so far i don't agree at all with the people saying this is better than season 1
it's a lot more sensationalized, and the characters seem to be acting a lot more rashly, without careful forethought
it lacks the slow, dark menace and gravitas of S1
I dunno. some spoilery musings about both seasons:
I mean I agree about S1 being slow and menacing, but as a result it also kind of felt spread thin, with filler. the episode where Frank goes back to Sentinel is a great piece of character development, sure, but it didn't serve the plot one bit. it put everything on hold just so we could get some insights into his past. the pacing just wasn't quite right through a couple of episodes.
despite that it was a really nice change from typical political dramas where things get accelerated for the sake of TV. I kind of liked that the education bill was spread out as much as it was, it gave you a sense of just how convoluted policymaking really is and made governing an obstacle for Frank's ambitions. same goes for the watershed bill, there was so much investment into it on the part of the viewer that its failure to pass is a shocking moment, and sets the table for Russo's rapid downfall (and Frank, ever the opportunist, makes himself a tasty, tasty omelette out of that particular broken egg). the journalism angle really helped, because his control of Zoe was one of his most useful tools but also threatened at every step to undermine him.
resolving that conflict in s2e1 (and how ) was remarkable in its ruthless efficiency. it wiped the slate clean and told us that Frank was now above the petty musings of the fourth estate. he could survive anything, and he does so brilliantly in a couple of later episodes.
about pacing again: S2 turned that sense of deliberate, step at a time movement around and everything is resolved in a handful of scenes, in favor of more focus on Frank's ascent to power. that kind of expedience is nice: it puts the back and forth between Frank and Tusk in center stage, with scandals arising and falling quickly and new opportunities and setbacks arising at every turn. the details of each bill, of each scandal, of each win or loss of influence over Walker felt inconsequential; instead, the game itself was the focus. once I realized that I started to like S2 quite a bit
even so, S2 still had some pacing issues. the Doug/Rachel thing was too little spread out over too many scenes, the hacker story should probably have been packed into two or three episodes near the end of the season rather than scattered throughout, and the China thing hung over the latter half of the season without really doing anything.
I do agree about characters acting instinctively, there are a few scenes where you can tell Frank or Claire are plotting something but quite a bit fewer than in S1. also with the stakes higher and the battle lines drawn more clearly I can believe that there is less room for maneuvering and more reason to make bold moves before one's opponent.
Great season overall. Probably even better than the first.
So, Season 3 has to be the downfall. It's no fun at this point if Frank wins. Stuff still in play: Rachel, Rachel's girlfriend (who will no doubt recognize Doug's face when he pops up all over the news as being murdered), the super-hacker (who now has no place to turn with Doug dead and will likely go rogue), Remy (still no love lost between he and Frank), and the new house whip (Baker I think is her character's name?). Oh, and Seth. Still not sure that he can be trusted. Oh, and the Chinese. Even Lucas may return to play. Who knows? I think Tusk is vanquished. No reason for he and Frank to continue being rivals.
I think Frank has overstepped though, and S3 is where everything is going to unravel. There are just too many loose ends at this point.
Fuck, is Doug definitely dead? Seems like it but I really like him as a character so I'm hoping he's not. A few hits to the head from a rock could possibly kill a guy but it's more likely he's just unconscious or in a coma.
I didn't really like that subplot. The way he handled Rachel was so stupid, he did everything he could at the end to make it look like he was going to kill her. A little kindness and communication would have made things much better, take a note from Frank for fuck sake.
Rachel has long been past the point where she's going to get involved with anyone fishing for information. Doug had to have seen this
Doug's weird obsession with her is the reason he strongarmed his way back in and she was clearly not going to take it anymore, christ I think she'd win this one in a court of law if she went to the cops (which she won't)
Great season overall. Probably even better than the first.
So, Season 3 has to be the downfall. It's no fun at this point if Frank wins. Stuff still in play: Rachel, Rachel's girlfriend (who will no doubt recognize Doug's face when he pops up all over the news as being murdered), the super-hacker (who now has no place to turn with Doug dead and will likely go rogue), Remy (still no love lost between he and Frank), and the new house whip (Baker I think is her character's name?). Oh, and Seth. Still not sure that he can be trusted. Oh, and the Chinese. Even Lucas may return to play. Who knows? I think Tusk is vanquished. No reason for he and Frank to continue being rivals.
