House of Cards Review: Frank Underwood’s Insatiable Hunger For Power

In one of Frank Underwood’s many asides, delivered with great aplomb by Kevin Spacey, he breaks the fourth wall to say, “Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries.” Those two sentences capture the essence of the main character and great antihero of a dark, almost sinister political drama.

• • •

The Americans: FX’s Cold War Drama Delivers

If one thing is clear after two episodes of FX’s new 80s-era drama, the quality of scripted television has never been better. The Americans, created by CIA officer turned screenwriter, Joe Weisberg, is a cold war drama about covert Soviet KGB officers living as American citizens. The show stars Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings and Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings. They are a married couple with two children and living the American dream in 1981, they also happen to be Soviet KGB agents.

• • •

Netflix’s House of Cards, episode one – review

Netflix’s remake of House of Cards is stylistically and amorally faithful to the original BBC political thriller, with Kevin Spacey giving a strong central performance

• • •

Netflix’s Duplicitous Actions

Qwikster - A Netflix companyTwo months ago Netflix announced a new pricing strategy that was met with near universal derision. The result was a 60% price hike for customers who were using the most popular DVD and streaming package. Their reasoning for this change was vague at best and that’s because it was a cold and calculated business decision. But was this decision made in a vacuum, ignoring the customers that made Netflix a success?

• • •

Stargate Universe Didn’t Know Its Own Destiny

Today Syfy announced that Stargate Universe has been cancelled after only two seasons.  Low ratings and numerous new upcoming scripted programs in 2011 are the reasons given for the cancellation.  I can’t exactly say this is a shock as I have been paying attention to the ratings, and they haven’t been good.  Right now Stargate Universe is in the mid-season break and will return with the back half of season two (all 10 episodes) in Spring 2011.  For the record I’ve been a fan of the Stargate franchise since the movie but especially the first two series, Stargate SG-1, which ran for 10 seasons and Stargate Atlantis, which ran for 5 seasons.  It’s unfortunate that there will be no Stargate episodes beyond the final 10 of Stargate Universe for the forseeable future, quite possibly forever.  Plus, the prospects of getting any more direct-to-DVD movies for the Stargate franchise seem to be slipping away as well.  It was definitely a good run and there are always reruns and DVDs available to get us back into the world of Stargate.

• • •