House of Cards

[Queequeg]

Watching this series.

The original 4 episodes were flat-out fantastic.  Ian Richrdson gives one of the best TV performances I've ever seen-up there with Tony Soprano. 

A few things I find interesting though.

1) The show was released in 1990.  It might be the most amazing year in television history, and it seems to have set the pattern for the late-90s birth of tv drama as a real art form.  House of Cards seems to predict the darker antagonists of the 90s-most obviously 1996's Profit, which borrows the camera-directed soliloquies, and possibly Tony Soprano.  Also 1990-The Simpsons more or less invented modern TV comedy and had some of the greatest seasons in TV history, and Twin Peaks evolved the mythology-oriented framework of shows like Lost, True Blood and The X-Files. 

2) Are the rest of the seasons worth watching? I'm starting Season 2, not nearly as involving thusfar. 

3) Why were mid-late 80s BBC miniseries so good? This, Threads and The Singing Detective are about as daring and innovative as anything on TV on HBO after Oz, and in some sense bolder.  I don't think modern British TV can stand in comparison. 

[Sheilbh]

You'd probably also enjoy 'A Very British Coup' and 'GBH'.

[Queequeg]

Love the Oscar Niemeyer pic, Sheilbh.

[Sheilbh]

RIP

[Grinning_Colossus]

I found the second series to be the most engaging, mostly because of FU's interactions with Charles. The third seemed a little off, but it has an appropriate ending.

[Agelastus]

The first is the best, by far.

The remaining two are good drama series, but they are nowhere near as compelling as the first; however, I would recommend watching them anyway. Their main problem is that Urquhart died in the original novel - the author had to think up a story arc for the character after the first series became so popular and it shows (neither of the latter 2 series hanging together anywhere near as tightly.)