I think Frank has overstepped though, and S3 is where everything is going to unravel. There are just too many loose ends at this point.
Fuck, is Doug definitely dead? Seems like it but I really like him as a character so I'm hoping he's not. A few hits to the head from a rock could possibly kill a guy but it's more likely he's just unconscious or in a coma.
I didn't really like that subplot. The way he handled Rachel was so stupid, he did everything he could at the end to make it look like he was going to kill her. A little kindness and communication would have made things much better, take a note from Frank for fuck sake.
I think he's dead. She brained him pretty good a few times, and the way his final shot looks with his eyes open, just laying there bleeding sure looked like he was dead. I would like for him to come out alive, though. I liked Doug.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
Is about Frank's downfall. He didn't get to take the originally planned path to the presidency and instead had to improvise a new one that ended up burning a ton of bridges. He'll finally be the most powerful man in the world but end up using/wasting all of that power fighting off his enemies instead of achieving whatever original goals he planned.
It seems to me that Frank never had any goals to begin with, aside from obtaining power. Has he ever really cared about policy? Every minute of work he's done throughout the entire series has simply been a means to an end in destroying his enemies.
His biggest goal seems to be forging his place in history.
After that he has shown at various points to genuinely appreciate good people and despise pointless cruelty. Just from what I've seen I'd wager he'd be a major proponent of anti bullying legislation, a stronger welfare system, and gay equality. Power and acclaim might be his number one priority but he's obviously not satisfied with the way society is set up either. Changing it in a pronounced way could very well net him both the change he desires as well as his hoped place in history.
And if nothing else he opted to run as a Dem in South Carolina so he must like some of their platform.
I don't understand how anyone could like Doug. The dude was blatantly abusive and it's not like he did it in a charming or interesting way like Frank might. His entire character arc was built on his pointless abuse of another character, with a brief stop in regretville before getting right back to it. I only hope that him fucking it all up and eventually getting killed by Rachel will open up a chance for Rachel to get pulled into more interesting stories about Underwood's trials and machinations.
Doug was a shitty person in the sense that any self-destructive addict that ends up fucking other people's lives in their hurricane of bad decisions is a shitty person. He was an abusive monster towards Rachel because he was addicted to her. He tried not to be, and he failed. He could've gotten help, help was there for him, and he opted not to. That was his failing. That failing fucked up what looked like possibly the first bright spot in Rachel's life in a while, and ended up getting him killed.
I feel sympathy for Doug in the sense that he was a human being with an addiction he couldn't control that led him down a road of abuse and self-destruction. It doesn't excuse what he did or absolve him of fault or anything, but there are some people online I've seen who are like "Fuck that guy, he got what was coming to him, the sociopathic asshole"
Doug wasn't a sociopath. He was an addict who wouldn't get help, and it destroyed not only his own life but the lives of other people. Some of the characters in House of Cards get accused of being a little cartoonish or unrealistic but Doug Stamper was a pretty realistic and grim portrayal of addiction and abuse and where that road leads
I don't understand how anyone could like Doug. The dude was blatantly abusive and it's not like he did it in a charming or interesting way like Frank might. His entire character arc was built on his pointless abuse of another character, with a brief stop in regretville before getting right back to it. I only hope that him fucking it all up and eventually getting killed by Rachel will open up a chance for Rachel to get pulled into more interesting stories about Underwood's trials and machinations.
speaking as an alcoholic, Doug definitely came off as a dry drunk trying to replace alcohol with Rachel
It may be that I simply lack the life experience to appreciate that particular concept, then. It wasn't poorly conveyed, exactly, it just didn't really resonate with me.
I really dug this show. As most of you did, I shotgunned it through a single weekend, just like I did the previous season. I was way into the crazy schemes during the first season, but in this season
I was way more into some of the discrete interactions in the show. Claire holding health care over the pregnant woman. Frank looking at the audience with mute disdain after a civil war reenactor hams up his death scene. Frank and Claire casually joking about Meechum being a human shield just a couple days before fucking him. Overall, this show has an incredible way of conveying menace. The nicer anybody is to anyone else, the more I dread the outcome.
I'm assuming we can expect a third season and I really can't wait. A few of the subplots didn't really do it for me (overall I preferred the 1st season) but the show remains quite strong and I really want to see what they do with President Underwood and I want to see what happens to characters that are still sort of twisting out there like Remy or Rachel.
Part of me feels like this show was made with binge-watching in mind.
