My Return to Netflix/House of Cards (spoilers)

First of all, I haven't had Netflix for a few years, and when I did, I just had the DVDs mailed to me; I couldn't (or perhaps just didn't) watch stuff on my computer. Even though my computer is kind of a piece of crap and sometimes freezes up, Instant Play is still an amazing thing to me. It keeps track of where you are in the series, or even in the episode, so if your computer *does* freeze up, it will take you back to where you left off when you come back again! Amazing! The whole computer-freezing-up-thing does make me want to get a tablet of some sort, though, or a TV made after the year 1990 that lets you watch Netflix right on it. As I learned when I got my first SmartPhone a few months back, technology kind of just makes you want more technology. Oh, well.

House of Cards was the first series I watched upon my return to Netflix; I watched all thirteen episodes over the course about six days. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1) Francis "Frank" Underwood is like the perfect role for Kevin Spacey, right? For most of my adult life, I have understood that Kevin Spacey is a good actor, yet I've felt vaguely like I hate him and have never quite been able to put into words why. I've talked with friends about this, and while not all of them have shared this view, I have found that he is a fairly polarizing actor. I know at least one person who loves him. I know another who has told me that she finds him scary-- not because of any one particular role, but just in general.  Somehow, watching this, every single one of those attitudes toward him-- vague hatred, love, fear-- made sense. In the first few episodes, I thought he was a badass; he did what he needed to do to get results, but hadn't done anything particularly reprehensible yet. Then he started sleeping with Kate Mara's character (Zoe Barnes), and I started thinking he was pretty skeevy. Then he full-on MURDERED PETE RUSSO (Corey Stoll), and my mind was blown with how evil this guy is. The scary thing is that he is an evil *genius*; though I don't believe that murdering Pete was part of his overall plan, Pete's demise (falling off the wagon and into disgrace) clearly was.  Which brings me to...

2) One thing I really love about this show is how you usually think you understand characters' motives, especially with Frank talking to the camera and cluing you in every once in awhile. Then you get more information, and you realize that they did things for a different reason than you initially thought.  Example: Pete had defied Frank in some sort of minor way around the time that Frank basically set him up to get drunk before his radio interview. At the time, I thought Frank was just being all, "Well, I can't keep him in line anymore, so screw him. I'll set him up to fail and get someone else to do his job." Then you find out that he was ALWAYS setting Pete up to fail, and in fact chose him to run for governor because he knew he COULD set him up to fail. Again: mind blown.

3) In case you can't tell, Pete was my favorite, and I am still pretty sad that he is dead.  Pete! With his bald head, and his kids, especially the daughter who didn't like to talk to him when his "voice sounded funny" because it "made [her] sad"! And he was trying so hard to be good, but he just couldn't beat that addiction, and he had Frank out there, you know, ACTIVELY PLOTTING HIS DEMISE! It seemed by the end of the season that he may have been in deeper than we were led to believe, but still: sad.

4) Kate Mara's character, Zoe, was another character who my opinion kept changing about throughout the season.  I initially was pretty disgusted by her sleeping with her source and all. By the end of the season, though, I was really rooting for her, Janine (Constance Zimmer), and Lucas (Sebastian Arcelus). The early part of the season made it seem like everything Zoe (and to some extent the other journalists) was doing was just to advance her own career, and I was pretty dismissive of her. By the end, though, it became clear that the journalists were the only ones who were even trying to get to the bottom of everything and had ANY HOPE of exposing Frank.  I'm guessing they won't be completely successful, but there's something to be said for at least trying to learn the truth and put it out there.  I also kind of found myself feeling for Zoe with regard to Frank. Sure, she shouldn't have been sleeping with a source, or with any married man, for that matter...but she had no way of knowing the extent of the evil she was getting involved in.  Damn.

Bottom line: I really enjoyed this, even though pretty much every character was at least a little bit shady.  I started feeling a little sad when I realized I had only a few episodes left.  Definitely enjoyed the experience of having a show that I could just watch an episode or two of when I had some spare time.  Looking forward to the second season.