The "did you know this streams on Netflix?" thread

[SteelBlue]

I made the mistake of watching episode 1 of House of Cards, which turned into E2, E3 and E4. What a great show. Even though I don't always like the characters, I find them so interesting. I like his wife Claire, and the young journalist, and her editor at the Herald, and the bright young girl from Stanford who Claire woos into working for her Clean Water NGO. I like Russo, even though I constantly wonder how the heck he got elected since he acts like an overgrown frat boy. I loved the peachoid episode.

I finished the SERIES on Sunday night after starting it on Friday. Majority of viewing was between the hours of 9pm and 2am.

Apparently, I'm not alone in my binging though. Netflix isn't releasing viewing numbers (though I suspect they will eventually if they get the right numbers), but a few isp's have and the show has been popular.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-cards/168044/

Procera Networks, which monitors web traffic for several major ISPs, reports that the majority of House of Cards viewers watched more than one episode of the show. One one broadband network, a full 2 percent of Netflix subscribers watched episode 1, while 1.3% watched episode two. Interestingly, episodes 10-12 (0.53%, 0.48% and 0.52%) were watched by a smaller percentage of subscribers than episode 13 (0.59%).

Obviously, Procera only has information on a sampling of Netflix subscribers (and it may be a less representative sample than Nielsen uses for television ratings), but this does provide some information about the series. Draw your own conclusion about whether or not it was good idea for Netflix to release the entire season at once.

[Surfah]

I finished the SERIES on Sunday night after starting it on Friday. Majority of viewing was between the hours of 9pm and 2am.

Apparently, I'm not alone in my binging though. Netflix isn't releasing viewing numbers (though I suspect they will eventually if they get the right numbers), but a few isp's have and the show has been popular.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-cards/168044/

I'll finish it as soon as we finish Downton Abbey 3 which we just got on DVD. Beats waiting a few more weeks.

[falafel]

I wasn't able to start it until last night, and even then I started it too late to get in more than the premiere. The speaking to the camera didn't bother me because Spacey and his southern lilt really pull it off. I can't wait to dive in tonight.

[SteelBlue]

Really wondering what Apple paid for product placement in this series.

Tried to find info on this but can't find much. This was interesting though:

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/02/05/...ouse-of-cards/

[Katy Lied]

I also like the little talky balloons that spell out what texts are being received.

[falafel]

I also like the little talky balloons that spell out what texts are being received.

I like that too. They do that in Sherlock, don't they?

[SteelBlue]

I like that too. They do that in Sherlock, don't they?

They do. I got used to the asides by episode 3. Can't say I ever liked them, but they no longer botherd me.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I finished the 13th episode of HoC a little while ago and I was bummed at what I thought was the ending. But it turns out there are 13 more episodes waiting in the can for future release. There have been moments of incredible discomfort (no spoilers, I trust, to simply mention the CNN debate, Claire's second hospital visit, Zoe's Father's Day phone call to her dad, Frank closing the garage door, etc.), but all of them very well done. I'm bothered by the extent of the cynicism, but the show is very entertaining.

[falafel]

I finished the 13th episode of HoC a little while ago and I was bummed at what I thought was the ending. But it turns out there are 13 more episodes waiting in the can for future release. There have been moments of incredible discomfort (no spoilers, I trust, to simply mention the CNN debate, Claire's second hospital visit, Zoe's Father's Day phone call to her dad, Frank closing the garage door, etc.), but all of them very well done. I'm bothered by the extent of the cynicism, but the show is very entertaining.

I finished last night. Episode 13 was a little anticlimactic, but I guess if you view the series as one long movie (which still isn't over), then it wasn't that bad.

Some small gripes:

Spoiler for season gripes:

1. Seemed a little early for Zoey to turn on Frank. She must have suspected earlier that he was up to no good and that he was using her to manipulate situations.

2. I know Frank is a master manipulator, but the whole VP machinations seemed a little over the top. E.g., why did they need to pass the watershed act if the whole point was to get Russo to crash and burn, causing Matthews to resign as VP and run for governor? The watershed act didn't seem to have an independent significance.

3. If Claire and Frank are such a strong and devoted team (such that they don't mind infidelity as long as it gets them something in return), then it seemed contrived that Claire would jeopardize the whole plan to get Frank the VP by torpedoing the watershed act via Remy and SanCorp.

Other than those few things, it was a very good first season. I wonder how long they will wait to release season 2.

[LiveCoug]

Help me decide what TV series to watch next on Amazon Prime:

Doctor Who
Prison Break
Sons of Anarchy
Falling Skies

[ERCougar]

Help me decide what TV series to watch next on Amazon Prime:

Doctor Who
Prison Break
Sons of Anarchy
Falling Skies

the first few seasons of prison break were great. after that, I lost interest quickly.