True Detective is a show that I relish the time between episodes. It lets me digest, theorize and reflect on the nuances. I even like to watch it again!
I watched House of Cards in less than 48 hours. I laughed, I hollered, I was shocked, and then...nothing. I find I don't often think about it, and when I do, for some reason I'm not excited to watch it again, or in my reflection there was something I didn't like in retrospect as much as I did while watching.
Doug was a shitty person in the sense that any self-destructive addict that ends up fucking other people's lives in their hurricane of bad decisions is a shitty person. He was an abusive monster towards Rachel because he was addicted to her. He tried not to be, and he failed. He could've gotten help, help was there for him, and he opted not to. That was his failing. That failing fucked up what looked like possibly the first bright spot in Rachel's life in a while, and ended up getting him killed.
I feel sympathy for Doug in the sense that he was a human being with an addiction he couldn't control that led him down a road of abuse and self-destruction. It doesn't excuse what he did or absolve him of fault or anything, but there are some people online I've seen who are like "Fuck that guy, he got what was coming to him, the sociopathic asshole"
Doug wasn't a sociopath. He was an addict who wouldn't get help, and it destroyed not only his own life but the lives of other people. Some of the characters in House of Cards get accused of being a little cartoonish or unrealistic but Doug Stamper was a pretty realistic and grim portrayal of addiction and abuse and where that road leads
While I agree, Pony, I don't really feel like that sympathy resonates for me in context:
Doug Stamper is a man who was in the situation he was in, regarding Rachel, as a means to cover up a senator's DUI with a prostitute that if exposed could lead to the fact that he was complicit in the murder of that same Senator. He then spends the early parts of the next season engaging in entrapment and again being complicit in the murder of journalists who were trying to expose this murder.
I don't dislike Stamper or not care that he died because he's an addict who succumbed to his addiction, I dislike Stamper because at his most sober he was a terrible scumbag who made horribly unethical and illegal choices at the expense of others at every turn.
Part of me feels like this show was made with binge-watching in mind.
True Detective is a show that I relish the time between episodes. It lets me digest, theorize and reflect on the nuances. I even like to watch it again!
I watched House of Cards in less than 48 hours. I laughed, I hollered, I was shocked, and then...nothing. I find I don't often think about it, and when I do, for some reason I'm not excited to watch it again, or in my reflection there was something I didn't like in retrospect as much as I did while watching.
Highly recommend a slower rewatch! I'm starting over from season one with rad and it's helping me digest it all a lot better.
I don't understand how anyone could like Doug. The dude was blatantly abusive and it's not like he did it in a charming or interesting way like Frank might. His entire character arc was built on his pointless abuse of another character, with a brief stop in regretville before getting right back to it. I only hope that him fucking it all up and eventually getting killed by Rachel will open up a chance for Rachel to get pulled into more interesting stories about Underwood's trials and machinations.
speaking as an alcoholic, Doug definitely came off as a dry drunk trying to replace alcohol with Rachel
Yeah speaking as someone who's been in addictive relationships and who has had alcoholic relatives he did have a lot of familiarities[/spoilers]
on Walker trusting Frank too much (spoilers through ep 13)
I think the show goes to great pains to very subtly highlight just how lonely being President is. everyone is either blindly obedient (his administration), cordial but hostile (his political opponents), or afraid to tell him no to his face but working against him in private (his own party in Congress).
even his relationship with his wife is being strained, the whole point of the marriage counseling subplot is to emphasize that Walker has no one to lean on in times of stress (it consequently also gives Frank a powerful weapon, you can bet that he and Claire chose to refer him to a minister who was also a doctor for a very good reason)
along comes Frank, who is useful and respectful but not afraid to say no. the punching bag gift is brilliant: it's a subtle "fuck you" but also a harmless prank, which incubates a sense of friendship. Frank does everything he can to win the president's friendship, which means that by the time Walker realizes he cannot trust Frank and exiles him it's obvious it won't be permanent. he has nobody else to turn to when it all comes crashing down; Frank's offer to fall on his sword appeals to Walker's view of him as a friend, rather than a political ally
Walker was looking for someone to trust, and Frank manipulated that as best he could. remember his soliloquy about how he has isolated the president from everyone, even himself?
I mean, okay
But I guess I know enough about how politics work to feel like after Frank epicly fucked up the back-channeling he'd have been put in a room in the OEOB and told to stay there until Walker died
The first thing I thought of after Frank killed Zoe was "welp, there goes Rachel". Well ok, not the first. The first was "jesus tap dancing christ" but it a close second.
