House of Cards

[This Charming Mike]

Season 3 premiering soon.

 

[hodge]

Really looking forward to this, only started watching it before christmas and got through both seasons, thankfully don't have too long to wait.

 

[MSB92]

One of my favorite shows of all time! Kevin Spacey is just absolutely brilliant in it.

 

[SALTIRE]

Any one who is a fan of this (which isn't me) should check out the original series with the great Ian Richardson; he makes Spacey look like a pussycat.

 

[Master D]

Be interesting to see where this goes now in series 3. Series 1 was just brilliant, series 2 was quite trashy and was a bit long winded really.

 

[SALTIRE]

And is why I don't like it. The original was short and concise; this one looks to have essentially the same story and is spreading it out too much (you can't blame them I suppose in wanting to make money off it, and there is plenty of people who haven't seen the original). Had I not seen the original, I may have got into it as Spacey is always an excellent watch; but I stopped watching it after the first episode of series 2.

 

[T.A]

Been released today 2 weeks early apparently by accident...

 

[Master D]

Na it got pulled after about 5 minutes apparently!

 

[Saddlerrad]

Yeah it was accidentally released on Netflix but taken away again very quickly.

 

[Alty]

Any one who is a fan of this (which isn't me) should check out the original series with the great Ian Richardson; he makes Spacey look like a pussycat.

I'm doing it arse about face. I've seen the first two series of the new one and am eagerly awaiting the third. I have the original on DVD and will give it a watch at some point after I've finished the Spacey version.

 

[SALTIRE]

I'm doing it arse about face. I've seen the first two series of the new one and am eagerly awaiting the third. I have the original on DVD and will give it a watch at some point after I've finished the Spacey version.

Aye thats fair enough though we don't know how many series of the Spacey one there will be (my guess is four to tie in with the original's four series). I've said this before, but the original is more concise and Richardson's performance is superb, though it does look very early Nineties and a bit dated, but you just have to transport yourself back to Thatcher's Britain and it still works well.

 

[This Charming Mike]

Season 3 out today, just in time for the weekend.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Tempted to binge it over this weekend. Heard it's very slow starting and grainy in the first 4 or 5 episodes.

 

[RavenBish]

Well this isn't very good so far.

 

[SALTIRE]

Well this isn't very good so far.

Better with the original, its shorter and more concise, plus Richardson in the lead was stunningly good.

 

[SUTSS]

Finished Season 3 today (there are some benefits to being unemployed).

Spoiler

Whilst I enjoyed it I felt there were a few issues with the season as a whole. The first being that there seemed to be much more emphasis on the people involved rather than the storyline compared to the other two seasons and I don't think they pulled this off that well. Especially when none of the characters seem to really grow or change over the season. The second is that it feels as if they are filling space at time, such as most of Doug's storyline. I think they'd be much better suited to having an end date in mind and playing to that. I really didn't get on board with Doug's storyline at all, it just seemed to lurch from one extreme to the other.

Saying all that. The ending with Claire leaving Frank does make me want to see more and I'm eagerly awaiting 12 months time when I can see the fall out. Frank will obviously win the nomination and we're probably in for an election season. Dunbar to become Frank's VP?

 

[RavenBish]

Better with the original, its shorter and more concise, plus Richardson in the lead was stunningly good.

I've watched it, it's excellent. I think that's kind of the problem, everything just seems so prolonged and tedious and unnecessary. It's overly heavy when it shouldn't be as it's strayed away from political thriller and is more a Frank/Claire focused drama. It sways between Homeland-y ridiculousness and 'this is very serious and clever and the dialogue is so Sorkin-y and witty'. The other thing is that it's so inconsistent - scene to scene and episode to episode. There's far too many episodes that don't achieve anything or are forgettable and far too many scenes that do the same within the episodes themselves.

I think the main problem since season 1 (other than the fact the novelty of Spacey/Wright being good and 'omg you can watch it all at once!!!' wore off a bit) is that there's no worthy adversary there. It started off as the Whitehouse Macbeth but he's not really against anyone waiting to lop off his head or a credible threat to make him pay for being a serial killer. He does something bad and doesn't get found out and the dark humour surrounding it has slowly dissolved, he's not a badass villain you can empathise a bit with...he's just a dick.

