House of Cartoons

Like many political geeks I've been watching the new series of Netflix's House of Cards with Kevin Spacey doing his best Caligula impression. We're about four episodes in (so just after he meets Lars Mikkelsen as not-Putin) and there's a mixture of things I like and don't like but nothing too different to previous series.

I've written previously about the first series and how I thought the British one worked better because we have a parliamentary system which is better suited for backroom backstabbing than a presidential system. There was also an element of class conflict with the patrician, grouse shooting Urquhart deposing the more working class, John-Major-like PM.

Anyway, the British House of Cards had a tendency to stay realistic and low-key until the final few episodes when people would get murdered. The way I learned to enjoy the Kevin Spacey series is by realising that it made the jump to high-camp early in season 2. Netflix House of Cards is a political drama that focuses on drama at the expense of politics.


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