Carded

By now we’re all accustomed to binge watching. Netflix has been offering Video on Demand and streaming services since 2007, so we’ve had eight years in which our understanding of viewing our favourite programs has moved away from the format of enjoying one episode a week. It makes sense that an audience would want to follow the full story at their leisure. Chapter by chapter serials have largely fallen out of favour, with readers more commonly preferring to read full novels. In the gaming community, attempts by studios to release games in smaller chunks have been met with criticism, such as with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros.

Naturally, the change in format affects how we experience the product. Stephen King’s serial novel The Green Mile reads differently than his stand alone novels, such as Misery. In much the same way, weekly television shows have to hold our attention longer than Netflix’s House of Cards. If an episodic show isn’t exciting for just one week it can dampen the viewers interest. Maybe the viewer even forgets to tune in the following week. By releasing all of the episodes at once, Netflix bypasses that problem. There is less pressure on House of Cards to provide quality content episode to episode. It’s episodes only have to keep you invested for ten seconds rather than one week.

That’s not to say that House of Cards episodes could be complete rubbish and people would still watch. Some people might but most would just stream something else. But the hook only has to be immediately interesting, not something that it going to keep coming to mind several days later. The death of Zoey Barnes in season two is a prime example of a hook that made me desperate to watch the next episode. It was powerful, unexpected and game-changing. It’s not just the death of a major character, because that’s often superficial and nothing more than shock value, but this displayed that House of Cards wasn’t afraid to upset the status quo.

Maintaining power is harder than taking it.

And that’s where House of Cards’ third season misses the boat. I wasn’t excited to watch another episode until perhaps episode three after the negotiations between Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood and the Russian President. Those first two episodes are good, better than some of the series’ you’ll see on basic television, but the show is going through the motions. The first episode in particular is all about moving set pieces into place and preparing for the season ahead. But I was able to watch the first episode and say, ‘ok cool’ then go away and do something more important and come back and watch the second episode when I had time. Usually, if I’m invested in a show and there are more episodes available, I’ll be calculating in my mind when I’ll have time to watch it and looking forward to it.

Another character death would not solve the problem, don’t get me wrong. There doesn’t need to be another huge upheaval of the status quo because Frank’s move to the White House is pretty big as far as changes go. But it all seems a little predictable. He’s the President that no one voted for, so of course he’s unpopular with the American people. The opposition will use this to their own advantage to win the next election, as you would expect. Even his own party want a new face, because they didn’t want him in office and they want to stand a chance against the republicans at the next election. The conflict with Russia is the first plot point that wasn’t readily apparent before the new season began.

Thanks to the format, Netflix can get away with a lacklustre few episodes for House of Cards but I don’t believe they should accept that. They should want every episode to be the best the audience has ever seen, that every episode should be trending and talked about on twitter. Consider the Breaking Bad episode, ‘Fly’. Reactions to the that episode are divided, with some calling it slow and filler, while others consider it artful and emotional. But those first episodes of House of Cards aren’t going to split opinions. Viewers might agree that the episodes are good but no one is going to label them great.

The obsessive compulsive’s guide to alcoholism.

What is it that keeps them from greatness? Robin Wright is fantastic in the role of Claire Underwood, but her attempt to be appointed to the U.N. is just dull. It’s all politics and while it’s fun to watch Frank bully and outmaneuver his opponents, much of Claire’s story requires her to answer questions, make calls and try not to step on any toes. Molly Parker comes across as tepid in the role of Jackie Sharp. I liked her in season two and while I feel that her story in season three will be significant, I’m really struggling to care about the character. While the losses of Peter Russo and Zoey Barnes were integral to the story, they brought a level of charisma and the underdog effect that is largely missing from this third season. It’s similar to the effect of losing Jimmy Darmody had on Boardwalk Empire.

Perhaps the more puzzling change is the character of Frank Underwood. We expect our leaders to be relatable and to represent the needs of the people because he understands his people. It was compelling to see Frank become President specifically because he cares only about his own power and because he is the most inhuman person on the show. He’s had his moments in prior seasons but he’s never seemed more vulnerable than in the opening episodes of season three. I don’t expect him to be a mustache twirling villain but crying is so uncharacteristic of Frank Underwood that its actually jarring to watch.

This is a solid entry into the House of Cards series. A lack of new, engaging characters for the audience to root for hurts the overall appeal, as does a lack of episode to episode quality. The sum of the parts is highly enjoyable though and Kevin Spacey once again owns the role. And now that Bryan Cranston has moved on from Breaking Bad, perhaps Spacey is finally in with a shot at the Emmy.

Changes

Following the death of Jimmy Darmody, it feels as though Boardwalk Empire has lost one of its best written characters and the central source of conflict for Nucky Thompson. Jimmy acknowledged this in sorts himself when he said to Nucky ‘I knew it had to end like this’. With that loss, we sat at the cusp of something new. The question on everyone’s mind entering into season three was ‘what comes next?’ The first episode opened on a New Year’s Eve party; the perfect representation of this anticipation of change.

