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

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Tobor said:
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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Oh, believe me, I've done a little more research on the show than just the sentiments of some people who've watched it. Probably ruining some of the show for me, but I've been reading some spoilers to find out about this "ridiculousness." Is it true that
by the end of the first, the VP is going to engineer a means to force the president out of office
?
 
Dax01 said:
Oh, believe me, I've done a little more research on the show than just the sentiments of some people who've watched it. Probably ruining some of the show for me, but I've been reading some spoilers to find out about this "ridiculousness." Is it true that
by the end of the first, the VP is going to engineer a means to force the president out of office
?
Click to expand...

No, that's 100% not true.
 
Dax01 said:
Oh, believe me, I've done a little more research on the show than just the sentiments of some people who've watched it. Probably ruining some of the show for me, but I've been reading some spoilers to find out about this "ridiculousness." Is it true that
by the end of the first, the VP is going to engineer a means to force the president out of office
?
Click to expand...
Stop reading fake spoilers, and spoilers in general.
 
Vyer said:
I disagree about Russo.

Full Season
during the interrogation by Frank's guy Russo couldn't even really pin a number to the number of prostitutes he had been with. I'd say that groundwork was already laid out pretty well and it was believable.

As someone who has known that kind of alcoholic before, doing the 'right' thing by your loved ones still isn't always enough to break that temptation.
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I agree with this completely in response to Mesoian.


Yenrot said:
He had been sober for about a month, and was just lying to the interviewer, I thought.
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I thought the same thing. To me it appeared to be pretty obvious he was lying since being a year removed from drinking (on paper) would help give him some credibility.
 
Mr.Swag said:
I hope it's just 26

Not every show needs 6 seasons
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I don't really care how many seasons it goes on far as long as they're done in conclusive arcs. That's why I never minded 24's eight seasons because you can pick and choose which ones are decent and pretend the rest don't exist. While on the other end of the spectrum, you have something like Homeland S2, which threatens to destroy anything and everything that was ever wonderful about the show to begin with. Or Lost, which went beyond a threat and actually did ruin it.
 
Mr.Swag said:
Amazing show. Just finished the season.
Whole series spoilers:

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.
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A (season spoilers)
murderer
?
 
Up to episode 4 now. Lol at that Kevin Spacey PS Vita advertisement. Wonder how much Sony paid for that product placement :D

Anything is better than nothing i suppose XD
 
"Is that a PS Vita? I have a console at home I like to play sometimes." I cringed a bit. Enjoying the show for the most part.
 
Watched the first 3.

Really nice so far. I wasn't sure how the pieces would fit together in the first episode but by the third I was assured they know what they're doing and have a confident hand on the pieces.

By coincidence I had recently rewatched several West Wing episodes so my radar for good political dialogue was pretty attuned, but HoC almost never sounded inauthentic or dumbed-down, which is pretty impressive. The dialogue isn't loaded with jargon like Sorkin's but it feels like it gets the bureaucracy and machinery of Washington right while still putting on the air of a thriller, which is pretty interesting. I think it actually complements The West Wing well, as two very aesthetically and thematically different takes on the same subject (the incompetence and ineffectiveness of Washington).

Spoiler thoughts:
The show's premise does seem a little convenient: Francis is motivated to put his revenge plan into action just as this ambitious young reporter happens to show up on his doorstep and beg him for a scoop. There's ambition and there's naivete, and her going to see a Congressman at his home in the middle of the night is more the latter--it's purely her dumb luck that he needed her at the same time. Right now this relationship is mutually beneficial but I would hope Francis has more to use than that.

I'm also curious to see what Zoe's character does, since her rocket launch to stardom is entirely dependent on Francis' good graces and if she loses him, she has nothing else to go on. Zoe's character is interesting, she seems to walk a very fine line between young ambition and foolhardy arrogance. Talking about her boss and the internal workings of the paper on live TV was pretty dumb, even for a young hotshot, then she compounded it by mouthing off to her boss. (LOL @ "No TV for a month." Fitting in so many ways.)

Kind of amused by how completely dysfunctional Francis is making the new presidential administration right out of the gate. He better be absolutely sure he can't be tied to any of it, because if this keeps up he's going to give the President more scandals than Nixon.

Interesting that they got so many real pundits and TV people to be on it; usually you only see that if the production is from the same corporate parent, but presumably Netflix didn't have those relationships.
 
Holy crap. I just finished episode 11. Whoa that was intense

Episode 11 spoilers,
I was really really bummed out by Russo's death. I actually liked the guy and was seriously rooting for him. I felt he deserved some sort of happiness. With all things considered he was probably the most decent politician on the show in contrast to all the other politicians. This episode just made me hate Francis more though he wasn't that likable to begin with. I was actually surprised when he finally revealed his end goal because I had been wondering why he decided to do all this since the first episode.

I like the show and I'm looking forward to another season.
 
Loved all of it. The cinematography of the first 2-4 episodes were particulary amazing, loved all the night scenes and overcast weather etc. Hopefully Fincher can direct more episodes next season. Netflix is definately headed in the right direction. Was a bold move and imo it works so well.
 
Watched the series it's good, it had me for most of the series until
Francis decides to murder Peter Russo, yeah it seemed like he had no way out, but up until then it made more sense everything he did, for the jump to murder seemed much

I feel the writing and directing of the first half of episodes are stronger than the last ones.

