's an executive producer.

Biggest question is if there's enough story to support it and whether Netflix will want to front another 100 million. As for the interviews; they're hedging their bets. If it doesn't get renewed, then they can just as easily say the story came to a natural conclusion, and for once, it won't be complete bullshit.
 
Just started watching this.

God damn, I thought the BBC original would never be surpassed as the best of its own era, but Kevin Spacey's really bringing it to the table. Loving the performance of the actress who plays his wife too, the dynamic between them is just delicious!

The supporting cast also pulls in their own weight, but I feel that Spacey really steals all the scenes he's in for now.

The show just exudes class, absolute class. I'm getting the same vibes watching this as I did when watching Mad Men for the 1st time.

Why isn't more of GAF watching THIS? Netflix just scored big time with this series.
 
BertramCooper said:
Fincher has been heavily involved, actually.

Quote Kevin Spacey: "He's fucking obsessed with this series." (same article I linked above)

And if Fincher does indeed pull out, so will Spacey.
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I'm sure he is. Doesn't Scorcese watch all the dailies and work pretty closely with Winter on Boardwalk Empire? (so claims Wikipedia anyways) It hasn't stopped Scorcese from being able to direct features. All I'm saying is Fincher's schedule wouldn't be an impediment towards a third season and beyond.

Also, a PR quote doesn't necessarily mean he's really involved with the production beyond setting the narrative footprint anyways. Spacey's got a show to sell, after all.
 
jtb said:
Also, a PR quote doesn't necessarily mean he's really involved with the production beyond setting the narrative footprint anyways. Spacey's got a show to sell, after all.
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The primary reason Spacey did this show is because Fincher is heavily involved. He's not exaggerating.
 
jtb said:
They'd both still be heavily involved. I mean, Fincher didn't direct all 12 episodes and I doubt he will direct any more going forwards.
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You know how many eps of The Sopranos David Chase directed? Two. The pilot and the series finale.

You can't apply normal TV logic to this show's production because pretty much everyone involved is a film person. The entire show was conceived with a clear endgame. If it does somehow go beyond 26 episodes, I can't imagine it would be anything close to a full season.
 
BertramCooper said:
You know how many eps of The Sopranos David Chase directed? Two. The series premiere and the series finale.

You can't apply normal TV logic to this show's production because pretty much everyone involved is a film person. The entire show was conceived with a clear endgame. If it does somehow go beyond 26 episodes, I can't imagine it would be anything close to a full season.
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David Chase was the showrunner on the Sopranos and was heavily involved in the writing. Willimon is the showrunner here, at least from a writing perspective. Fincher isn't a writer, period. Even if this isn't in the traditional TV mold (which is great, since TV is a terrible storytelling medium), House of Cards isn't going to be his main focus going forward and it won't have to be. That's the whole point—they gave the various directors they recruited quite a bit of freedom to shoot their two episodes and each director brought their own crew with them. There just won't be much for Fincher to do on the ground and that's fine; he can call the higher-up shots without this distracting him from interesting features. This isn't TV-exclusive logic.

I applaud them for taking the smart and pro-consumer choice of building it around a 26-episode arc but it's way too early to write off S3 from happening (or even say that there's a clear endgame). Let's wait for S2 to get here and see how it concludes this arc; and even then, only Frank's death would ensure a permanent end to this show.
 
Finally watched the whole first season.

As someone who worked in DC politics, the amount of basic ridiculousness and factual inaccuracies is hard to ignore, and even putting all of that aside I still wish the writing was better, but overall, the show is pretty OK. Hard to say no to Spacey when he is clearly having so much fun.
 
Matt said:
Finally watched the whole first season.

As someone who worked in DC politics, the amount of basic ridiculousness and factual inaccuracies is hard to ignore, and even ignoring all of that I wish the writing was better, but overall, the show is pretty OK. Hard to say no to Spacey when he is clearly having so much fun.
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I've seen the same sentiment expressed by congressional reporters and other people who are close to politics. I haven't been in DC politics, but I do follow it closely, and this sentiment is the main reason why I haven't watched the first episode.
 
jtb said:
David Chase was the showrunner on the Sopranos and was heavily involved in the writing. Willimon is the showrunner here, at least from a writing perspective. Fincher isn't a writer, period. Even if this isn't in the traditional TV mold (which is great, since TV is a terrible storytelling medium), House of Cards isn't going to be his main focus going forward and it won't have to be. That's the whole point—they gave the various directors they recruited quite a bit of freedom to shoot their two episodes and each director brought their own crew with them. There just won't be much for Fincher to do on the ground and that's fine; he can call the higher-up shots without this distracting him from interesting features. This isn't TV-exclusive logic.
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Where is the evidence that this won't be a main focus of Fincher going forward? He was clearly extremely involved in the first season, and I see no reason to think that he wouldn't be in the second. He doesn't appear to be a slap-my-name-on-the-credits kind of guy. He's been with this project from the outset, and he'll almost certainly remain with it until its conclusion.

And for what it's worth, I think TV is actually a far superior storytelling medium to film.
 
BertramCooper said:
Where is the evidence that this won't be a main focus of Fincher going forward? He was clearly extremely involved in the first season, and I see no reason to think that he wouldn't be in the second. He doesn't appear to be a slap-my-name-on-the-credits kind of guy. He's been with this project from the outset, and he'll almost certainly remain with it until its conclusion.

And for what it's worth, I think TV is actually a far superior storytelling medium to film.
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Where can he be involved in it? Willimon's the head writer and he's got his own team there. He's not going to be calling day-to-day shots on production because they've made it a point to give directors a lot of autonomy with their episodes.

Fincher (along with what seems to be twenty other people, going by the opening credits...) is an executive producer: that's the very definition of slap-my-name-on-the-credits. It's not a bad thing. Will he chat with Willimon about the direction the story is going before they write S2? Sure. Will they look at the results and analyze what worked and what didn't? Sure. But I don't see Fincher doing much more than that because there simply isn't room for him to do so. He's a director and he understands that no director wants someone looking over their shoulder. If he has more direct input, it'll be when he directs an episode, and yes, gets his name in the credits.

And, for what it's worth, it doesn't surprise me that someone with the username "BertramCooper" would find TV superior to film. But that's another discussion entirely.
 
Dax01 said:
I've seen the same sentiment expressed by congressional reporters and other people who are close to politics. I haven't been in DC politics, but I do follow it closely, and this sentiment is the main reason why I haven't watched the first episode.
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Eh, then a lot of the little things that bother me and others from the field would probably not occur to you. From "that's not the right people to be in the room for that conversation" to "Hey! There's no Pizza Hut there!"

You'd certainly notice many of the other inaccuracies though.
 
Amazing show. Just finished the season.
Whole series spoilers:
what the duck!! I loved Pete Russo :( fucking frank.


And I just want to say, this show came at a perfect time in my life. I'm trying to become a stronger person and Frank is exactly what I want to be like.
Do what you need to do.
 
Dax01 said:
I've seen the same sentiment expressed by congressional reporters and other people who are close to politics. I haven't been in DC politics, but I do follow it closely, and this sentiment is the main reason why I haven't watched the first episode.
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Eh, you're missing out on a great show for a not so great reason. It's modern Shakespeare, the reality of the politics isn't that important, IMO.

You should definitely check it out.
 
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