Because I watched the first two seasons of Netflix’s House of Cards, which at some point, I have to return to and finish, I found out that it was originally a British television series that Netflix also listed by the same name, but each season actually had a different title: House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut. For the purposes of this review, I’m going to mimic Netflix and call it House of Cards.
Each season of House of Cards consisted of four episodes that were just under one hour. If a viewer has already seen the American adaptation, the storyline in the first season, House of Cards, will initially feel familiar so you may not get as invested as you would if it was completely new to you. Regardless of whether or not it was a solid season before there was an American adaptation, this version of House of Cards will always suffer by comparison. If you make it to the second and third seasons, it will feel fresh, outrageous and unexpected. To Play the King, the second season, verged on being ridiculous and jumping the shark because it felt more like a soap opera and less like a political thriller. Also the second season did not clearly lay out the relationships of the new characters to each other so the tabloid element was lost on me. I didn’t get how loose lips sank that particular ship since the comments weren’t about that ship. Shrug. My favorite season is the final one. Because of its international scope, it felt like the most timeless and germane without literally mimicking current events. Here is a tip to future political thrillers, use real places and conflicts, but don’t focus on areas that are making headlines in your time. It is possible that House of Cards actually ripped it from real life, but it never felt as if it did.
I generally think that the original of anything is better than the remake plus I used to be an Anglophile so I thought that I would eagerly watch it in one sitting. It took me at least two attempts to watch House of Cards. The first time that I tried to watch it, I gave it my complete attention and kept falling asleep within the first ten minutes. I was going to let it quietly evaporate from my queue as the expiration date approached, but at some point, it reappeared so I had another chance before it was about to expire again. The key to enjoyment for me was multitasking and not giving the series my complete attention.
BBC’s House of Cards is not initially easy for an American such as myself to watch because of my lack of familiarity with the quotidian aspects of their political system. This series was not created with an American audience in mind so while the accents aren’t as difficult to navigate as Law & Order: UK or The Red Riding Trilogy, it is no Masterpiece Theater so put on your subtitles. It is also dated. It was made in the early 1990s, and it feels like it. At the time, it must have felt contemporary and real in an organic way, but as much as I too love 2 Unlimited’s No Limit, it makes the characters and the story feel like a period piece in a bad way. It doesn’t trigger nostalgia. It makes you cringe thinking that these people feel so relevant and important when they’re dinosaurs, and the world has long since moved on.
Instead of Kevin Spacey, Ian Richardson plays the conniving, immoral and ambitious protagonist of House of Cards. He does a great job, but another reason that I needed to multitask while watching the series is that I gagged at the idea of him as a sexual being. I’m not going to pretend that before the allegations of Spacey’s alleged pedophilia and general sexual misconduct that Spacey, while no hottie, was one of the best actors available, and talent can be sexy so while looking at Spacey would not necessarily make you turn your head, you would not throw up in your mouth at the idea that someone would find him attractive. I may have unwittingly seen Richardson in movies and television shows before, but he isn’t as iconic to me. I’m not even comparing Richardson to Spacey. If I saw as much of Richardson’s work as Spacey’s, maybe I would favor Richardson as the more talented of the two, but I haven’t so Richardson’s talent does not convert into attractive points as it does for Spacey, which means that whenever a character found Richardson attractive, I was literally repulsed and horrified. Also fun fact, I like older guys, but it was the equivalent of being hot for The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns. Just, no. Never. How? Shudder. I just can’t. It makes my skin crawl even thinking about it now. It isn’t even a part of the show that you can disregard and fast forward because it is essential to the plot in the first two of three seasons. We don’t even see him getting down, but just the implication is enough to turn your stomach. May Richardson rest in peace, no disrespect intended.
As a black woman, while I was psyched to see us represented in House of Cards, it also felt vaguely insulting. One character fulfills a long-standing stereotype used to this day in shows like Scandal to denigrate black women. Another character is a vast improvement, but her role as a mover or shaker is the equivalent of when you’re at an after party after going to an opera, and people keep asking you about tap dancing, rap or the meaning of Kwanzaa. Sure you may be interested in those things, but why are you asking me specifically and at this particular time. Imagine if Condoleeza Rice was treated like Ben Carson. If she is fine with it, which that character was, cool, but her primary relevancy is her pigment, and it seemed like it would not occur to casting to put her in any other role.
The protagonist’s wife, Elizabeth, is more tertiary in this iteration of House of Cards than the American adaptation until near the end of the second season. I don’t know how it is possible, but she seemed more immoral. I like that the writers seemed generally less concerned about women being likeable. Claire in BBC’s House of Cards was actually someone who worked for the protagonist in the third season, and her character was so delightfully confusingly playing both sides against each other that I am still uncertain what her ultimate goals were.
While I would not call BBC’s House of Cards must see television, it was a great multitasking show that helped pass the time quicker and kept me entertained. It is definitely not suitable for the entire family because of mature content, but if you’re looking to satisfy your treacherous, conniving appetite, then this series is for you. The level of intelligence is so high that you may actually wish that these particular evil people were in charge and not the evil dolts that are your current elected officials.