House of Cards Review

So I decided I will dedicate two posts to House of Cards.  One reviewing the show after just two episodes like most critics do.  The other will be a review of the first season.  I wanted to do a review immediately after it was put on Netflix, but at the same time I couldn't watch 13 episodes in three days.

Kevin Spacey plays Francis Underwood, a longtime politician who has paid his dues and is ready to become Secretary of State.  He helped get the current president into office and would be rewarded for his duties.  Except the president reneges on their deal and asks Underwood to be in Congress, where he would be more help.

And the premise of the show is Underwood slyly getting his revenge by ruining the administration and controlling their actions indirectly.  One flaw of the first two episodes is so how ridiculously easy everything fell into place for Underwood.  There is no way it's that easy to manipulate and gain access the way he does.

Spacey shines and relishes this role.  Spacey has a subtle Southern accent that works, because it's hardly noticeable.  With a worse actor, the moments where Spacey's character breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience could come off terribly.  They don't quite mesh with everything else that goes along, but it doesn't exactly hamper the show either.

Underwood's cold demeanor and calculating moves are only matched by his wife, played by Robin Wright.  They didn't give her much to do in the first episodes as her storyline is significantly less interesting than everything else going on, but she does what she can.

Corey Stoll plays Russo, a Congressman who parties and sleeps around a lot.  Underwood helps a drunk driving charge go away in return for Russo's loyalty, which he of course accepts.  Stoll's solid, but his relationship with his secretary is kind of hard to buy although not implausible by any stretch.  (The part that's hard to buy is that he seems to have had relationships with secretaries in the past) Basically I have no idea how he is still in office with the things we learn about him.

Kata Mara is phenomenal as an aspiring top journalist who really doesn't care about ethics or morals in her quest to the top.  Not exactly original, but Mara is really good in this role.  She's easily the second best thing about the first two episodes behind Spacey.

Overall, the first two episodes were great with some flaws holding it back.  It's clear it has enormous potential and I'm excited to see if it reaches that potential in the future.  If it never did reach the potential, I still think this show would be worth watching however.

(Side note: I get why they did the first scene, but that was a bit ridiculous.  Easily could have gone without it.  Seems like that was just for shock value.  If you've seen show, you know what I'm talking about.)

Next post: Classic Comedy, probably (I find half of these next posts end up inaccurate when I decide to write about a pilot so...)