House of Cards

refocusedmedia

refocusedmedia

Veteran
One of the best TV series around. With the end of Breaking Bad, I'd argue that it's *the* best currently. If you haven't seen season 1 yet, get on it! The acting, writing, cinematography, editing, production design... all top notch.

Season 2 trailer released:

 
I love the show. Kevin Spacey is outstanding. I am so looking forward to season two.

I also recommend Orange is the New Black on Netflix. It is pretty good also.
 
BUMP

Seriously no thread on this?

This has moved into #2 of my all time best TV shows... Season 2 was even better than 1... I was riveted the whole way through. I love that each episode can be a different length depending on what the story requires as well.
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it's so freakin' good. Agreed, season 2 was even better. I think in the 'netflix instant' thread we were talking about the great lighting techniques used on this show this season.
 
I have absolutely no idea how people can keep on watching Tv shows. Genuinely i don't. House of Cards might be a fantastic show for people who don't know much about politics - maybe don't watch too many docs or read too many books - something that i'm certain that people on this board do, thus there is this nagging question in my head: why? What value does a simplistic view on life and politics with manufactured plot twist add to your life?
 
Wow, you must be a delight at parties.

I don't know anything about politics, I just like to watch an hour or so of tv with my wife after a hard day's work.

I've also got a nagging question: do you feel better about yourself after essentially taking a dump on everyone in this thread?
 
Scott F said:
Wow, you must be a delight at parties.

I don't know anything about politics, I just like to watch an hour or so of tv with my wife after a hard day's work.

I've also got a nagging question: do you feel better about yourself after essentially taking a dump on everyone in this thread?
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Yes i do, especially after posing an actual question. Since somehow posing that question is being perceived in your twisted logic as taking a dump, you reveal more about your intellectual state than me about my bathroom etiquette.
Scott, since you admit yourself not knowing much about politics i can see how you might find the show somehow eye opening.

Still, i'm curious to hear from others, those who do care about politics, to hear what's so appealing about this show.
 
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Patryk_Rebisz said:
....there is this nagging question in my head: why? What value does a simplistic view on life and politics with manufactured plot twist add to your life?
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Hmmmm.... Have you ever considered that Shakespeare's Richard III may not be a very realistic piece about a certain king? That most if not all Shakespeare plays are plays that tinker with reality in a certain way? That they may include some factual elements but are in most cases rather free interpretations of a reality we have no real knowledge about with greater certainty (including historians with their often extremely different interpretations)?

Can you accept that people watch a TV-series under the reservation that what it tells us about politics may be just another interpretation, speculation and/or simulation of a reality? And that they are adult enough to understand that real life politicians may be very different? At least until they come across, say, a Rob Ford character? Who is worse than any cliché any writer may have come up with?
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
Yes i do, especially after posing an actual question. Since somehow posing that question is being perceived in your twisted logic as taking a dump, you reveal more about your intellectual state than me about my bathroom etiquette.
Scott, since you admit yourself not knowing much about politics i can see how you might find the show somehow eye opening.

Still, i'm curious to hear from others, those who do care about politics, to hear what's so appealing about this show.
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How do i make it so this guy's posts don't show up when i go to DVXuser?
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
I have absolutely no idea how people can keep on watching Tv shows. Genuinely i don't. House of Cards might be a fantastic show for people who don't know much about politics
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Or who can't get enough of it. I'm sure the acting and cinematography is fantastic, but I haven't watched it because the subject matter - politics and politicians - just turns my stomach. And there's so much of politics and politicians and their shenanigans in the news all the time that the very last thing I'd want to do for entertainment is see any more of it.

Mad Men was good for awhile because it was set in an era before my time, with people whose lives were totally different from my own so it was escapism but with good acting and cinematography. Unfortunately it devolved into soap opera after awhile.

Lately I've been watching movies from the 50's and 60's - Wilder, Antonioni, Fellini - doing a sort of retrospective of their work. I have a lot more of them to go.
 
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Patryk_Rebisz said:
Still, i'm curious to hear from others, those who do care about politics, to hear what's so appealing about this show.
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The reason for watching any show is for its 'entertainment' and how well the writers, filmmakers, and actors 'weave' a story.

I'm not looking to such shows as 'documentaries' on 'how things really are in <name your political environment>'...

To be sure some elements of the show do derive from various political scandals, perhaps exaggerated for dramatic effect, and some times it is 'easy' to believe that some members in leading legislative bodies, or state leaders are 'sociopaths'... I don't think they all are... well... maybe... but anyway, I'll give most of the politicians some benefit of the doubt that they actually believe some elements of their public position statements...

