A VILAIN YOU WILL LOVE TO HATE: "HOUSE OF CARDS"

You know the new trend these days. If a good British show is created, you know, if it’s really, “properly” popular, chances are it will cross the pond and get an American version made. I’m thinking of things like The Office and Coupling (although it is universally agreed that the U.S. version of coupling wasn’t even one eighth as funny as the U.K. version. Just saying). One of the more recent remakes is of the iconic British political drama, House of Cards. Now, imitating things is OK up to a point, but if you try to replicate it completely, chances are you will end up with egg on your face ( as in the case of Coupling for example). The intelligent thing to do, in my way of thinking, is to take the basic format that worked, and add something from yourself. I don’t know, develop it a bit. Make it something new; don’t just make it a photocopy. In this sense taking the basic plot and moving into 21^st century American politics works. Put a star of world renowned talent like Kevin Spacey in the leading role and it works even better.

Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is Majority Whip. He has served his party loyally for years, and he fully expects to reap the benefits – especially when the time comes to nominate a new secretary of state. However, politics doesn’t always quite turn out as you may have planned, and in this particular case, against all the odds he had calculated, the job goes to someone else. Now, here’s the problem. You do not upset someone who holds so many political secrets, especially if they have both burning ambition and great political talent. They tend to have a rather nasty tendency to, I don’t know, make plans to avenge themselves. I mean think about it, it would be more than awkward if they turned out to be the next President of the United States. And this, as you already may have guessed, is exactly what Francis intends to do…

As you can guess this is a particular “genre” of film/ series. The cat-and mouse. The power struggle. You watch it as much for the beauty of the strategy as the storyline if you know what I mean. And, you know, I was always a fan of Kevin Spacey but even more so after this. I mean, my God. He is the perfect anti-hero. You cannot exactly like Francis – or his wife Claire (played rather brilliantly by the talented Robin Wright) for that matter. They are cold, calculating and driven by nothing but success, at any cost. But at the same time, Francis plays the system so well, and even though he is cold, calculating and just a teensy bit scary, gets the better of so many “typical” political bad guys so smoothly that well… You can’t help not like him. Ok, he’s doing it mainly for his own advancement but well, it’s one in the eye to “the system” if you get my drift. So in the end, you watch with baited breath and really hope he does well. Even though you kinda feel you shouldn’t be rooting for him, if you get my drift. I mean there are tons of other characters like that. There’s the power hungry new to the game journalist, Zoe Barnes for example. You sympathize with her trying to get ahead in her business but once she (guess thanks to who) suddenly hits a meteoric rise, her attitude really starts getting on your nerves. Or I mean, that’s how I felt. Tell you what, watch the series and we’ll discuss it. It’s one of those series, there is one HECK of a lot of things to talk about.