House of Cards Remake

The original British show is, imo, one of the best pieces of television drama I have ever watched*, Ian Richardson was simply perfect as the dastardly politician Francis Urquhart who schemes his way all the way to the top in this first of three series.

Normally the idea of remaking something so close to my heart as HoC would generally result in much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part as well as serious slandering of the ancestral breeding of the people taking part.

In this case David Fincher has adapted it for the US and Kevin Spacey is playing the title role.

As it goes I'm actually quite excited to see what they have come up with.

The good news is that all 13 episodes on season 1 will drop on Netflix Feb 1st (tomorrow)

*Except maybe "The Wire", lol.

Oh yeah I remember reading something about this now. Could be interesting.

With David Fincher involved, I'll be watching.

The full series is now live up on Netflix! The first episode is free to everyone here. I'll be watching it this weekend.

Q2 said:

The full series is now live up on Netflix!

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Did you send me the email too? Get out of my inbox (and into my car).

TV's Frink said:

Did you send me the email too? Get out of my inbox (and into my car).

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Whoa. Hey now. That's a might forward.

What are you afraid of?

Netflix has a lot riding on the success of this show.

Gonna watch the first three eps tonight, oh yes bring it on.

nOmArch said:

Gonna watch the first three eps tonight, oh yes bring it on.

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I tried watching it last night but couldn't stream anything. Probably getting slammed by viewers. I tried it this morning so I'll try to get some of it watched today.

I've skimmed a couple of non spoilery UK reviews and apparently it's all good, Spacey is as expected and the plot hasn't been dumbed down; if anything it's a bit more complicated. Finchers hand can be seen in the editing and one of my favourite thing about the original, the breaking of the fourth wall, is intact :whoo:

If any of you guys haven't seen the original series I can recommend it highly enough! It's a delicious tale of cloak and dagger behind the scenes politics in Westminster in the nineties which probably hit a lot further home than the then Government of time would like to admit.

It's also only four hours long which means you can watch it in a single evening.

I made it through the first 6 episodes. It is quite good.

On a more technical note, what do you guys think about this releasing of the whole season at once?

Halfway through Ep 2. I would say it's building nicely. Not sure if I'm feeling the wife yet, but it's very early days.

Loving the fact they dropped the entire season in one go, its the way forward if you ask me.

geminigod said:

On a more technical note, what do you guys think about this releasing of the whole season at once?

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I actually really like it. Nothing annoys me more than becoming invested in a series and being forced to watch it at the broadcasters pace. I hate getting three or four episodes in, then having a two week delay, then another episode, then four weeks off... it's very annoying and sometimes difficult to remember what transpired previously. Having everything out at once allows me to watch something at my pace. I'm hoping for all the best with Netflix and this format because I want to see more of it.

Watched the first episode last night. Would have certainly kept going if it weren't past midnight and I weren't so drowsy. I'm about to watch the next one. I'm really liking it.

As for releasing all the episodes at once: I think it's brilliant. It works for us because, like Q2 said, we can watch the season at our own pace. And it works for them because I feel like viewership will be more easily retained. Sometimes, when you're going at the broadcaster's pace, you can get lost. But here, by going at your own pace, you can be sure that if you like what you're seeing, you'll keeping watching whenever you want to.

I foresee Netflix becoming a big producer in the future.

Side note: I'm immensely happy that Netflix is doing the fourth season of Arrested Development. I didn't catch taht show until it was on instant Netflix, and when I watched it, it was practically non-stop. I mean I watched it whenever I got the chance. Which helped because there was so much continuity between the episodes. Netflix is the perfect place for a show like Arrested Development, and I feel like Netflix is going to start making more and more serialized shows, while broadcasters are going to find themselves making less and less. Though who knows how long that will take.

Is there anyway to know how successful House of Cards has been?

On a more technical note, what do you guys think about this releasing of the whole season at once?

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i've recently signed up for free month trail with netflix and there's no way i'm not gonna continue with subscribing with them. it's definitely the way in which TV is heading, being able to select the shows you want to watch when you want to watch them is a brilliant concept. i myself don't watch to much television, more often than not i will just buy dvd's, this month is the first month in years that i haven't bought a dvd. i guess though most tv shows need the commercial/advertisements revenue but i see netflix, and lovefilm (which i'm also a member of) as an alternative to buying dvd's/blu-rays

Interesting. Yes, I of course also like being able to watch show at my own pace and not having to wait. On the other hand, sometimes having to wait for things is sucky in a good-for-you kind of way. Moreso, it surprises me that Netflix would see it as a good financial model, given that they are dependent on keeping people hooked with a monthly subscription. I guess the idea is to get people to take a chance subscribing because they can see the whole season at once and then hope that they stick around for the other content?? This could work if they can get more content online to stream, though currently it seems like 75% of the time when I search for a specific thing I want to watch, they don't have it. Also, as pointed out, people could just subscribe, watch the whole show, and then unsubscribe before their free month of service is even over.

I know they are planning on using this same model for Arrested Decelopment and a few other original programming coming out later this year. My guess is the big reason for this is they want to get out of the DVD rental business and move to streaming exclusively. They said a year or so ago comparably it's a hell of a lot cheaper, $.02 vs $.90 or so. And if they can prove streaming is more profitable for everyone then maybe studios will start releasing new releases the same day as DVD/Blu-Ray.

Q2 said:

then maybe studios will start releasing new releases the same day as DVD/Blu-Ray..

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That sounds like a sure way for studios to lose money. The studios will need to stagger it at least a little bit to capture sales revenue from the DVD sales, which is definitely more profitable for the studios than whatever netflix will pay per view. You are probably correct though in that more content will become available online and the delay between DVD release to online release will start to compress, just like the delay between theater release and dvd release has compressed over the years.

Online streaming needs to finally become fully fleshed out and recognized as the legitimate 3rd tier of release that it is. The days of resisting out of fear that it will erode sales in that 2nd tier with the DVD & BD release need to end. (Though I think the studios also fear embracing streaming because they lose some control over distribution.)

My guess is the big reason for this is they want to get out of the DVD rental business and move to streaming exclusively.

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in the UK the only rental high street chain blockbuster is in trouble, they've had to make cut backs as the streaming services from lovefilm, netflix and now tv seem to be growing more and more in popularity. being someone in their mid 30's i was talking to someone at work the over day and said can you imagine in 10 years time we'll be saying can you remember the time we used to go out and rent a film / buy a film.

And if they can prove streaming is more profitable for everyone then maybe studios will start releasing new releases the same day as DVD/Blu-Ray.

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don't they already do this? my nephew has an xbox and you can pretty much stream a movie the same day it's a available to buy. with sky tv you can rent/watch a new dvd release without having to leave your home.