 
Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly eventful premiere and since then it feels like the show has done little to capitalise on any great conflict. In essence, a few people have died and Nucky has thrown a few parties. That’s not to say the season hasn’t been good so far. The quality of Boardwalk Empire has never truly waned. Instead, the series feels adrift. In seasons past, where if felt as though the show was building towards Jimmy’s rise to power and Margret’s slow realisation that Enoch Thompson was not the great man he seemed, the show had something to drive toward. Without Jimmy, the show lacks a sense of direction.

 
Of course, the show was never about Jimmy. The show is and always will be about Enoch Thompson. Though the title of Boardwalk Empire may refer to Atlantic City, there is little doubt in the minds of many that this is not the story of a city. It is the story of a man. The series will follow that man from strength to strength, even if it does enjoy the odd excursion into the affairs of Al Capone. I don’t believe that HBO is ready to let this gem slip away and Steve Buscemi has said nothing about moving on from the show yet, so we can relatively assured that Nucky won’t be dying this season.

He REALLY doesn’t like being left out.

Will someone try to kill him? Probably. Will martial issues threaten his professional career? Almost certainty. Will he be ejected from office? More than likely. But we can already guess that even if any of this happens Nucky will find a way to survive as he always has. When Nucky has been down and counted out he’s always found a way to get back into the ring, either by making new friends such as Owen Slater and Manny Horvitz, or calling in favours with old friends. Even when there was an entire council of men plotting against him and obstructing his ability to import alcohol, he still found a way to come back to power.

 
However, without that central character of antagonism, the show feels empty. This season has already introduced a number of enemies for Nucky, his affair was recently exposed to Margret and we’ve seen a number of near death situations for Nucky. Nearly one per episode it seems. The prohibition agents have also come under scrutiny to perform to a higher standard as there have been questions of corruption within the system. It’s much the same as seasons past really, so why does it feel emptier than usual? Is it because Jimmy’s character felt like an opportunist who would seize power from Nucky while he was distracted by politics, relationships and playing gangster? I would argue yes.

 
This is what Jimmy means when he says ‘I knew it had to end like this’, which I mentioned above. The same reasons that made Jimmy such a compelling villain is the exact reasons that he had to die. Nucky couldn’t trust him. Not at all. Yet, the attempts to replace Jimmy have been poor. The most significant threat is Gyp Rossetti, played by Bobby Carnavale; a Sicilian gangster with a short fuse. The character is first introduced to the audience when we see him beat an innocent man with a crowbar for an offhand remark. Our first introduction to this man is one is brutal violence.

Apparently thought she was the first one Nucky ever cheated with. Oops.

Fast forward to last week’s episode and Rossetti is shown engaging in perverted sex games with prostitutes. No one can say that the writers aren’t trying their hardest to portray the character as deeply disturbed. He is also shown as more calculated than he seems by interrupting the lines of distribution and arranging an ambush with the sheriff in Tabour Heights. However, it takes until the fifth episode for anyone to do anything about it. There’s an underlying theme that Nucky is too distracted by his affair to be the gangster he needs to be in this situation. That said, Owen Slater, a man with Irish paramilitary experience was left in charge. And the viewer is meant to accept that he can’t organise a ramble of men with guns to take him out? And it’s not like they know a skilled sniper who could probably take care of Rossetti without ever meeting the man face to face. Instead, Arnold Rothstein sends a kid to do the job.

 
Speaking of the skilled sniper, it feels as though the series dropped the ball on introducing Richard Harrow as the next big conflict. He has spent much of this season on the sidelines, until the last moments of the first episode where he shoots Manny Horvitz in the face and in the fourth episode he brings Mickey Doyle to retribution for lying about being involved in Manny’s death. Harrow is a fairly meek character, even if he is deadly accurate with a rifle. Even in season two he never appeared to kill anyone unless Jimmy had specifically ordered it. And I think that would have been an interesting avenue to pursue, whether Harrow was avenging Jimmy’s death or had simply been encouraged by their friendship to make something more of his life. I’m disappointed that strand seemed to be cut off so quickly.

 
It could simply be that I haven’t quite gotten over Jimmy’s death yet. However, I am interested to see where this season will go. Nucky can’t pretend to be a gangster without incurring the wrath of some real gangsters. It might simply be that their involvement will be the climax of another two season arc and Rossetti is only just the beginning of a bigger conflict. I certainly hope so anyway, as I’m certainly not convinced by his character or the antagonism that he represents. Perhaps episode six can persuade me. I’m doubtful, although even if it can’t, the synopsis says that Owen and Margret spend some more time alone. Don’t be surprised if she plays a little tit for tat by taking Owen Slater to bed again.