As any other student, I suffer from procrastination. We all know the deadlines or projects are due soon, and yes it is always soon, but we keep doing everything but whatever we should. As a master student, assessments fill up my schedule, which means I spend a lot of time on my computer doing ‘research’. This particular research brought me to the American series House of Cards.
House of Cards stars Kevin Spacey (American Beauty & The Usual Suspects) as congressman Frank Underwood in his pursuit of power at Capitol Hill, Washington DC. It features corruption, homicide and sex.
It sounds like many other dull political series produced for the supposedly politically interested audience; however, House of Cards captivates the audience on another level. It is not about politics, of course the premise is American politics, but ultimately the series is about power and how to use it.
Frank and his wife Claire, Robin Wright (Forest Gump), spare no means in their quest for political influence. Frank comes across as extremely calculated and ice cold when it comes to almost everything in life. Spacey’s controlled voice and persona is extremely manipulative and in many respects arrogant in his conversations with his peers. Furthermore, there are montages in every episode where Frank speaks directly to the camera, which sounds unusual and perhaps a bit intrusive, however, after a few episodes these montages quickly become favourites. These scenes give the audience the rare opportunity to understand how Frank actually considers and calculates his options and decisions.
Although Claire does keep an elegant and gracious façade as a beautiful career woman, she appears just as cold and ruthless as her husband. Despite her inhuman behaviour she shows a very few times that her almost cruel decisions touches her.
(Spoiler alert)
The marriage between Claire and Frank appears as calculated as their respective characters. Their relationship and its development will keep you wanting more even if you don’t find politics illuminating. They are both having affairs, and they are both aware of the other’s sexual encounters. If that is not unusual enough, their intimacy is never portrayed, although their affairs are heavily covered. This questions whether their marriage is based purely on reason and not on passion? That Frank is at least bisexual is insinuated several times during the two released series. Besides sharing loving memories with an old school mate and having a threesome with his wife and their bodyguard, Frank states the amazing statement after having sex with Miss Barnes, Kate Mara, that Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power. Read into it what you want. (Spoiler ends)
As an audience, we never question the couple’s power to manipulate the people around them, and that might be why they are so interesting. How can Claire sack almost her entire staff she has worked with for many years without showing any emotions? How can Frank stand up to the President and go against his direct orders without showing any sign of insecurity? And how can a marriage possibly based purely on reason and not passion function in a world where emotions don’t exist?
Together they make many sacrifices to rise in power, but they never reconsider or look back. They are as a couple so focused and determined to reach the ultimate goal that their Machiavellian perspective leaves no time to be human.
They are fascinatingly not like ‘us’, but somewhere inside us, we want to be like them. It is this fascination with a mysterious political society hidden behind closed doors where very few powerful people are making world-changing decisions that makes this brilliant series so addictive.
House of Cards have been nominated for several prestigious awards, including Golden Globe’s Best Television Series (Drama), Best Actor, Best Actress (Winner, Robin Wright) and Emmy’s Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Actress.
It is possible to watch House of Cards series 1 and 2 on Netflix.