I mean, you kill the rising star reporter who has people in her life but not the call girl who was party to the scheme that got you the VP spot who has no friends or family around at all?
I was honestly expecting a scene somewhere in the beginning of S2 where Frank "politely" asks Doug to explain why that particular loose end had not been tidied up yet.
When Doug was finally driving her out to the woods in the end of the season I was wondering what had taken so long.
The first thing I thought of after Frank killed Zoe was "welp, there goes Rachel". Well ok, not the first. The first was "jesus tap dancing christ" but it a close second.
I mean, you kill the rising star reporter who has people in her life but not the call girl who was party to the scheme that got you the VP spot who has no friends or family around at all?
I was honestly expecting a scene somewhere in the beginning of S2 where Frank "politely" asks Doug to explain why that particular loose end had not been tidied up yet.
When Doug was finally driving her out to the woods in the end of the season I was wondering what had taken so long.
Murder is not normally a part of Frank's plans. It's an incredibly huge risk that he only does when he believes it's the last option remaining to him. Zoe confronted him directly with an accusation that he knew he couldn't get out of - Rachel doesn't really know the whole story and Doug assured him she was taken care of.
We're about 2/3 into S1, and I'm pretty underwhelmed so far. Basically I dislike the episodes that feel like the show is treading water, which to my mind makes up for the majority of S1 up to the point we've seen; unbeatable Frank Underwood just doesn't strike me as all that interesting in the long run. Those bits I enjoy best are the ones showing a chink in Frank's armour; my favourite ep so far is the one where Claire screws up the two votes he needs, with several scenes showing that underneath Frank's glibness there's a bottomless rage driving his every action.
How's S2 in this respect? Is it balanced more towards glib Frank or towards the abyss beneath the snark?
Sidenote: Do people generally like FU's asides to the camera? I was a big fan of them in the UK series, but so far I find them pretty badly written in the US version - they don't tell us anything new about Frank nor the situation, and I don't find them sharp enough to be enjoyable as lines. If anything, they feel a bit like a perfunctory nod to the original series rather than something the new version considers vital to itself.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
The first thing I thought of after Frank killed Zoe was "welp, there goes Rachel". Well ok, not the first. The first was "jesus tap dancing christ" but it a close second.
I mean, you kill the rising star reporter who has people in her life but not the call girl who was party to the scheme that got you the VP spot who has no friends or family around at all?
I was honestly expecting a scene somewhere in the beginning of S2 where Frank "politely" asks Doug to explain why that particular loose end had not been tidied up yet.
When Doug was finally driving her out to the woods in the end of the season I was wondering what had taken so long.
Murder is not normally a part of Frank's plans. It's an incredibly huge risk that he only does when he believes it's the last option remaining to him. Zoe confronted him directly with an accusation that he knew he couldn't get out of - Rachel doesn't really know the whole story and Doug assured him she was taken care of.
And while Frank is in fact a horrible person he's not a completely uncaring asshole. He prefers peaceful solutions.
The first thing I thought of after Frank killed Zoe was "welp, there goes Rachel". Well ok, not the first. The first was "jesus tap dancing christ" but it a close second.
I mean, you kill the rising star reporter who has people in her life but not the call girl who was party to the scheme that got you the VP spot who has no friends or family around at all?
I was honestly expecting a scene somewhere in the beginning of S2 where Frank "politely" asks Doug to explain why that particular loose end had not been tidied up yet.
When Doug was finally driving her out to the woods in the end of the season I was wondering what had taken so long.
Murder is not normally a part of Frank's plans. It's an incredibly huge risk that he only does when he believes it's the last option remaining to him. Zoe confronted him directly with an accusation that he knew he couldn't get out of - Rachel doesn't really know the whole story and Doug assured him she was taken care of.
That and the most Rachel can do is bury Doug, who Frank knows would fall on the sword if it came to it since it was his responsibility to deal with Rachel in the first place. It's the plausible deniability thing, he doesn't even ask Doug about it because he wants to know as little as possible. I still think that if she wasn't hot and Doug didn't start liking her, she'd have been dead and buried somewhere at the start of S2.
