I have also learned, to my great surprise that the US version will be back for a second season in 2014.

This changes everything. I was miffed about the way it appeared to end but it turns out it is not really over. They are already committed for 2014.

Disturbing and creepy it was, and I wouldn’t watch it a second time, but I have to say it was first-class psychodrama, and now that I’m drawn in, I have to see the rest of the slow-motion train wreck. Next up, “To Play the King”.

I just finished the British BH a week ago, so I’m taking a break to avoid that cross-threading thing before I get into American BH/3. Looking forward to it, especially now that I have this cockeyed parallax view with the British story a year more advanced.

Amazon seems to have settled on a this pattern of putting the first season of a show in Prime for “free”, then charging for the rest. They do this for older shows that are complete, like HoC. Their other gambit, when a show is still on the air, is to put past seasons in Prime, but then charge full retail for the current season. Either way, I keep having the experience like slamming into a wall if I get into a show and hit the toll gate.

The Brits know political drama and spy stories. We agree on that, too, I know from past talking about Smiley et al. After I located HoC @ Amazon I went browsing through related BBC shows, and bookmarked a half dozen more in the spy and politics genres. And also found a bunch of Discworld animations, which is a subject for a whole ‘nother post.

Thanks for tipping me off to House of Cards, Frank. I can tell I’m going to enjoy it.

Overall I preferred the BBC version until they totally revamped the cast. The new cast and the 4th season has not grabbed me yet. It will be back on BBC for a 5th this month and I will see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I watch the syfy version and it’s not bad but I don’t consider it to be all that. Especially the way the new season has progressed so far.

1. Nobody does this kind of drama better than the Brits. We may own the action/adventure genre but I think we fall short on this kind of drama due to our insistence on an obligatory soap opera plot device in nearly everything we do. You will see what I mean if you watch the netflix version.

2. The BBC version is divided into three 4 hour story arcs, vs the US version being one 13 hour arc. A 13 hour flick is always hard to pull off.

Still, I have watched another 2 hours of the netflix series today and I am continuing to like it a lot. There are some mildly annoying things that I would have preferred they leave out. I can’t say more for risk of spoiling but I think you will see what I mean, if you get around to netflix.

Disappointing that the next 2 segments of the BBC series are not free to Prime. For 6 bucks each I will surely get to them sooner or later. It is good that the first segment was essentially a stand alone story so there is no pressure to watch the rest immediately.

I agree that netflix will not allow any of the other streaming services to offer the series for a long time. I think that it will be be available on dvd after the usual wait and I think they might make it available to a broadcast or cable network in the next year or so.

Since netflix is a monthly service with no contract, it might be worth signing up for a month for 8 bucks if there is a strong enough interest in the series.

But seriously…The show is getting good reviews, so your review might not be so over the top. Political dramas are irresistable to political junkies, and the smart producers know to load up on the technical details that get our juices going, just like hardware to a sci-fi junkie.

Which is something that hit me in the face when I watched the BBC version of “House of Cards”. It’s technical! Duh! I need to read up on the British systems of government and politics just to have a fighting chance of keeping up with the jargon. By which I knew I was seeing the real deal, even if I had trouble following it. The British have this fluid system of government in which departments of government seem to be run as hobbies by various members of Parliament, as if, for example, the Secretary of State was also the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Or something like that. It’s like reading about politics on another planet!

But worth watching after I get up to speed. Ian Richardson stars as the counterpart to Kevin Spacey, and he does this thing of staying in character while turning to talk into the camera, to the audience, and you get the sense of talking to somebody who’s genuinely powerful and a real player in politics. And he confides in you (the audience)…that’s powerful stuff.

Thumbs are up, they’ll probably stay there as I watch more.

One thing, though: You might want to wait until you’ve seen the entire Netflix series before tackling the British version. You know the old saying, that we’re two people divided by a common language? I’ve learned, with dual-citizenship shows like Being Human, to keep them separate. They’re too close, but different–you start cross-threading what happened in which country. It gets confusing. Beware…

(If you like the American Being Human, you’ll love the British version, but for slightly different reasons.)

I watched 5 straight and that was probably a bit much for the old man. I was very tired and cranky after 5 hours of viewing and there were some aspects that were becoming a little tiresome, plus I started getting that feeling that I know how it will end. This is the reason that I made the comment on whether it can hold up for 13 hours.

It will certainly be good but great remains to be seen. I will try not to be so OCD in the future and limit my viewing to no more than 3 hours.

House-of-Cards (1990)

To Play the King (1993)

The Final Cut(1995)
“House-of-Cards” is “free” with Prime, the others are $6/season.

I’m not so sure the Netflix remake will show up on other outlets, especially not direct competitors like Amazon. I hear they’re spending something like $100 million on it, so I’m guessing they won’t be giving it away. Too bad, because the trailers look good and your review is over the top…I mean, I gotta see “the best political drama I have ever watched”. Spelling out “I have” instead of contracting it tells me how serious you are!

I’ll be watching the BBC “House of Cards” pretty soon, and I’ll report back.

The story is about a congressman’s revenge on a new president who lied to him about a cabinet appointment. So far I would rate it as the best political drama I have ever watched. There are 13 one hour episodes and I have watched the first 5. Whether the story can hold up for 8 more hours remains to be seen.

It streams instantly on NetFlix. If you are not a subscriber to NetFlix, I’m sure it will become available in other venues sooner or later

I should also mention that this is a remake of a highly acclaimed BBC series of the same name. I haven’t looked into it’s availability bhut I plan to do so.