Start coughing today so you can call in sick on Friday, fans tweeted earlier this week. The new season of the political thriller House of Cards is quite the event, and for bingeviewers this will be some Valentine's Day. Even if on screen things are more loveless than ever.
Ilse van der Velden @cinema.nl
It all starts pretty normal but then your throat is slowly squeezed tight, followed by a firm slap in the face at three quarters (an OMG moment, as fans call it) and for dessert Francis Underwood, take note of his initials, gives you the finger. And that's just the first episode. It's gripping, it's daring, and it's very, very well done. In every episode of the 4 we watched beforehand, House of Cards 2 displays strong and daring dramatic choices. They don't fool around, people.
The openingscene sets the tone. A dark park, sirens, the sound of heli's and two people running - what 's happening? But then there's the close up that pulls the plug out of the accumulated tension: it's only Frank and Claire, on their morning run. Or is it? In their tight black gear they could easily be a pair of burglars. Or hitmen. Something's off here. It's over the top, like the clouds in a painting by Dutch surrealist Carel Willink are hyperrealistic, and have an alienating effect.
In every aspect the new season of this noir thriller is an intensified version of the first. It's all just a little more dramatic: the light, the outfits (severe, dark colours), the plot and Kevin Spacey's diction. He spits his d's like bullets. It's theatrical. The whole thing hovers slightly above reality, a deliberate choice that really works out well.
Alea iacta est. In the first season, Frank and Claire have shown us what they are capable of. Now, the struggle for power has accelerated and that's how we enter season two: at full force. There is more at stake, every decision counts and even the slightest failure can be fatal. But as we soon find out, the hunter is hunted, by his own past.
The language is striking. The dialogues are beautifully written and rhythmic - the comparison with Shakespeare must be made at some point and writer Beau Willimon admits he's an inspiration. A lot of the metaphors used refer to the animalistic: its about sharks, claws, blood, the battlefield. 'The road to power is paved with hypocrisy. And casualties', says Underwood. Claire, for her part, is a contemporary version of Lady Macbeth. To get what she wants for herself and Frank, she's prepared to cross boundaries. How far she will go? Over your dead body.
'All politicians are killers,' says Willimon in an interview with the The Telegraph about the theme of his hit show. House of Cards is 'a dramatisation of that thing in them which allows them to do the unspeakable.'
'Look at the war in Iraq,' says Willimon, who's grandfathers both fought in WWII and who's own father was a marine for 31 years. 'That was justified by an outdated and erronous piece of intelligence. With thousands of American soldiers dead and hundreds of thousands of people abroad dead, is that more or less heinous than what we see Francis Underwood do?' Good question. According to Willimon, there's nothing surreal about House of Cards: this, this scenario, is his truth. It's wartime. And in House of Cards, Washington is the battlefield.
House of Cards, Netflix, Febr 14th 2014
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten