House of Cards Season 2

I’ve been watching the old House of Cards on PBS. It’s about a Whip in the British Parliament who is mean to the Prime Minister and ruins the poor fellow out of office. He is a white haired old man who has sex with a pretty young reporter. This fellow might be the same as Kevin Spacey is now, but for some reason Kevin banging a twelve year old reporter wasn’t nearly as offensive to me as Ian Richardson banging a twelve year old reporter. Ok, they weren’t really twelve, but the girl on the Netflix show does look really child like. Amazing since actress Kate Mara is over 30. Maybe she just looks so young when she’s standing next to 55 year old Kevin Spacey.

The British House of Cards is a slightly more serious version of the British show called Yes, Minister. The point of both shows is that government is a corrupt and evil business and the only way anything is ever accomplished is through the use of lying, back stabbing, and extensive arm twisting. These shows were a bit more urban and sophisticated, kind of Masterpiece Theater type stuff.

Netflix’s House of Cards started out on the same general path as the British show-and I haven’t seen all of the British shows so maybe he ends up being a right bastard as well-but our hero in America is a nasty bit of work indeed.

The great gimmick in House of Cards is that our hero looks into the camera and shares his thoughts and feelings and motives. He’s likable enough, for a Politician, and he seems to do the same kind of backroom wheeling and dealing we have seen in other political shows. He lies, cheats, uses sex to get what he wants, and smiles his evil smile rather a lot.

Then Netflix took the show in a slightly unexpected direction last season. Our hero goes from simple dirty politician to the full blown murderer. This is followed by an even more shocking event in the first episode of Series Two of House of Cards. Wow. While not quite up there with Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding, it was a good shocker.

In fact, it was such a good element that I was fully prepared for Frank Underwood to go all Dexter Meets Caligula on us. Every time someone stood in his way, I was waiting for Frank to lop his head off. This didn’t happen. And there was a bizarre and unexpected scene of Frank, his Wife, and his personal bodyguard-that was more baffling than shocking. For the most part, the rest of Season Two was in fact nothing but boring political crap. Getting votes and making speeches and cameos by a bunch of TV talking heads. Even the shocker in the final episode was more of a So What than an Oh No or an About Time.

I still enjoyed House of Cards a great deal. But the writers are clearly having a hard time deciding what, exactly, the show should be about. There are so many random elements, like the sad tale of the BBQ man in the ghetto, that are ultimately unsatisfying. Maybe next season will see Emperor Underwood throwing orgies in the White House and executing all his many enemies on the Capitol steps. We can only hope.

---