We're about 2/3 into S1, and I'm pretty underwhelmed so far. Basically I dislike the episodes that feel like the show is treading water, which to my mind makes up for the majority of S1 up to the point we've seen; unbeatable Frank Underwood just doesn't strike me as all that interesting in the long run. Those bits I enjoy best are the ones showing a chink in Frank's armour; my favourite ep so far is the one where Claire screws up the two votes he needs, with several scenes showing that underneath Frank's glibness there's a bottomless rage driving his every action.
How's S2 in this respect? Is it balanced more towards glib Frank or towards the abyss beneath the snark?
Sidenote: Do people generally like FU's asides to the camera? I was a big fan of them in the UK series, but so far I find them pretty badly written in the US version - they don't tell us anything new about Frank nor the situation, and I don't find them sharp enough to be enjoyable as lines. If anything, they feel a bit like a perfunctory nod to the original series rather than something the new version considers vital to itself.
I like them, especially "Do you think I'm a hypocrite?" because it got my Mom to say "Yes" to the TV.
I don't have a problem with Walker since I see him as a combination of the worst aspects of Bush and Obamas personas. He's basically President Nice but Dim. Someone who can win an election but not govern a country.
Walker was a figurehead president, but everything would have been fine if he had better puppeteers. Instead though everything went to hell because his advisors were too busy fighting eachother to govern the country.
Given the first episode of S2, it's funny that as far as interviews that
Kata Mara is actively promoting the season (both before and after its premiere), since the entirety of her role was basically one episode of "show my (or my body double's) butt, get squashed by a subway car". Pretty good sport.
The crazy thing about this is there really isn't any evidence to convict Frank of murder. There's enough to ruin him, but apart from him confessing, there's no physical evidence he was ever in the car with Russo, no evidence he was in that subway tunnel. Now that Doug is dead he even had a convenient scapegoat (he could easily manufacture some evidence that Doug was there, and Rachel would tell anyone "oh yeah that guy was going to murder me"). Even the hacker has his gaze set to Doug and not Frank
It'll be interesting to see how he falls, my bet (I haven't seen the UK series) is that Claire takes him down. She is the only person who truly knows him now that Doug is gone, and twice now he's put his ambitions ahead of hers.
Given the first episode of S2, it's funny that as far as interviews that
Kata Mara is actively promoting the season (both before and after its premiere), since the entirety of her role was basically one episode of "showed my (or my body double's) butt, get squashed by a subway car". Pretty good sport.
That butt was all hers. The shot tracked till you could see the side of her face.
Given the first episode of S2, it's funny that as far as interviews that
Kata Mara is actively promoting the season (both before and after its premiere), since the entirety of her role was basically one episode of "showed my (or my body double's) butt, get squashed by a subway car". Pretty good sport.
That butt was all hers. The shot tracked till you could see the side of her face.
I don't remember an unbroken shot between the body and her face being visible, but okay.
The crazy thing about this is there really isn't any evidence to convict Frank of murder. There's enough to ruin him, but apart from him confessing, there's no physical evidence he was ever in the car with Russo, no evidence he was in that subway tunnel. Now that Doug is dead he even had a convenient scapegoat (he could easily manufacture some evidence that Doug was there, and Rachel would tell anyone "oh yeah that guy was going to murder me"). Even the hacker has his gaze set to Doug and not Frank
It'll be interesting to see how he falls, my bet (I haven't seen the UK series) is that Claire takes him down. She is the only person who truly knows him now that Doug is gone, and twice now he's put his ambitions ahead of hers.
I'm honestly kind of hoping his downfall isn't via the legal system but rather him failing to achieve anything after finally getting to where he wants and becoming a footnote president.
Given the first episode of S2, it's funny that as far as interviews that
Kata Mara is actively promoting the season (both before and after its premiere), since the entirety of her role was basically one episode of "showed my (or my body double's) butt, get squashed by a subway car". Pretty good sport.
That butt was all hers. The shot tracked till you could see the side of her face.
I don't remember an unbroken shot between the body and her face being visible, but okay.
I guess I have to see it again but I could have sworn you saw her face as she entered the shower. Figures it was a body double though, it was too spectacular.
The crazy thing about this is there really isn't any evidence to convict Frank of murder. There's enough to ruin him, but apart from him confessing, there's no physical evidence he was ever in the car with Russo, no evidence he was in that subway tunnel. Now that Doug is dead he even had a convenient scapegoat (he could easily manufacture some evidence that Doug was there, and Rachel would tell anyone "oh yeah that guy was going to murder me"). Even the hacker has his gaze set to Doug and not Frank
It'll be interesting to see how he falls, my bet (I haven't seen the UK series) is that Claire takes him down. She is the only person who truly knows him now that Doug is gone, and twice now he's put his ambitions ahead of hers.
