{"id":1530,"date":"2014-10-17T19:48:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T23:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2014-10-17T19:48:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T23:48:19","slug":"house-of-cards-a-shaky-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/house-of-cards-a-shaky-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Cards: A Shaky Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! Once again it\u2019s time for a show review, and this week I\u2019m going off the TV screen and onto the Internet. Today\u2019s topic of examination is Netflix\u2019s critically acclaimed drama series House of Cards<\/em>. The show features a great cast and has a fascinating setting in Washington D.C., the home of political intrigue, but how does it really stack up?<\/p>\n

\"HouseCards1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First of all, let me say that this show reminds me a lot of HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones<\/em> in both its premise and content\u00ad\u2013and when I say a lot, I mean in almost every detail. Characters decide they want more power for their own personal reasons and engage in a series of complex plots and maneuvers designed to raise themselves up and destroy their opponents, no matter what it takes\u2026is this sounding familiar to anyone?<\/p>\n

While it may not be original, the similarity is not all bad. The fact that House of Cards<\/em> is set in the real world\u2013well, more or less\u2013versus the fantasy land of Westeros, makes the tension between the characters and the events that happen in the show hit home in a much more personal way. Sure, we can be upset about the death of our favorite GOT<\/em> character or aggravated at the political landscape of Westeros that favors the ambitious and tears down the honorable, but seeing the same kinds of things happen in House of Cards<\/em> makes you wonder if this really is the way things work in Washington these days.<\/p>\n

Also, at least Game of Thrones<\/em> has some people I like in it. Who the heck am I supposed to root for in House of Cards<\/em>? The ruthless politician who steps on whoever he has to in order to get ahead? The wife who uses her non-profit organization that supposedly does good in the world for her own selfish needs? The reporter who throws away her integrity and self-respect in order to get inside information? At least in GOT<\/em> we have dependably plucky underdogs like Tyrion and Arya to hold out hope for, but in House of Cards<\/em> it seems that if anyone makes a mistake, they\u2019re finished forever. Again, not necessarily bad, but just frustrating.<\/p>\n

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I must admit, however, that the characters are the main draw of this show. In particular, Kevin Spacey shines as the menacing and merciless Frank Underwood\u2013which pretty much figures, since he\u2019s the star of the show. If you read my last article on TV\u2019s best villains, you\u2019ll understand why Frank is such a fascinating figure to me. I find myself simultaneously hoping he gets caught and brought to justice, but also hoping that he gets away with it just one more time so that we can see what he\u2019s really capable of. He is clearly not a good person and doesn\u2019t really think of himself as one: he\u2019s just a total pragmatist who\u2019s going to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, and Spacey captures his alternatively cold and charming character in true Usual Suspects<\/em> style. Plus, we get cool little tidbits like the Freddie\u2019s BBQ connection that shows us that despite all appearances, Frank is still a human being with similar tastes and vices to the rest of us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a little confused about Frank\u2019s motivations, though. Why exactly does he want power again? Oh, right: because he was annoyed that someone else took his job. So where did the presidential ambitions come from? No clue. Unless they were there from the start\u2013which I really don\u2019t think that they were\u2013the whole thing kind of comes off like a politician\u2019s temper tantrum. Except that when Frank Underwood gets mad, he doesn\u2019t scream or throw things, he just undermines the government of the free world. I guess you could argue that Frank\u2019s desire for absolute power was always there and that his passing over for Secretary of State just accelerated his plans, but this should have been clarified in the show.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also not sure how I feel about Spacey\u2019s heavy use of addressing of the viewer directly. Breaking the fourth wall is not normally something that is done in fiction, and when it is, it is usually a technique that is used sparingly because it can get cheesy very quickly. I have always been of the belief that we learn much more about a character by watching what they do rather than what they say, so in some ways Frank\u2019s self-narration seems like a cheat to make us like him more or to fill out his character in a convenient and easy way. Granted, there are a lot of times where I laughed at Frank\u2019s blunt analyses and enjoyed the obvious divide between what he tells others and what he really thinks, but I have to question where this idea to consistently break the fourth wall came from in the first place.<\/p>\n

And another thing: how in the world does Frank always know how people are going to react to everything? Before you say anything, yes, I understand that the whole point of the show is that things didn\u2019t always go according to Frank\u2019s plan and that he had to act on the fly several times to put things back on track, but it seems to me that any normal human being would have stumbled over the intricate web of lies Frank spins half a dozen times before the first episode was over. The ending of season two felt especially forced to me: Frank writing a personal letter to the President to get back in his good graces and convincing him to turn on his long-time friend Raymond Tusk seemed way, way, way too good to be true. It was a Hail Mary play that should never have worked.<\/p>\n

Yes, I understand that it\u2019s a work of fiction. Yes, I understand that leaps of faith are required in pretty much any show to really get into the plot. But seriously, is Frank Underwood like another Jim Moriarty or something? Because it seems to me that only a superhuman intellect\u00ad\u2013and maybe not even that\u2013could have accounted for all the variables in this complex human equation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Rating: 3.5\/5<\/h3>\n

Okay, so I should probably score this show lower due to all the complaining I\u2019ve just done about it. But the fact is that from the moment I started watching House of Cards<\/em>, I was addicted in a very similar manner to my Game of Thrones<\/em> obsession. Despite all the holes present in the plot, the characters are just so engaging and the story so filled with twists and turns that it\u2019s almost impossible to get enough, and that\u2019s what it takes for me to give it a pass on some of its larger flaws.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let me discourage you from watching House of Cards<\/em>, because it is most definitely a good show that never fails to entertain and astonish. I just can\u2019t help but think that with a little more care and attention to its setup and methods of storytelling, it could have gone from being a good show to an extraordinary one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his\u00a0<\/span>website<\/a>. Check back every Friday for new articles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! Once again it\u2019s time for a show review, and this week I\u2019m going off the TV screen and onto the Internet. Today\u2019s topic of examination is Netflix\u2019s critically acclaimed drama series House of Cards. The show features a great cast and has a fascinating setting in Washington D.C., the home [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}