Two Kinds of Pain

First Impressions

The first thing I did today, as any day, was check Twitter. I had no memory yet of what day it was, or if anything special was going to happen. Then I read the following tweet:

T-minus 3hrs 18 min til Netflix's House of Cards is live. Practise your fake cough, call in sick and enjoy the ride. 

- Beau Willimon

It was posted four hours before I got up, and I knew what I had to do that day. I got out of bed, turned on my laptop, ran my browser and quickly searched for 'House of Cards' in the already open Netflix tab. I sat down with a bowl of cereal and got comfortable. 

The first episode, creatively titled "Chapter 1", started of introducing the main character Francis Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey. No more than five minutes had gone by and I understood this character completely, I knew who he was, I knew what he wanted, I just had to figure out what he was going to do. Any show that manages to introduce its characters this well, this fast, is good in my book. I'm a strong believer of characters being the most important in any story, the plot itself is just a tool for the character to expose herself. But even though the character work was great, I can't say I was already a fan. I was on the fence about whether or not to bother continue watching, and contemplated going back to watching Star Wars: Droids, an animated series about C-3PO and R2-D2 from the mid-80s. A brisk comment from a friend advised me to continue watching, and so I did.

Episode two ("Chapter 2") is where the series really shows its guts. Francis starts exposing himself like a cat in heat, he proves that he really knows everything there is to know about how the capitol works, and more importantly, that he knows how to spin it his way. We get to more closely meet and understand the journalist Zoe Barnes and see how Francis is using her drive to be respected for his own political gain. There is never a doubt that Francis Underwood is an asshole, but he is an elegant asshole, and he will make you feel like the most important person in the world if he needs something from you. But if he needs you gone, you will be to your shoulders in reporters asking questions about the age of that prostitute in those pictures.

I have only watched the first two episodes so far, and the why is really simple, I don't want to "use up" this series right away. As it stands now it's set to be one of my favourites series of 2013, and I don't want it to be a one-night thing, I want it to last. I'll be back with a full report upon series completion.