I'm honestly kind of hoping his downfall isn't via the legal system but rather him failing to achieve anything after finally getting to where he wants and becoming a footnote president.
That would be brilliant,
since his success in s1 and 2 would make him falling at the hands of a hacker or Rachel seem very contrived after beating Zoe's group WHILE fighting Tusk and maneuvering to get the Pres impeached.
So, at the end they introduced him as the 46th President. I had been thinking Walker was just NotObama, but 46 implies something more interesting happened since the House of Cards world diverged from ours. The latest divergence I can see happening is 2004. Kerry defeats Bush and becomes 44 then eight years later Walker takes over and become 45. That bugs me, though, since I feel like I remember Walker having been elected after a Republican.
Anyone remember more details on this? Or remember any references to contemporary Presidents? Like, if they mention Clinton it diverged after '96, if they mention Lewinsky it diverged after '00, etc. I doubt it affects anything on the show but I'm curious if they've picked a point after which they can mess with history.
So, at the end they introduced him as the 46th President. I had been thinking Walker was just NotObama, but 46 implies something more interesting happened since the House of Cards world diverged from ours. The latest divergence I can see happening is 2004. Kerry defeats Bush and becomes 44 then eight years later Walker takes over and become 45. That bugs me, though, since I feel like I remember Walker having been elected after a Republican.
Anyone remember more details on this? Or remember any references to contemporary Presidents? Like, if they mention Clinton it diverged after '96, if they mention Lewinsky it diverged after '00, etc. I doubt it affects anything on the show but I'm curious if they've picked a point after which they can mess with history.
Or McCain beats obama and only lasts one term.
e; the other thing about walker I like is he's so fucking useless he makes you question whether or not having Frank in charge might actually be preferable.
They don't really talk about anything before 2016. The wiki has a presidential timeline based on portraits, monuments, and the occasional mention but it only reaches up to Bush.
Posts
I dunno. some spoilery musings about both seasons:
despite that it was a really nice change from typical political dramas where things get accelerated for the sake of TV. I kind of liked that the education bill was spread out as much as it was, it gave you a sense of just how convoluted policymaking really is and made governing an obstacle for Frank's ambitions. same goes for the watershed bill, there was so much investment into it on the part of the viewer that its failure to pass is a shocking moment, and sets the table for Russo's rapid downfall (and Frank, ever the opportunist, makes himself a tasty, tasty omelette out of that particular broken egg). the journalism angle really helped, because his control of Zoe was one of his most useful tools but also threatened at every step to undermine him.
resolving that conflict in s2e1 (and how
about pacing again: S2 turned that sense of deliberate, step at a time movement around and everything is resolved in a handful of scenes, in favor of more focus on Frank's ascent to power. that kind of expedience is nice: it puts the back and forth between Frank and Tusk in center stage, with scandals arising and falling quickly and new opportunities and setbacks arising at every turn. the details of each bill, of each scandal, of each win or loss of influence over Walker felt inconsequential; instead, the game itself was the focus. once I realized that I started to like S2 quite a bit
even so, S2 still had some pacing issues. the Doug/Rachel thing was too little spread out over too many scenes, the hacker story should probably have been packed into two or three episodes near the end of the season rather than scattered throughout, and the China thing hung over the latter half of the season without really doing anything.
I do agree about characters acting instinctively, there are a few scenes where you can tell Frank or Claire are plotting something but quite a bit fewer than in S1. also with the stakes higher and the battle lines drawn more clearly I can believe that there is less room for maneuvering and more reason to make bold moves before one's opponent.
I didn't really like that subplot. The way he handled Rachel was so stupid, he did everything he could at the end to make it look like he was going to kill her. A little kindness and communication would have made things much better, take a note from Frank for fuck sake.
Doug's weird obsession with her is the reason he strongarmed his way back in and she was clearly not going to take it anymore, christ I think she'd win this one in a court of law if she went to the cops (which she won't)
After that he has shown at various points to genuinely appreciate good people and despise pointless cruelty. Just from what I've seen I'd wager he'd be a major proponent of anti bullying legislation, a stronger welfare system, and gay equality. Power and acclaim might be his number one priority but he's obviously not satisfied with the way society is set up either. Changing it in a pronounced way could very well net him both the change he desires as well as his hoped place in history.
