House of Cards - Netflix Original

I remember the British series. I don't see how any American can pull off what Ian Richardson did. Just not possible.

I was going to start a thread a few weeks back -- this show is totally in my wheelhouse -- but held back for the simple reason that, since this show is going to be available indefinitely from Netflix, I don't know when I'll be watching it. (maybe the next time I get the flu) And I consider it bad form when the thread starter abdicates his duties. I don't wanna' be that guy.

Hope it does as well as "Lilyhammer", it's good to see some shows that don't come from the networks.

I had the afternoon off yesterday, fired up Netflix and couldn't find it in the new releases or anywhere else. Even did a search, but stopped after typing in "House of" and only getting the BBC version in the results. Watched the first episode of the BBC one and liked it. We went to the movies (Warm Bodies--liked it a lot) and when we got home I tried again for House of Cards (US). Finally got it to come up after doing a search typing in Kevin Spacey! Liked the first ep.

I have to wonder why this show was so hard to find.

Last night the show was prominently displayed at the top of my PS3 Q when I logged in .. it seems to be displayed big time on my PC Q as well .. and I think everyone that is a subscriber got an email ..

Watched the first 2 last night .. good set up job for the series .. Spacey is in good form .. I thought the first scene with the pet was a great intro on what the show is all about ..

Great Series. Love the way Netflix is treating this. Spacey is on his best game as a ruthless @@$.
The 4th wall moments work for me, but I can see how some don't like it.

Two nights ago I couldn't even see "Recently Watched" on my Sony BD player app. It is usually there and I wanted to finish a movie. Wonder what that was about? Anyway I had to search on "House" to find this series last night and watched the first episode. Should mention that David Fincher directed the first episode.

He directs the first 2. From what I see, they all have a consistent look.

Partial IMDB director list

James Foley (3 episodes)
David Fincher (2 episodes)
Carl Franklin (2 episodes)
Joel Schumacher (2 episodes)
Edited by thedeskE - 2/2/13 at 4:47pm

Just watched first ep. couple hours ago. Will watch one every day or two. Like others reported - had to manually type in name of program to find it on our Sony Player. Had several streaming breakups for the first time ever.

As of last night, I'm up to episode 5 .. it's a great show and just keeps building

The color pallet seems muted somewhat .. not a lot of pop to it, I'd guess intentional .. at 110" the PQ is acceptable .. at 65" it's much better .. no surprise there ..

Spacey is excellent as a manipulative, no morals, killer instinct political snake that loves great ribs ..

NF has hit a home run, IMO

My son and I watched the first three episodes yesterday before I was forced (by the wife) to do my weekend errands and chores. He continued on and watched up to episode eight. We both feel that Netflix has a winner here. Add another series or two like this and I can see the incumbents getting worried. With Netflix producing more quality series, they could raise rates without too many complaints. Hell, people pay $16 for Cinemax and Netflix is a hell of lot better than that.

Started it on Thursday ,and finished the last 2 this morning. This is best series I've seen in a while.I can not wait until the next season.

I think the palette is intentional, sort of a popular "Fujifilm" look that has been around a while. The series is shot on Red cameras but the effect added.

Interestingly I've seen more compression artifacts then on any other HD streaming from Netflix before. I have more then enough bandwidth, so I know it's them. Great show though.

Yes, I'd agree with that .. I'm not complaining .. Walking Dead has the same tonality to it .. bright color would likely not suit anyway ..

I've noticed the same .. wondered if it was number of users watching at the same time due to the newness of the series ..

I'm up to Episode 9 as of last night .. not a throw away in the bunch so far .. I'm thinking this will get NF some new subscribers once the word gets out ..

There have been a few inconsistencies and head scratching moments, but it's a great show ..
Edited by mgkdragn - 2/4/13 at 8:08am

I'm sure this is multicast, so basically virtual streams. The only way individual users would get affected is if, everybody on your cable node or DSLAM all started watching it at the approx same time.

Up to episode 6 & this is wonderful. Love the vibe of this series & as mentioned up-thread, Kevin Spacey is sooo wonderful when he's bad.

Some banding, especially at the very end of the opening credits. DD is not put to good use, but not really expected in a political thriller. I would like it if there was some kind of way to isolate the soundtrack as I kinda like it.

I hope we don't have to wait a year for the second season.

Spacey's performance in this reminds me of his excellent work in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil--highly recommended.

I have not seen any artifacts and the stream speed on the Sony BD player says around 9-10 mbps.

I've seen some minor artifacts, but the blocky gradiation on a large expanse of blank wall at times was very noticable ..

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/04/editorial-house-of-cards-product-placement/

Funny, this ding dong is hot and bothered about Apple props. Fincher produced, so duh!
Thing is, it hit me as more of a money to burn type prop. As in, long term congressmen are rich and here
are the toys to prove it. We see a house in a very exclusive neighborhood, big time clothes, drivers &
security guards. Those cost way more than a few iPhones. Speaking of, the messaging pop outs
would have bugged me in another series. Here, it didn't bother me for some reason. Typically I hate
this type of trick. It's almost 4th wall, but then we have Mr. Spacey giving us a glance or a wink in a few scenes.
We see the mssg and the actor reacting in the same frame instead of the typical camera shot on the
device. Is this new?

Finished it off last night ... Bravo Bravo Bravo .. great to the end .. Francis (Frank) is just one of those characters you love to hate but cannot get enough of .. and just when you thought he'd sunk to a new low, he gets even lower ..

Bring on Season 2 ..

I'm up to episode 5 so far, and am loving the series. As I mentioned elsewhere, one of the downsides is not being able to discuss it online due to spoilers! I'm glad this thread was spoiler-free, I read it cautiously.

HoC is pure gold with great writing and acting. However, I do wonder about Netflix decision to release every episode all at once. While I do enjoy the option to watch it at my pace, I'm wondering if the show would be better served by one episode per week...to allow for word of mouth & buzz to build some momentum.

I fear it's going to blow by in an instant and not get the recognition it deserves.

I finished episode 2 and love it.

When Frank booted up his PS3 and made a comment on one of the episodes about the VITA .. I wondered if Sony kicked in some cash for that placement ..