A Scandalous House of Cards

Spoiler Warning: Light Spoilers for House of Cards: Season 5 and Scandal: Season 7


To Ms. Olivia Pope,

I recently watched the show House of Cards, and am under the impression you would greatly appreciate the show. The show follows the character of Frank Underwood as he pushes his way through Washington politics to get the top, using any means necessary. I find this similar to your own push for power in ensuring President Mellie Grant’s gain the highest office at any cost.

The first few seasons of the show prove to be, in my opinion the most interesting, this stems from the fact that the narrative follows a more emotional storyline. Instead of seeing President Frank Underwood struggle with policy and holding on to power, we see Representative Underwood plot to hurt those who burned him and gain power as quickly and efficiently as possible. This can be done from a complex media campaign, your specialty, or through a more complex system of setting people up for failure and specific consequences. Again this can parallel the activities you took to ensure President Fitzgerald Grant won the presidency to the multiple coups and plans you created to take over the oval and B6-13.

While the story of House of Cards follows the character of Frank Underwood, for its majority, it also closely follows Claire Underwood, the first female president in the show’s fictional history (even if she starts as VP). Her character, while being secondary to her husband, also proves to have an interesting plot. This stems from her blind support of her husband in the earlier seasons, pushing him to seek revenge and accumulate power. Later, though, she changes her attitude using and manipulating Frank into accomplishing her will and giving some, albeit smaller amounts, of his power to her. This change creates Claire as a deeper character with great ambitions that culminate in her retaining the presidency. Olivia, I think you’d find this interesting. The slow steady rise in power Claire achieves is similar to Mellie’s and your own growth in power from under Fitz’s influence.

One of the main interesting aspects of House of Cards though, especially in the earlier seasons, is its unapologetic use of dark themes. Most shows, especially at the time of its release, try to target a large audience with comedy or more family friendly themes. House of Cards, though adopts themes of corruption, manipulation, among others. It shows a hidden rotten underbelly to politics that is not usually shown in political dramas. There are no gladiators in white hats saving the day. There are no patriots risking it all for the sake of the nation. All that exists, are selfish men and women clawing and fighting for each and every scrap of power and influence available. Now on whether this is realistic or not, I will leave to you, as you seem to be familiar with both sides of the argument. I do believe that this is, at least in part, what makes House of Cards different from most other political drama or TV shows for that matter.

Overall The first three seasons of House of Cards are emotional, dark stories that grab the viewer and bring them into a world of corruption and power politics. The other seasons lose some of these aspects but also add to the characterization of secondary characters in new and interesting ways. I would strongly recommend that you watch House of Cards. If not for enjoyment, then for the parallels to your own political atmosphere.

House of Cards

Dear Mom and Dad,

First of all, I think you’re really going to enjoy helping me with this homework assignment. I know I told you about these sort of assignments before, writing blog posts about Netflix shows. However, sometimes on these posts, we also need to get someone to respond to us. That’s where you come in! My teacher lined this up so that we’d be on break already for this assignment, where we need to get our parents to respond to our post. And, to make this easier on you guys, I decided to watch one of your favorite shows: House of Cards

I know how well you guys know me versus my relationship with politics. I can definitely say I never planned on watching this show, basically ever, despite all the hype that I’ve heard about it. House of Cards is probably the one show you never expected me to watch either, but I knew you’d be able to respond well if I wrote about one of your favorites.

I can honestly say that this show, at least to me, was terribly confusing. I’m not very aware of what’s going on in politics most of the time, I don’t know all the terms, or what office positions do what. I mean, honestly, I couldn’t tell you the main character’s name. However, I can see why you guys would like a show like this so much. I know politics and the way our country is run, as of right now, means more to you than it does to me. In the same way that technology means more to me than it does to you. What I’m getting at is that while I can enjoy a show like Black Mirror for the message it sends about people versus technology, you guys can enjoy seeing the inner workings of government affairs and be somewhat involved with the rivalries of office members.