And if nothing else he opted to run as a Dem in South Carolina so he must like some of their platform.
I feel sympathy for Doug in the sense that he was a human being with an addiction he couldn't control that led him down a road of abuse and self-destruction. It doesn't excuse what he did or absolve him of fault or anything, but there are some people online I've seen who are like "Fuck that guy, he got what was coming to him, the sociopathic asshole"
Doug wasn't a sociopath. He was an addict who wouldn't get help, and it destroyed not only his own life but the lives of other people. Some of the characters in House of Cards get accused of being a little cartoonish or unrealistic but Doug Stamper was a pretty realistic and grim portrayal of addiction and abuse and where that road leads
I really dug this show. As most of you did, I shotgunned it through a single weekend, just like I did the previous season. I was way into the crazy schemes during the first season, but in this season
I'm assuming we can expect a third season and I really can't wait. A few of the subplots didn't really do it for me (overall I preferred the 1st season) but the show remains quite strong and I really want to see what they do with President Underwood and I want to see what happens to characters that are still sort of twisting out there like Remy or Rachel.
True Detective is a show that I relish the time between episodes. It lets me digest, theorize and reflect on the nuances. I even like to watch it again!
I watched House of Cards in less than 48 hours. I laughed, I hollered, I was shocked, and then...nothing. I find I don't often think about it, and when I do, for some reason I'm not excited to watch it again, or in my reflection there was something I didn't like in retrospect as much as I did while watching.
While I agree, Pony, I don't really feel like that sympathy resonates for me in context:
I don't dislike Stamper or not care that he died because he's an addict who succumbed to his addiction, I dislike Stamper because at his most sober he was a terrible scumbag who made horribly unethical and illegal choices at the expense of others at every turn.
Highly recommend a slower rewatch! I'm starting over from season one with rad and it's helping me digest it all a lot better.
uhhhhhhh
so that whole scene felt really incestuous in addition to its inherent scandalousness
But I guess I know enough about how politics work to feel like after Frank epicly fucked up the back-channeling he'd have been put in a room in the OEOB and told to stay there until Walker died
(full S2 spoilers)
I mean, you kill the rising star reporter who has people in her life but not the call girl who was party to the scheme that got you the VP spot who has no friends or family around at all?
I was honestly expecting a scene somewhere in the beginning of S2 where Frank "politely" asks Doug to explain why that particular loose end had not been tidied up yet.
When Doug was finally driving her out to the woods in the end of the season I was wondering what had taken so long.
How's S2 in this respect? Is it balanced more towards glib Frank or towards the abyss beneath the snark?
Sidenote: Do people generally like FU's asides to the camera? I was a big fan of them in the UK series, but so far I find them pretty badly written in the US version - they don't tell us anything new about Frank nor the situation, and I don't find them sharp enough to be enjoyable as lines. If anything, they feel a bit like a perfunctory nod to the original series rather than something the new version considers vital to itself.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I like them, especially "Do you think I'm a hypocrite?" because it got my Mom to say "Yes" to the TV.
It'll be interesting to see how he falls, my bet (I haven't seen the UK series) is that Claire takes him down. She is the only person who truly knows him now that Doug is gone, and twice now he's put his ambitions ahead of hers.
That butt was all hers. The shot tracked till you could see the side of her face.
I don't remember an unbroken shot between the body and her face being visible, but okay.
we need a team of analysts to compare her butt from season one
I guess I have to see it again but I could have sworn you saw her face as she entered the shower. Figures it was a body double though, it was too spectacular.
That would be brilliant,
Anyone remember more details on this? Or remember any references to contemporary Presidents? Like, if they mention Clinton it diverged after '96, if they mention Lewinsky it diverged after '00, etc. I doubt it affects anything on the show but I'm curious if they've picked a point after which they can mess with history.
e; the other thing about walker I like is he's so fucking useless he makes you question whether or not having Frank in charge might actually be preferable.
Unnamed republican (I assume?) from 2008-2012 (44th president)
Walker in 2012.
Maybe? Does that make sense?
he was childlike, always asking for someone else to make a decision for him, never genuinely taking a position, only weakly posturing
honestly he was too weak and timid to even be believable, imo
even if his entire political career is
he is basically the opposite of presidential in every way