Recently, I finished my Netflix binge of the second season of House of Cards. This is the way to watch a series having them all available at once. It helps to keep my focus on a series. There are many shows on network TV that I have lost focus on due to the time they are on. It also hurts them when they take a few weeks off and play re-runs. Many of the Internet and cable shows now have a shorter season. This helps them to eliminate or tighten up many of the story tangents that take place in series television.
House of Cards by its title implies that all of these characters are “one false move” away from their falling. Each move they make has to be calculated to avoid the “consequences” of that move. The storyline is most likely a “hyper-exaggeration” of how modern politics are really engaged in this country. However, a good storyline needs to be based on some fraction (or kernel) of the Truth. It is really amazing how film and TV has changed about the view of our system. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to All the President’s Men and now the arc falls into House of Cards. Politics has gone from the noble of cause and consensus building. In this series, the process is viewed as more of an act of “manipulation” that contributes to wide spread view of pessimism that is more prevalent today.
Kevin Spacey plays now Vice President Frank Underwood. Pay attention to his characters initials for they reveal a motive to his actions. His portrayal is more “creepier” than that of the role of John Doe in the movie Se7ven. (Also a David Fincher production). Yet as I watch it again I can see that both characters are almost the same. They both view themselves as a “Superior” being and that everyone around them is only there to serve as a “Pawn” for them. People are only “An End to their Means”. They are both Arrogant. And have nothing but Contempt for others. They are Psychopaths.
And the second features a lot of collateral damage to people who are on the outside of DC politics.
I am not sure how this series is going to end. As I am looking at the arc and there is no way there is going to be “Happy Ending of Redemption”. Frank Underwood is probably going to fall in a way that is almost “Nixonian”.
In a way, the arc is similar to that of Walter (Bryan Cranston) in Breaking Bad. (A show that you should be watching and all the episodes are now on Netflix) SPOILER ALERT Frank “Fall” will mostly like be like Walter’s fall at the end and it will be that of his own “Hubris”.
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