While I’m happy to know approximately .0154% more about what you guys enjoy watching in your free time, I can’t say that I’ll be continuing with the show. That isn’t to say that I didn’t think it was a good show, or that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just, you know, me being me, the topic of politics really isn’t my thing. I wasn’t sure most of the time what was really going on, who people were, and whose side I was supposed to be on. Also, I’m sorry, but I can only handle so many white dudes being passive aggressive with each other so much. Continue to love your show, and I can’t wait to see what y’all have to say! Love you guys

-Caroline

House of Cards and Discourse

House of Cards

From watching the first episode of House of Cards, there were many unique elements of the show, but the one that stood out was the quality of discourse and careful intent that some of the main characters possess.  Frank Underwood and his wife, Claire Underwood, both particularly exhibit a fashion of speaking that communicates intent in a cutthroat fashion.  The effects of their discourse is clearly evident on the effect it has on characters and the relationships that exist.

Beginning with Frank Underwood, his ability to control conversations, speak with intent, and make every word carry meaning is noteworthy.  When he speaks to the audience of the show, he does so in a manner that makes it seem as if he is completely sure of the events that will occur later on in the show.  One key example, is right before Linda Vasquez walks into his office, he speaks to the audience and mentions that she will bring up David Blythe, and as soon as she walked through the door, she immediately brought up the aforementioned topic.  In reference to the lack of wasted moments and words, Frank’s meeting with Zoe is also noteworthy.  When Frank asks Zoe to have an impromptu meeting with him, he begins talking about the main focus of the recent presidential campaign, which was American education.  After Frank handed over Blythe’s education reform bill to Zoe, Zoe begins to bring up the grey-area on legality that they are teetering on.  Frank cuts her off and references the painting that they are sitting in front of.  The painting depicts two people, sitting in a slim boat.  Frank states that he is fond of the painting, and then tells Zoe that they are now in the same boat, and that Zoe should be careful not to tip it, because he would only be able to save one of them from drowning, hence legal backlash.  Frank’s ability to fully examine a situation and choose the correct words to convey his thoughts is somewhat unnatural when viewed through a real-world lens, but also plausible considering that his political skills may have substantially sharpened his innate speaking skills.

Claire Underwood, shares many qualities with her husband, but also has some slight differences.  First, her ability to speak with purpose and intent is impeccable.  During one shot, she is seen speaking with one of her employees.  In an extremely direct and concise manner, she communicates that they need to cut staff salary in half by laying off many employees.  Claire recognizes the ramifications of her decision, but also states that she has planned all of this, which is also a trait that she shares with her husband; they both have the ability to carefully plan events and predict their outcomes.  In a smiliarly cutthroat manner, near the beginning of the show, Claire confronts her husband when she realizes that he is not being upfront with her about how business is going at Frank’s job.  She makes it clear that they work together as a team, and soon after, Claire and her husband begin to plan an elaborate plot in order to shift future events in their favor.  Claire’s cutthroat and direct method of leadership is effective and adds an additional dynamic to her character.  

The use of public and private discourse in House of Cards appears to be a key focus, set in place by the original writer.  Considering how heavily clever discourse influences the relationship between Frank and Zoe, future episodes may continue on the same trend.  Additionally, Claire’s ability to be a cutthroat leader may propel her through different situations in the future, as well.  The husband and wife combination of Frank and Carrie, and their combined ability to shift events through speech is certainly an aspect of the show that could stir the plot in future episodes.  

House of Cards II

For my second weekly blog post I decided to take another look at House of Cards. I was intrigued by the first episode that I watched last week and I decided it would be good to give the show another try and see if other episodes kept up the quality that I saw in the first show.  After reading about mise-en-scene in class and from the book I thought that since it's such an important part of House of Cards I would write about that this week.

House of Cards

The first original show to be fully produced by Netflix House of Cards set a precedent for Netflix originals. I had been meaning to watch House of Cards for quite a while, but each time was distracted by some other show appearing in my "Because you watched" sections of Netflix. When I finally decided to give the show I was given a drama full of political intrigue, betrayal, and scandal.