House of Cards 2 It's wartime and Underwood is in to win 

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

About viewers control


@IlseCinemanl

Three months later, Kevin Spaceys passionate MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival still resonates.

We need to nurture talent, and execs should put more trust in their writers.

While there's lots of good stuff on screen nowadays in the Golden Age etcetera, there's still a lot of mediocrity, too. Way too much, as we learn from an evening of zapping through a whole squadron of police-, courtroom and hospitalseries: ordinary genrework, predictable and boring.  It lulls you into a sullen state of braindeadness. There's no fantasy there, no visual firework.

Viewers want quality. 'Just good is not good enough,' Spacey said.  'Nobody knew he wanted an iPhone and an iPad, until Apple put them in our hands. We need to be as innovative as Steve Jobs. We must surprise the viewer, push boundaries and offer them new things. The  Lena Dunhams of our world - that’s what it's about,' said the actor and artistic director of London's The Old Vic theater, where he runs a talent class. 'If we do not bring in young talent, soon we’ll loose them forever in these times of do-it-yourself and YouTube channels.'

But there is more at stake. 'Culture is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Storytelling helps us to understand each other and the issues of our time.’ Hear, hear.

Drama production is no longer tied to a single platform. Spacey:  'The success of Netflix proves that the viewer wants control and freedom.' During the Q&A he added, that if everything is available immediately and everywhere at a reasonable price, viewers do not have to steal. 'This new model takes a big bite out of piracy.' Good point, not yet made often enough.  Keeping up the old one episode per week rhythm is the Neanderthaler of tv: on it's way to a sure extinction.

Same goes for the business of pilotmaking. Old school, boys.
Spacey, writer Beau Willimon and director David Fincher took their idea for their series House of Cards, about a perverted, opportunist American politician, to all major U.S. channels. However, all wanted to see a pilot first. They refused.  'Not out of arrogance, but because we wanted to tell a story with complex characters and relationships that develop over time.' Spacey criticized the pilot system, forcing writers to establish all the characters and arbitrary cliffhangers in 45 minutes to prove that your work will be successful. 'Last year, 113 pilots were made. 35 were selected, 13 renewed for a second season, but there are now very few left. The cost is between 300 and 400 million dollars. That makes our House of Cards deal of 100 million look really cost effective. '

So when the talent is dicovered, the idea is born and the series is in the air - then what? Then stations must be patient. 'Breaking Bad had a slow start in terms of viewer rates. The Sopranos took nearly four seasons to peak, and Seinfeld even 5 years.' It's like in the Coldplay song Politik: 'Give me time and give me space'. It's worth it, boss.

Netflix?! Amazon!  

This week online retailer Amazon premiers its first original series: Alpha House 

And boy, do we look forward to it, after seeing both the trailer and the already legendary scene nicknamed the Bill Murray fuck me-bomb. To make a big splash, like Netflix Amazon grabs viewers attention with some honorable names in crew & cast: John Goodman, and Bill Murray notably.

Alpha House is about a lazy Republican senator from South Carolina (Goodman), who loves politics but hates campaigning. He is as tried and tested in the political game as Kevin Spacey 's Francis Underwood, but being the tragicomic actor that he is, in Goodmans hands the political game pretty soon gets pretty funny. The series is produced by political commentator and former Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter; writer is Garry Trudeau, from the Doonesbury-cartoon; a household name in America, published daily in for example The Washington Post. Trudeau is also the writer of the HBO series Tanner '88.
The first step of Amazon in ' TV ' is carefully planned, abiding the rules of social media with lots of viewers participation. Just like Netflix, Amazon uses focus groups to see what works. This spring, Amazon customers, 215 million people worldwide, were able to vote for  a total of 14 pilots. Alpha House ended high, as did Betas, a Social Network –sort of story about nerds in Silicon Valley that will premier one week later. The viewer commands; that's tv-production in 2013. In a reaction to the New York Times, Jonathan Alter says it’s ‘refreshing’: ‘You take some power away from the men in suits.’

It's war in the business of online video streaming. All players in that market know you can’t dominate without original content. Parties like Netflix and Amazon want to gain access to your phone, tablet and PC. They want to be part of the world of the viewer, a household name and, as David Carr put it, a go-to party for interesting tv-series.

The first three episodes of Alpha House are free and online November 15th; for the rest you'll have to pay through the online service Amazon Prime Instant Video, which is available only in the U.S. and Canada. The first month is free, after that you pay $79 a year , less than $7 a month. Subscribers have access to 40,000 movies and series, to be watched on everything that has ascreen. Sofar it’s similar to Netflix. But there's one difference: Amazon Instant Video also provides access to books that you can borrow from the vast Kindle Library. And maybe, in the future, customers also get the daily online edition of the Washington Post, now that that newspaper is bought by Amazon. Why not. If you think that's cheap, $7 per month, think again. Research shows, that the average consumer spends a lot more money once he becomes a subscriber. In other words, you go there for Alpha House and end up buying a blender and a pile of underpants, too. @DramaQueenIlse, cinema.nl