House of Cards Season 1

I have tried for about 2 years to put a review up explaining my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards. Originally, I wanted it to be a comparison episode as I have seen both the British version of the show and the American version of the show. I wanted to compare the two and let you all know which one I preferred.

However, it has been a very long time since I finished the first season of the British version, and my real goal here is to get to the 4^th season of House of Cards as fast as I can because its suppose to focus on an election and being as I am incredibly interested in elections these days, I don’t have time to re-watch the British version and give a comprehensive comparison review of both of them.

I’m going to try and go back and check out the British version sometime soon perhaps, but for now, here are my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards.

House of Cards centers on a Democratic senator named Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey). From the beginning, you can tell that Underwood has had a plan to climb the political ladder and that

is prevalent in his support of the recently elected President, Garret Walker (played by Michael Gil). However, when the President doesn’t grant Underwood the position of Secretary of State as he was promised, Underwood begins a cloak and dagger plan to mass power in the political jungle that is Washington DC.

Before I go on, I should say that this is one of Kevin Spacey’s greatest performances in my opinion. The man is well known in the industry and he’s given a lot of great performances but he was always selective in what he chooses. I’ve found that for him he doesn’t want to fall into the same kind of role and it’s always about the performance, not the money for him. Frank Underwood is just a down right evil character and yet you enjoy coming back and seeing him carry on in this story. I’ll talk more about his character and his performance later on.

There is a collection of characters that Frank creates alliances and enemies with throughout the season, but there are a couple of main characters worth mentioning.

The first is his wife Claire (played by Robin Wright). From the very beginning, you can definitely tell Claire Frank’s partner in crime and she is just as ruthless and tactical as he is. Performance-wise, Wright does a great job at creating both the most ruthless ice queen you will probably see in any TV show ever, and a really vulnerable complicated woman. Like I said, Claire is just as tactical and conniving as Frank and yet she has these moments where you can tell she is questioning her life choices and the lifestyle she has created with Frank and that is a continuing arc throughout the season.

The second character worth talking about is Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara). Zoe is a rookie reporter that catches the eye of Frank Underwood. He begins to use her to influence the media to help his agenda. The thing about Zoe is that she is not exactly a likeable character and she is by no means a good person, she’s kind of cold hearted, she’s just as calculated as Underwood at times. However, you quickly figure out that she is out of her league as she also finds herself questioning her choices and the situation she has gotten herself into. The story is made even more compelling once the relationship between her and Underwood begins to evolve and stuff gets very dark.

The interesting part about Zoe is that she has a direct comparison character to the British version of the show that was pretty much the cornerstone of the show. And in a sense, the relationship between Zoe and Frank is pretty quintessential to the story, however, I think it was a disservice for me to lock myself into that thinking because the story is really a lot bigger than that. But I found the comparison between Zoe’s characters in both versions was really interesting.

It is only helped by the fact that Kate Mara is a very talented actress. I mentioned this in my review of The Fantastic Four Trailer, but I really only knew Kate Mara from 24 as a really annoying analyst that had a brief stint in the 5^th season. And now she’s a sought after actress, and I don’t think that The Fantastic Four is going to hurt her career too much because she did such a good job with this show.

There are a lot of characters that are important to the first season of House of Cards, however, if I had to name one more character that is incredibly important to the entire show, it is Corey Stoll as Peter Russo.

I remember when Law and Order: LA was a thing and Corey Stoll showed up with a weird looking mustache and I couldn’t really take him seriously. I had no idea that this guy was going to keep on showing up in some of my favorite shows and movies and I’m realizing he’s really an incredibly underrated actor. I’m glad to see that he’s been in big budget movies like Ant-man, and I think people are starting to recognize his name, and I think that has a little bit to do with his role in this show.

Peter Russo is a Representative for Pennsylvania who is an alcoholic. Probably out of all of the characters within the show, he is probably the “good guy” of the show but he has a lot of problems. These problems are noticed by Frank Underwood early on and he becomes a cornerstone to Frank’s plan to mass power in DC.

Now, I’ve pretty much said nothing but good things about House of Cards which is surprising because the first time I watched the first season, it took me a long time and I wasn’t totally impressed with what I saw. I understood the hype, but I don’t know if it was everything that it was built up to be.

