House of Cards (2013)

No American-made option this weekend can compare.

The two hours available for review are cinematically rich, full of sleek, oily pools of darkness. [11 Feb 2013]

Deeply cynical about human beings as well as politics and almost gleeful in its portrayal of limitless ambition, House of Cards is a wonderfully sour take on power and corruption.

A smart, astute political thriller/soap worthy of comparison to the shows that air on HBO and Showtime.

This is a fascinating experiment that feels like first-rate TV, and for subscribers old and (I'm betting quite a few) new, Cards is a great deal.

It's a heavyweight new contender in the drama category, just as Netflix now is as a content provider.

The series gets off to a strong start as a black satire of not only D.C. but how politicians and journalists can leech off one another.

It's a very promising start, at a minimum. The distribution model for House of Cards may be looking to reinvent how we watch TV, but the show itself feels very much of a piece with what we've been seeing for the last 10 or 15 years.

If the rest of the series is as good as the two episodes released early for review (the fact that Netflix made only the episodes directed by Fincher available is slightly worrisome), House of Cards will in all probability become the first nontelevised television show to receive an Emmy nomination, or four.... [However,] not everything in House of Cards lives up to the standard set by its leads; for all its cutting-edge delivery system, it is at times surprisingly pat.

Spacey clearly loves portraying the wonderfully manipulative Frank Underwood, while Wright does a very convincing take on Lady Macbeth.

It's beautifully filmed in and around Washington, D.C., it's well-acted, and it's cleverly written by Beau Willimon.

Too jaded to lament the backroom maneuvering of politicians, the creators of House of Cards instead take that state of affairs as a given, tart it up, and fashion a wry piece of escapism--a backstabbing procedural delivered in a sophisticated style.

House of Cards isn't wholly original. But it is supremely confident.

In the end, it's easy to overlook some of the credibility gaps because the writing is otherwise so fine, as are the direction and the performances.

I found the first two episodes handsome but sleazy, like a C.E.O. in a hotel bar. Yet by Episode 5 I was hypnotized by the show’s ensemble of two-faced sociopaths. Episode 8 was a thoughtful side trip into sympathy for Spacey’s devilish main character, but by then I was exhausted, and only my compulsive streak kept me going until the finale--at which point I was critically destabilized and looking forward to Season 2.

The first two installments of House of Cards are smartly acted and written, crisply directed by Fincher, and sumptuously photographed by Eigl Bryld (In Bruges), but they’re not mind-bogglingly great, or even particularly surprising or delightful--just solidly adult, with moments of dark wit.

House of Cards is a credible, premium-TV-worthy exercise.... That said, the Kevin Spacey vehicle isn't without some annoying tics, and feels a little late boarding the bandwagon of projects with Washington politics as a backdrop.

Fincher's unemotional style comes through in the first two episodes, and the show could use more heat. But Spacey makes it worth watching.

Above-average newcomer with a great actor in the leading role and frosty grace notes throughout.

One must be anesthetized for the series to have its desired effect of making us root for Underwood or at least feel suspense until each of his miniplots pans out to successful competition. Yet rapacious viewing will be numbing too, and not in a useful way.

Although no expense has been spared, House of Cards appears to suffer from the same ambitious but weighty seriousness that afflicted Starz's "Boss."

House of Cards is a strange mixture of freedom--Fincher and his cohorts clearly did what they wanted to do--and limitation: These powerful, venal characters and the well-tended hothouse they live in feel quite familiar (and not just because this is based on a UK miniseries of the same name).

It's a delicious immorality play with an excellent cast, but the tempo is slow and oddly ponderous--a romp slowed down to a dirge.