Just finished Season 1 of 'House of Cards'

Brilliant. Excellent. Jaw-droppingly good. Can internet TV shows be nominated for Emmys? Spacey, Wright, the girl from American Horror Story, they're all great. If you have Netflix, watch it.

• Interesting. I heard from someone who's taste I trust that the first few episodes are dry and kind of passionless.

• The British original is better. A LOT better.

• People always say that about British originals. The Brits take a shit and somehow that's better than all American shits put together.

• Yes, OP, it will be available for Emmy Awards.

• I couldn't get past 2 episodes.

• With this and soon Arrested Development, we can really start seeing what Reed Hastings was talking about when he said his real competition was HBO, not Blockbuster or Redbox. Only Netflix isn't shackled down by those useless cable provider monopolies... at least not until they start hiking the price of internet service to compensate for the dropoff of cable subscriptions. I really do wish HBO was a standalone subscription service like Netflix. I'd sign up in a heartbeat for Game of Thrones alone.

• Didn't like the cliffhanger ending. Left a sour taste in my mouth.

• I loved the cliffhanger. He's about to get everything he wants, while what he did to get it is about to come out. Great ending. Loved the character's gay relationship being the one he can't forget.

• The British are literally about 25 years ahead of the USA.

• Spacey's accent is atrocious. He sounds like a UK actor doing a bad US accent, sorta like Madonna and Paltrow.

• Spacey, Robin Wright and especially Corey Stoll all deserve Emmys.

• I'm at Episode 4 at this point and so far I'm really liking it. Wright is excellent and she manages to infuse her character with really sinister undertones. The show on the whole is very reminiscent of "Boss" but less dark in its tone.

• It cost NetFlix $100 Million to do the season. They are going to have to sell a lot of subscriptions to pay for that

• I don't like when they randomly break the 4th wall.

• R4, it is not "available" for Emmys. It is eligible for the Emmys.

• How long does it take you guys to download the full season? Is it in HD?

• I just finished last night and I totally adored it. I absolutely cannot wait until season two. Just like I found DAMAGES to be superior to just about everything else on TV when it was on, this seems to also be a labor of love for all involved and it shows in every frame and every performance. It's almost note-perfect. Sure, the script isn't always brilliant, but I like that one writer is running the show more or less and the authorial voice is very prevalent and pretty much "makes" the show, at least for me. While Fincher's episodes were excellent, I actually enjoyed the two Joel Schumacher ones the best, I think (yeah, I know). This show totally puts HOMELAND to shame (which I generally find to be a very weak and less effective imitation of DAMAGES's fourth season and its themes/ideas, anyway). Spacey and Wright will win everything. Stoll is a revelation and if life is fair this will catapult him into superstar status. He is unforgettable and the show is a masterpiece.

  Doug%20Stamper

• How is Kristen Connelly?

• She makes a really good impression and is obviously totally gorgeous and looks it in HD, R18. BTW She and Corey Stoll have some really good scenes together.

  Doug

• 1. I agree with the OP's assessment 100%. This was outstanding. 2. R13, I believe the $100m Netflix paid was for two seasons, not just the first. They ordered two 13 episode seasons out of the gate, hence the cliffhanger at the end of S1 being not insanely annoying, but rather a delightful teaser of the fun and games to come in S2. I hope the poster above is right about this being eligible for Emmy noms. It deserves to be showered with awards.

• I'm lovin' it. The West Wing has some serious competition here for my favorite political show.

• I liked it a lot, but it had its flaws. Spacey's performance was a bit too hammy and the accent unreliable. And the turning to the camera and breaking the wall gimmick was distracting and forced. Wright was much better. She was totally believable as a villain and yet strangely sympathetic.

• Watched it again over the weekend, and have to say that the breakout star / best performance comes from Corey Stoll (Peter Russo).

• [quote]Spacey's performance was a bit too hammy and the accent unreliable What else is new?

• I heard that Corey Stoll looks very hot and shows an impressive bulge in this show... can anyone give info?

  Horny%20

• Popping in late here ... just watched season one in a two-day binge. I liked it quite a bit but thought it was far from perfect, particularly in terms of continuity. I didn't really "get," until the final episode, that Frank had masterminded a plot that would put Machiavelli to shame, apparently in full cahoots with Claire. OTOH there were way too many conveniences and contrivances. Example: Russo happened to live in the only apartment building in the world with a parking garage containing separate *enclosed* garage spaces? And exactly how far did Frank's Machiavellian scheming go? If he was brilliant enough to deduce the fact that he could successfully convince the entire administration to support Russo's run for government, and then have Claire pull the rug out from under him, and then know he'd get so drunk that Frank would have a convenient opportunity to murder him, then why on earth was he stupid enough to shack up the hooker Russo picked up with his *secretary*? And why on earth couldn't Stemper come up with a measly ten grand and/or move her conniving ass cross-country instead of just outside the Beltway? The Underwood's townhouse is probably worth at least $5 million alone - wouldn't Frank have some "rainy day" funds stashed away somewhere? Also, on occasion the narrative simply ground to a fucking halt. Frank had to drop everything in episode 3 to deal with an utterly ridiculous "crisis" in his home district? (Btw the SC town he's supposed to be from, Gaffney, exists in real life, but there is NO fucking way a Democrat would be its representative. I happened to drive through there last year, and it was the apparent epicenter of Tea Party nutbaggery, with Jim DeMint signs on every block.) The whole Sentinel episode was a little odd, too, even if I found its latent homoeroticism titillating. How does it help us "know" Frank any better to find out he messed around a few times with his academy roommate? We already knew he was, shall we say, extremely open-minded sexually speaking, given his open relationship with Claire. In response to R17: puts "Homeland" to shame? Are you fucking kidding me? Not in a million years, unless we're only counting the utterly bizarre series of unbelievable plot twists that happened this past season. That said, I'll be watching next season, and I hope to see more Gerald McRaney in it. Since he's already in the main credits, I'm wondering if the post-cliffhanger result will be him being "forced" to take the vice-presidency from Frank to prevent a major international scandal.

• [quote]People always say that about British originals. The Brits take a shit and somehow that's better than all American shits put together. Well, it's true!

  Betty%20Windsor

• I couldn't help but thinking it was the story of a closeted member of Congress. Spacey can't play straight. His arch way of turning to the camera to explain what we just saw ruined the show. It took all the interesting potential ambiguity and crushed it.

• r28 - that was the way the British version was done also. I haven't started watching the American version yet. I saw the British version when it originally aired and watched it again recently. The first season and third seasons were the best. The second was a little weak.