If I were only to watch films that have absolute ties to the 'real world', that would limit the number of films to a very few. Any 'fiction' is just that 'fiction'. Every adaptation of 'real world' is often just as much 'fiction', as we do not have transcripts of the utterances of each character, and the actors slavishly required to make those utterances and nuanced intonations, just as the real world individuals 'did it'.

I'm thinking here of "Wannseekonferenz"(1984) where the minutes of the actual 1943 meeting were used for the actors who portrayed the real life individuals.

It's pretty boring... the 'drama' is totally created in the mind of the viewer, in the sense of how horrific the 'goal' of this Conference was, and how 'mundane' the minutes were, on the order of a meeting of logistics officers on how to get so much toilet paper to the army in the field.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
If I were only to watch films that have absolute ties to the 'real world', that would limit the number of films to a very few.
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Example "The Downfall". They advertised it as the most realistic rendering of the "last days" of Hitler. And it was in parts very free interpretation bordering to invention, in parts purest nonsense and in parts good research (with some historians disagreeing for good reasons). So?! What can we do with "political fiction"? We can make a proposal about what may be possible.

And: Reality is stranger than fiction. Would any screen writer pre-Clinton have dared to write a scene with a president doing... certain things ... in the oval office? I like the series because it works with a worst case scenario of a ruthless Machiavelli'st couple taking over Washington. Having a Putin kind of character stuffed into the wrapping of an American style politician. Overdone? Maybe. Yes. Impossible? Nope. Entertaining? For me, yes.

Apart from anything else I really have to think hard about another TV-show with such an exquisite cast.
 
I like the series because it works with a worst case scenario of a ruthless Machiavelli'st couple taking over Washington. Having a Putin kind of character stuffed into the wrapping of an American style politician. Overdone? Maybe. Yes. Impossible? Nope. Entertaining? For me, yes.
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Well put, sir.

As I've stated, I don't know much about politics, but I've worked around enough senators, congressman, state senators, mayors, ect to know that this show is pure entertainment. Like Anthony Bordain says, sometimes you just want Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken.
 
Scott F said:
it's so freakin' good. Agreed, season 2 was even better. I think in the 'netflix instant' thread we were talking about the great lighting techniques used on this show this season.
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i really enjoyed the first season, but i have to say i wasn't very impressed with season 2. they pushed the implausibility factor considerably and the characters and plot were not nearly as interesting. it more closely resembled the original English series in some ways, which i was only able to make it through 2 or 3 episodes before bailing. i also didn't find the camera work to be as thoughtful.
 
they pushed the implausibility factor considerably
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Oh really? I must have missed those episodes. :grin:

Would be curious to see what user hscully thinks of this thread (in regards to camera work/lighting), as he & i were talking about the show a few weeks ago in another thread.
 
Hey, I'm a fan. I like the smooth lyrical camera movement. I like the use of ambient top light and a willingness to use sillouette and shadow. I find the light beautiful without being romantic. It's no BS, no gratuitous spinny stedicam moves or unmotivated lateral slider type tracking. All that and a willingness to frame a great locked off shot AND a willingness to let a good scene develop in a wide shot. It's right. It keeps you in the story and in the heads of these characters.

As to story, it's a drama - a melodrama really, and it is hugely engaging if you like stories like this. I do. They use lots of NY actors which I also like Boris McGiver - Spacey KILLS in it, Molly Parker! Come on! What's not to like?
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
I have absolutely no idea how people can keep on watching Tv shows. Genuinely i don't. House of Cards might be a fantastic show for people who don't know much about politics - maybe don't watch too many docs or read too many books - something that i'm certain that people on this board do, thus there is this nagging question in my head: why? What value does a simplistic view on life and politics with manufactured plot twist add to your life?
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Actually, several of my friends graduated from a school with a focus on government and constitutional law... they say that the show is overall quite accurate.
 
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Originally Posted by Patryk_Rebisz
I have absolutely no idea how people can keep on watching Tv shows. Genuinely i don't. House of Cards might be a fantastic show for people who don't know much about politics - maybe don't watch too many docs or read too many books - something that i'm certain that people on this board do, thus there is this nagging question in my head: why? What value does a simplistic view on life and politics with manufactured plot twist add to your life?





Brandon Rice said:
Actually, several of my friends graduated from a school with a focus on government and constitutional law... they say that the show is overall quite accurate.
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The House of cards series in the US is a remake of the 1990 original in the UK (which had only 4 episodes followed by two more series of 4 each ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards_(UK_TV_series)

The UK version was allegedly based on various real events and people in UK politics in the 1980's. I am not sure how it translates from UK politics to US politics a quarter of a century later but the original was of its time and considered very good. I am note sure if it is worth US audiences watching the original unless you understand British politics and culture of the 1980's

That said the Machiavellian tactics tend to be the same the world over. I understand the US version is a lot darker than the UK version.
 
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