 

[SALTIRE]

I've watched it, it's excellent. I think that's kind of the problem, everything just seems so prolonged and tedious and unnecessary. It's overly heavy when it shouldn't be as it's strayed away from political thriller and is more a Frank/Claire focused drama. It sways between Homeland-y ridiculousness and 'this is very serious and clever and the dialogue is so Sorkin-y and witty'. The other thing is that it's so inconsistent - scene to scene and episode to episode. There's far too many episodes that don't achieve anything or are forgettable and far too many scenes that do the same within the episodes themselves.

I think the main problem since season 1 (other than the fact the novelty of Spacey/Wright being good and 'omg you can watch it all at once!!!' wore off a bit) is that there's no worthy adversary there. It started off as the Whitehouse Macbeth but he's not really against anyone waiting to lop off his head or a credible threat to make him pay for being a serial killer. He does something bad and doesn't get found out and the dark humour surrounding it has slowly dissolved, he's not a badass villain you can empathise a bit with...he's just a dick.

Yeah exactly, with Urquhart, you kind of rooted for him in certain circumstances, but with Spacey's Underwood you get none of that. He's just a bland psychopath.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Well, this doesn't sound very promising.

 

[sl1k]

Very disappointed with the first episode of season 3, extremely long winded with not alot going on.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Struggling to get into this season.

Just feels very flat and not a lot is happening.

 

[T.A]

I disagree, I'm loving it. Not as good as the previous two seasons but it never was going to be with him trying to become president. They're still some interesting storylines. Got two more episodes to go.

 

[BCFC Jordan]

Finished watching S3 and enjoyed it for the most part but I was slightly disappointed by parts of the final few episodes.

Spoiler

I really couldn't understand Claire's motivations, and how she acted in the final 4/5 episodes was just plain irritating. Didn't enjoy the ending to the season because of that.

The high points of the season have to be the scenes with Lars Mikkelsen and Spacey. Captivating whenever they were on screen. The Mikkelsen brothers can certainly act.

 

[Alty]

Mikkelsen is the man. Fucking legend.

I tend to agree with most of the comments above. I actually thought it was a reasonably enjoyable series as a whole, but it was certainly the worst of the three and very much felt like they were killing time before getting to the exciting bits in the fourth series where he goes for the nomination and presidency.

Spoiler

Great moment when he turned on Jackie during the debate btw. BOOM.

 

[SALTIRE]

Ffs has he still not got that, in the original he got Prime Minister in four episodes!

 

[mistermagic]

Finished season 3. Agree with most, some of it is good (and I mean really good) and some of it was utterly pointless. Now we had pointless episodes in the previous series before (Frank getting pissed with his college buds) but the problem in this one is that you have a solid 3 or 4 poor episodes who really shouldn't be in it. As said by others, there's a lot of filling involved and it's quite frustrating.
Saying that there are some truly great scenes. I don't know who plays Dunbar but she's superb, all the scenes with Mikkelsen and Spacey are incredible and yes Claire is becoming more and more forgettable as time moves on. I did notice she produced a couple of the last episodes so maybe she wants her character to disappear and focus more on producing. Would be fair enough.

I'll still watch season 4 in early 2016.

 

[Pyeman]

I started watching this recently. Currently on about ep 5 of season 2.

Really enjoying it, although so far this season hasn't quite matched the height of s1. It appears that trend is set to continue into season 3, but I'll go in with an optimistic outlook and hope for the best.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SaddlerJonny]

S3 is very much a let down, still a great show, but it peaked in S1 and has steadily gone downwards since then.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Just binged it in a few days. Not a patch on S1 as mentioned, but a huge improvement on that dull Tusk storyline in Season 2. Enjoyed the cast and it's storyline all the long, though I thought they made the ending far too obvious for about the preceeding 5 episodes.

PS - How fit is Claire for her age?

 

[hodge]

Not as good as season 1, on par with season 2 I'd say, an okay first half to the season which built later. Spacey by far the star man throughout as you'd expect but I also mean in terms of performances delivered, I'd also agree that Lars is also very good and his interaction with Spacey was fantastic.

Spoiler

Left field shout for Frank's running mate, Seth. When he handed over everything he wanted to do I think it will stick with Frank what Seth can do, he knows how the relationship dynamic with Frank works, ie what Jackie struggled with. Not sure about Dunbar, I can picture a scene next season early on when it looks like its all turning against her and she tries getting the justice seat and Frank destroys her for a mix of doug/jackie siding with her. As tactical as Frank is he knows she's not really on his side he'll want a true ally so to say, I think the most likely option is the running mate will be a new character next season.