Watching first few episodes I kept thinking this guy is not nearly as evil as Kelsey Grammar in Boss that was wrong assumption.
 
Dax01 said:
Oh, believe me, I've done a little more research on the show than just the sentiments of some people who've watched it. Probably ruining some of the show for me, but I've been reading some spoilers to find out about this "ridiculousness." Is it true that
by the end of the first, the VP is going to engineer a means to force the president out of office
?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't rule it out since it's basically what happened in the British version.
 
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 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.
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Matt said:
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.
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Is this as serious as it gets for you? Sounds like the kind of artistic liberties that you get in every single show that has ever existed. Unless there are more serious infringements (which perhaps there are)?

"It's modern Shakespeare, the reality of the politics isn't that important, IMO."

I subscribe to this.
 
Well that was awesome. I watched episodes 2-8 last week with a whole bunch of friends and watched the rest of the episodes yesterday with them. Did anyone else watch with the subtitles on? That added some extra fun. Very enjoyable series. I was expecting certain things that happened in the original to happen here, but they've taken a detour it seems and done other things.

Overall spoiler don't click unless you've seen the 13 episodes.

I wonder where they'll go from here? Build on this conspiracy? I was expecting Frank to get rid of Zoe ala the original series but it does make sense to keep her around and tbh Russo made a more shocking person to get killed.

But I love the format and the freedom it's offered a show like this no longer episodes but chapters.
 
Mr.Swag said:
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.
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I don't think he's a positive role model!
 
Now that the Walking Dead is back, I wonder how differently its structure would be if it didn't have artificial cliffhangers at the end of every episode.
 
A question about episode 7:

Who was the young girl
with the black eye that Doug Stamper put up in a motel room and then had a lady from his office take into her own home? I think she was a hooker and maybe a drug addict but I'm drawing a blank on how she fit into the story so far. (No spoilers past ep 7, please!)
 
Lucky Forward said:
A question about episode 7:

Who was the young girl
with the black eye that Doug Stamper put up in a motel room and then had a lady from his office take into her own home? I think she was a hooker and maybe a drug addict but I'm drawing a blank on how she fit into the story so far. (No spoilers past ep 7, please!)
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She was the girl that was pulled over with Pete Russo in the first or second episode
 
Lucky Forward said:
A question about episode 7:

Who was the young girl
with the black eye that Doug Stamper put up in a motel room and then had a lady from his office take into her own home? I think she was a hooker and maybe a drug addict but I'm drawing a blank on how she fit into the story so far. (No spoilers past ep 7, please!)
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I guess I'll spoiler this
She was one of the hookers that he picked up. She was in the car with him when he was stopped by the cops
 
Lucky Forward said:
A question about episode 7:

Who was the young girl
with the black eye that Doug Stamper put up in a motel room and then had a lady from his office take into her own home? I think she was a hooker and maybe a drug addict but I'm drawing a blank on how she fit into the story so far. (No spoilers past ep 7, please!)
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She is the hooker Russo was with when he was "arrested"
 
Socreges said:
Is this as serious as it gets for you? Sounds like the kind of artistic liberties that you get in every single show that has ever existed. Unless there are more serious infringements (which perhaps there are)?
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Oh no, there are a ton of problems with the show. Basically it is in no way an accurate portrayal of how politics work in general or how DC operates. I was just listing some things there that I noticed that Dax, for example, would not.
 
Matt said:
Oh no, there are a ton of problems with the show. Basically it is in no way an accurate portrayal of how politics work in general or how DC operates. I was just listing some things there that I noticed that Dax, for example, would not.
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Of course not. I've bitched plenty about the way reporting is represented in the show, but it doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the television show.
 
Talon said:
Of course not. I've bitched plenty about the way reporting is represented in the show, but it doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the television show.
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And I said it's an OK show, and I enjoyed watching it. It's just hard to watch a show about a place and field that I spent years devoted to and not be distracted by its inaccuracies. And I said that's my problem and not one I expect many others not involved with politics to suffer from.
 
Matt said:
And I said it's an OK show, and I enjoyed watching it. It's just hard to watch a show about a place and field that I spent years devoted to and not be distracted by its inaccuracies. And I said that's my problem and not one I expect many others not involved with politics to suffer from.
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Knowing the context of the television show helps. It comes from a British show that was essentially a Shakesperean drama about power. That's the core it.

The show never pretended (to me at least) to be a document about politics in DC.

Now, it's hard to divorce those two spheres because, well, there are barely any television shows based in DC nowadays. At least this isn't Homeland.
 
"The Thick of it" was generally seen as a scarily accurate portrayal of British politics, though that was an excellent comedy, rather than a thriller/drama.

Personally, I don't really find the accuracy of the show a concern, whether it is very accurate or takes liberties for the benefit of the show.
 
Matt said:
And I said it's an OK show, and I enjoyed watching it. It's just hard to watch a show about a place and field that I spent years devoted to and not be distracted by its inaccuracies. And I said that's my problem and not one I expect many others not involved with politics to suffer from.
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Also he was pressing buttons way too frantically to make it look like he was really playing Call of Duty. It was distracting.
 
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