[FN Phat]

Help me decide what TV series to watch next on Amazon Prime:

Doctor Who
Prison Break
Sons of Anarchy
Falling Skies

My vote would be for SOA

[YOhio]

I just finished bing-watching HOC as well. Some thoughts.

Spoiler for Thoughts:

The most interesting parts of the series for me have been the real life parallels. Some of them are obvious, like Slugwire as Buzzfeed or the Speaker looking like John Boehner's twin brother or Raymond Tusk as Warren Buffet. With Frank you can see a lot of Tom Delay. The ruthless whip who demands acquiescence over ideology and sinister enough to orchestrate a coup against his own leader. Franks' relationship with his wife is straight out of the Clinton playbook, but is also similar to Tom Daschle when his wife was a lobbyist for the aerospace industry while he was majority leader. Frank's patronage at the out of way rib joint is similar to John Boehner's daily routine of breakfast at a nondescript diner in the Eastern Market. They also threw in the homosexuality angle with his old Sentinel (Citadel) buddy, almost like a shoutout to Larry Craig who was also childless.

One of the more interesting characters was Doug Stamper. Every politician who has had long-term success has to have that loyal staffer or inner circle that does the real dirty work. Take a look at someone like Michelle Bachman. She shot up like a meteor, but fell just as fast as she killed herself with rookie mistakes and erratic behavior. Most of the in-depth profiles on her focused on the relatively low retention rate she had with her staffs, both congressional and campaign. The sunlight foundation recently did a study on staff turnover and she was ranked fifth worst out of the entire house. If the politicians can't engender loyalty amongst their staffs, then they won't find it in their colleagues or constituents. Frank clearly has it with Doug and couldn't pull off his stunts without it. Now Doug goes well beyond what would be expected of a normal staffer; paying off police, housing a prostitute, etc. This is what makes him the more interesting character to watch going into the next round. Will he stay loyal or go the route of Ezra Stone in Boss and quietly turn coat? At some point he's going to have doubts, if he hasn't already. You could see the seeds being planted in his discussion with Russo about God. It's also kind of interesting to see how they show both him and Frank doing work at their respective restaurants. Frank is reluctant to invite anyone to Freddy's, yet two of his most important meetings happened there. Yet Doug seems to do most of his business at the same table in his favorite greasy spoon.

I wasn't a fan of the Zoe character. Sure she's integral to the story, but was unlikable throughout. There really wasn't much redeeming about her. She wasn't a 'heart of gold' prostitute, 'in over his head' drug-addicted Congressman or hapless Washington Times editor. And that part where she wore Claire Underwoods silver dress? That was weird. She turned quick on Frank. It will be interesting to see if she gets a change of heart when she's so close to drawing blood.

Pete Russo was an amalgam of Patrick Kennedy, Anthony Weiner, Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and any other troubled or plucked before they're ripe politician. The biggest problem I had with his character is that not at any point did they show what got him to where he was. Of course we know how he became an addict. He came from a crappy home and from a poor Philly neighborhood. But how did he get from there to Congress? It certainly wasn't his personality or dynamism. Even when he was stumping for Governor he came off as flat and lunkheaded. They would have done well to show him with some semblance of political talent. That said, I found myself hoping for him to turn it around for the sake of those little kids. The last conversation he had with his daughter was the saddest part of the entire episode. I was a fan of his girlfriend. She seemed like the only character who was well-adjusted, smart and honest. Though the conversation with Russo's shipyard buddy did seem like they were starting her down the path of ruthless Washington manipulator.

I was disappointed they went down the murder route. It always gets a little less interesting when they veer so far off course. I'm sure it's happened a time or two, but highly unlikely that it was the power figure himself shutting the garage door and scrubbing the fingerprints. Especially in a town with a security camera every few feet. It's also unlikely that any of Underwoods' nefarious activity escaped the Presidents' vetting process. Which brings up another point. Why did Linda Vasquez so quickly get on Frank's side and so blatantly manipulate her boss? It didn't make sense. Sure it was nice that he got her kid into school (like the POTUS Chief of Staff couldn't have taken care of that herself? That her kid was denied entrance to Stanford was probably the least believable part of the whole movie. But wait, poster child graduate did it! ), but she was pretty reckless in leaking the schedule. A couple more moves like that and she's out of a job.

Anyways, fun series to watch. I'm looking forward to the next round.

[thesaint258]

Help me decide what TV series to watch next on Amazon Prime:

Doctor Who
Prison Break
Sons of Anarchy
Falling Skies

I'm a nerd, so my vote is Doctor Who.

[Tim]

We finished House of Cards a couple nights ago. Fantastic! Anyone know if a second season is planned?