At the outset I think it is important to state that I loved the original House of Cards, the two subsequent series less so – Ian Richardson and Diane Fletcher were brilliant as Sir Francis and Lady Urquhart or should that be Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? The series cracked on at a brilliant pace with Urquhart becoming more and more villainous as the series developed. It also helped that the career advancement is much simpler in the British political system compared to the separation of powers of the American system.

So what do I think of the new FU? Well Spacey is brilliant. Every action he takes every syllable he utters, every mannerism is perfect. For me the series really works when he is in full Richard Duke of Gloucester mode, giving little asides to the audience. The problem, for me, with the series lies elsewhere. The original House of Cards was only 4 episodes where as the new one is 13 and this means that a lot of new plot had to be developed, plot that for me didn’t really work.

An example of this would be the new Mrs FU. In the original series she was a wonderfully manipulative presences in the background, never quite showing her hand yet was clearly the driving force that supported her husbands vicious ambition. The new Mrs FU is a much more of a mixed bag. One moment she is original Mrs FU the next she is a bleeding heart liberal who cares about fresh water in the third world or giving money to the homeless. The original Mrs FU would have had the police drive the poor away from her office entrance and would be that concerned as to how they did it.

The same could be said of the Mattie Storin character from the original series who’s vulnerability allied with her ambition make her the perfect foil to FU. One moment she is a woman trying to make it in a man’s world next she wants to call FU daddy. In the new series she becomes two characters, both feisty independent women who are out to get to the truth and are not to concerned as to what they have to do to get the information they need.

The political manoeuvring that FU had to do didn’t seem to be that vicious either. The biggest indictment against the new FU was that he was able to get a congressman off some drink driving offences which I would suspect is not that unusual in Washington DC – even if it did mean overstepping the line when it comes to supporting a police commissioner’s attempts to become mayor of DC . The charge sheet against the original FU was a lot more sordid from Blackmail, whoring , insider trading and of course 2 murders.

I guess that was the problem for me of the new House of Cards. It took a long time to achieve not a great deal. Yes, the American system wasn’t as straight forward to manipulate as the British but that would be no problem for someone like FU. In short I felt it was 6 episodes squeezed into 13 which is a shame because Kevin Spacey was just so good.

Will I watch the next series – of course it just that this doesn’t have the venomous naked ambition of the original but then again I suspect British politics is a much more of a bear pit than the Washington version which I suspect is a lot more reverential to the people who hold power, or at least the offices they hold.

Simon Marchini
WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk