A dark horse has showed up on this year’s Emmy nominations: the Netflix original series House of Cards, which garnered three nods (Kevin Spacey as outstanding lead in a drama, Robin Wright as outstanding lead actress in a drama, and outstanding drama series). The nominations have catapulted the series into the spotlight, but more than that, they’ve highlighted a growing trend in edgy, fantastic, original programming: you might just find it online.
Just a few years ago, we were saying that cable was finally taking television to places it hadn’t gone before—thanks to the innovation of shows like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos on HBO, cable was showing its chops and the flexibility of the genre. Without some of the restrictions networks had to deal with, cable could be racier, more adventurous, and more focused, with tight, creative programming over 13-15 episode seasons that kept readers panting for more instead of feeling strung along by full 23 episode network seasons.
And cable is still growing by leaps and bounds, but now sites like Hulu and Netflix are leaping into the mix, changing things up just a bit more. Hulu may have originally been designed as a catchup site, but it quickly turned into a great resource for international programming, and took on original series almost as rapidly. Netflix, meanwhile, expanded from its original rental model to a huge database of original programming, with both sites moving fast to attract viewers who wanted content they couldn’t find anywhere else.
That original programming might have started out with relatively low budgets and unknown stars, but that’s changing, as indicated by the presence of stars like Julia Stiles (Blue on Hulu) and, of course, Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood on House of Cards. Suddenly, if you want to know where the big-name talent is hiding, you could do worse than to scan through online-only original programming, because the chances are high that you’re going to find a few names you recognise.
What about House of Cards? Does it deserve those Emmy nods, or are they just a play to some big names and a show that’s gotten some buzz?
The answer is: most deservedly yes, it deserves those nominations. The show is dastardly, sexy, sharp, incisive, and utterly brilliant. Thanks to the setting (deep in the trenches of Washington politics), it’s been compared to The West Wing, and some are suggesting that it’s even better than Sorkin’s classic, which has come to be the standard to which all over political dramas are compared.
Unlike Sorkin’s depiction of Washington, a place in which fundamentally good people are trying to get something done and sometimes failing miserably, this is a story of a fundamentally fucked-up Washington. Revolving around Congressman Francis Underwood, this is a tale of manipulation, evil, murder, and endless scheming—more in the Scandal realm of political dramas, but with far more finesse. And, some might say, accuracy, at least for those of us with a cynical view of Washington.
All of the people in House of Cards are selfish and brilliantly evil, driven by their own agendas first and everything else second. Underwood in particular sits like the spider in a middle of a web, playing everyone and everything to get what he ultimately wants. He plays everyone around him like a fiddle, and is infuriated when people try to play him, taking his retaliation swiftly and mercilessly.
But this is not just a show about politics; it’s also one about human relationships and the complexity of partnerships. Francis and Claire (Wright) in particular have a fascinating marriage that may just be one of the most interesting partnerships on television, and it’s something that might only have been possible on Netflix, where creators have the freedom to take ‘marriage’ out of the box and play with it.
Their marriage isn’t simply one of political convenience, but it’s not the deep, devoted, loving marriage people might want to see. Both Francis and Claire approach it as a complex business partnership backed by years of working together, and while they clearly have feelings for each other, they also have an entirely open marriage.
‘Francis tells me everything,’ Claire informs Underwood’s lover Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) as she drifts through Zoe’s dumpy apartment, touching Zoe’s things and exerting her authority in a not-so-subtle reminder that if Zoe is the lover, Claire is the wife.
This is an open marriage in which both partners have sex outside the relationship for both personal and political reasons, and for once, it’s not depicted as cheating or a sign of a crumbling marriage, but simply something they have negotiated. This is revolutionary not just for television but for those living in polyamorous and open relationships, who so rarely get to see themselves depicted at all in pop culture, let alone positively—while neither of the Underwoods are particularly good people, House of Cards never implies that their marriage makes them bad or irresponsible people. Instead, it’s just a part of who they are and how they function together.
In a world where tawdry political affairs and congressmen sending pictures of their genitals to underage girls are front page news, House of Cards dares to defy the obvious and twist the idea of the affair on its head. In an open marriage where people are communicating, the stakes and nature of the relationship change—though of course Francis and Claire would experience possibly irreparable social damage if the specifics of their relationship became apparent to the public, which is something I strongly hope is explored in season two.
Zoe Barnes also plays a key role in the story, bringing the angle of the press corps and the young journalist eager for a story that could make (or break) her career into the narrative. As she sniffs closer and closer to the truth of a complex plot swirling around the people and places she has come to know well, she’ll face increasingly difficult and ugly decisions, and might put herself in deeper danger in the second season. We already know that Francis Underwood will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and that he has a talent for keeping his hands clean—does Zoe realise how far he’ll go, and precisely how vulnerable that leaves her?
Some describe House of Cards as a ‘hatewatch,’ noting that almost everyone on the show is utterly despicable, yet the programme is still riveting because it’s so good. Even as the characters behave in utterly depraved and horrific ways, there’s a strong urge to put on the next episode, to find out what happens. House of Cards mirrors the recent trend of taking the antihero to new heights, making the hero of the drama the most evil person in it—it follows in the footsteps of programmes like Hannibal and Dexter and it does so brilliantly and beautifully.
The result is a standout programme which could endure for years if the creators keep to these tight, elegant, brutal storylines that keep viewers gasping for the next chapter in the story. Move over, cable, your competition has arrived.