Jane: We learn from the show’s opening scene that Frank has some damning animal impulses, but they’re paired with human incentives. In return, Claire gets some fundraising help from Frank, and Zoe gets a late-night visit at her apartment (insert House Whip joke here). Interestingly, for being so ambitious, Claire and Zoe both let Frank bully them into giving up something in this episode: Claire gives up the donation offered by Remy, and Zoe makes herself “available” to Frank by turning down the White House correspondent position (and getting fired from the paper). If we see Zoe and Claire as unbelievable female characters in their otherwise cold stoicness, we should remember that culture is filled with near-impossible superhero men, so why not spread the power around?Ĭarrie: Which reminds me of this great line from Willa Paskin, which you pointed out to me: “Zoe is so unencumbered by anxiety and fear and so flush with ambition that the least plausible thing about her - and she is not at all plausible - is that she would have pursued a career in print journalism.” Like Zoe, there’s a humanness to Claire, lying just below that glacial exterior. Even when she pulls ruthless business moves (like firing the aging cardigan), we see her grapple with the emotional consequences (like look woefully at an older barista struggle with the till). That enigmatic quality about Claire you mentioned during the first episodes begins to pay off in the later ones, as her own narrative presence grows. Unlike Eizabeth Urquhart, Claire Underwood not only gets much more screen time, but she actually gets something her husband rarely does in both versions: time spent on her interiority. Jane: I’ve heard many people praise the BBC version above David Fincher’s (a common complaint: Fincher takes himself too seriously), but seeing as the American “House of Cards” expanded the wife’s role, as well as managed to get Robin Wright to portray it, it’s hard for me to watch the original now and not feel the lack.
#Slugline house of cards tv
So we see it with the office manager’s being fired at 59 and with Janine Skorsky, the 40-something reporter, watching Zoe do her first TV interview Zoe’s being offered a job as White House correspondent that “would have been exciting when I was in 9th grade” and Claire’s push to move her charity forward. This show is interested in posterity and what lasts, and the natural corollary there is obsolescence and what doesn’t. One of the saddest exits by a cardigan I’ve seen in a long time. Her office manager pleads with her she cuts her off and then lets her go, too, and the manager departs in tears. I admit, I don’t care about Claire’s charity (it seems to involve a lot of file folders) but I appreciated the ambiguity that hangs over her “niceness” when she was ordering the layoffs. All of this happens before it’s yet been established whether she’s a “nice woman,” that is, a sympathetic one. Although in the first few episodes she’s very enigmatic - she jogs (a lot!) she lays off half her staff she casts rueful glances at older Starbucks cashiers she insists her husband use a rowing machine.
#Slugline house of cards series
I believe it’s the fridge’s job to swerve out of mine.”Ĭarrie: Let’s talk about Claire! You’ve mentioned that in the original British version of the series the wife doesn’t play a large part in the US version, though, she’s a major force, and her importance as Frank’s partner is quickly established. You usually text.”īest Frankism runner-up: “You see, Freddy believes that if a fridge falls off a minivan, you better swerve out of its way. Worst come-on runner-up: “Then you know hurt you, and after they hurt you, they discard you.”īest Frankism: “Well, this is a surprise.
Worst come-on: “Do your parents know you live like this?” And in honor of all the sex in these episodes (both fun and terribly, handjobbily dejected), we’ll pick best come-on lines for each episode. Because there’s so much ground to cover, let’s take it episode by episode.
#Slugline house of cards free
If Netflix was looking for commitment, they certainly got it from us.Ĭarrie: As with the discussion of episodes 1–3, spoilers will run free for any plot developments through the end of episode 8 but no further.
We’ve passed binge-viewing, Carrie, to re-watching, to you using “House of Cards” characters as verbs (“how much will I Peter Russo myself in the morning if I do this?”), to me looking up which of the series’ actors originated in Broadway (hi, Seb Arcelus). Jane: Now it’s a week later, Spandau Ballet’s “True” is playing in this cafe, and if we were sitting together, I’d probably be telling you not to Bogart the whiskey. “House of Cards,” Episodes 4–8: Who’s Making Themselves Available?Ĭarrie: Jane, remember when the world was new, you were dewy-eyed and I was not yet so haggard, and “House of Cards” had only just become available for streaming on Netflix? It seems like years ago, but it was only last Friday.
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