If you read my review of Bloodline, you’ll know that I’ve figured out that Netflix dramas are more likely to be a lot of dialogue and more likely to be a slow burn than exciting and suspenseful. House of Cards has its suspenseful moments, but a lot of it is going to be focused on the dialogue as well as the development of characters. It also took a second viewing to really see the big picture of Frank’s plan and totally understand it. I wouldn’t say the plot is overly complicated, it is just muddled with

episodes that are more focused on building character development, but if you don’t know what you’re getting into, you might get lost, get bored, or just lose track of where this is all building up to. Watching the first season for the first time really made me understand a lot of the decisions made.

On top of that, a lot of it is muddled with political jargon and while the show tries to help the average audience, I still think it can be confusing if you’re not really up to date with the political process.

Another thing that might bring in some people but might turn others away is how dark this show is. While a lot of it is focused on that slow burn, there are some really evil things done in this show and there’s not a lot of light moments.

Talking about light moments, the humor in this show is more focused on a dry humor that might go over some people’s heads. I watched this show with a friend and realized that some of the humor in this show is really funny… the problem is that it is so dry and its sandwiched by these really dark moments that sometimes it can be lost on people.

And while I will say that Bloodline was one of the slowest shows I’ve seen in a long time, at least that had a little bit of an explosive and suspenseful last few episodes, House of Cards really doesn’t have that explosive ending. It’s still very much focused on the dialogue and the interactions between characters. The show is definitely a thinking man’s show and if you’re looking for action or at least some suspense more than just threatening talk, you’re going to leave the first season probably disappointed.

I am currently watching the second season and I’m hoping to get the review of that season up just as fast as I did this season. The main reason it’s easier to get a review for a show like this up more quickly is that House of Cards falls into the category of shows that they are more like a long movie rather than 13 episodes.

House of Cards is more episodic than other shows I have watched like that like True Detective, however, I do think that House of Cards is better watched when its binge watched because you’re more likely to hold onto the plot and your thinking might be on a better track to take everything in and really enjoy all the development of characters and the plot that is done really well.

Because it’s more like a movie, I don’t really need to go into particular episodes that I liked and disliked. While some of the episodes could maybe seem like filler episodes on the surface, if you’re paying attention, you will see that the overarching story is set within the entire season. Each episode builds off one another, even if its focused more on Frank going back to South Carolina to deal with a local issue, or he’s going to The Sentinel to accept a library being named after him. If you’re paying attention and you see it more as a long movie, you’ll see the recurring themes and how these different events affect these characters throughout the entire season.

The last thing you could say is a “down turn” to the show, is unfortunately Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood. Like I said in my explanation of each of the big character’s storylines, there are not a lot of “good guys” in this show. Everyone has their own flaws and everyone is a complicated character. Some are more good than others, but everyone has their moments where you don’t want to root for them. But Spacey does such a good job at playing a just down right even Senator that it can be hard to keep watching, especially if you don’t really like rooting for the bad guy.

In any other movie, Underwood would be the villain you love to hate, however in those movies, you know there is still a hero that you can root for. House of Cards doesn’t really do that. This is more the rise of evil’s power and there’s not a lot of good to root for. It definitely creates something different than the conventional TV show you’ve seen in the past, but it can be a little bit more than a lot of people can handle.

And if you’re the kind of person who has a problem with the lies, with the actions Frank does and says, don’t worry, that probably means you are a normal good human individual. That’s not to say you can’t find it entertaining, it just can be a lot to handle sometimes.

The overall thing to remember is that House of Cards is not a show that you just put in the background. It is the epitome of a show that you need to pay attention to really enjoy it and you’ve been warned, it is a slow burn show.

However, the performances in this show are really great. Not only are the performances from the actors I made mention to great, but the people I didn’t mention. Michael Kelly plays Underwood’s top staffer Doug Stamper, Sebastian Arceuls plays a reporter that helps Zoe throughout the season. Mahershala Ali plays a lobbyist who makes occurring appearances throughout and plays a powerful role.

The show might have a lot more political jargon than a lot of people might be familiar with it, but if you are a political buff, you’re going to get a lot of the jargon being used and it makes the show even more entertaining.

For the most part, I recommend the first season of House of Cards. Once I had a solid grasp on the plan and the plot throughout, I couldn’t wait until the next episode, and even now, I can’t wait until I start watching more and more of the second season. I’m really hoping the review for that will come out just as quickly as this one did.

But what do you think? Without giving any spoilers, what have you thought of House of Cards, especially Season 1? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies and shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews that come out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. I might have already used this video, but Kevin Spacey does impressions and here is him doing impressions with Jimmy Fallon. Enjoy!