Claire Underwood was an excellent second fiddle to Frank Underwood on this show, but as the centerpiece she can't carry it. Frank was a cutthroat politician and murderer, but he had panache and personality. Wright plays Claire as a one note ice cold bitch. As a result the show is much less entertaining. Besides, with the Spacey sexual abuse allegations wouldn't he have made an even better villain?
shareThey couldn't continue to endorse him after the allegations got out.
shareI understand the rationale. It's just too bad the show suffers so badly as a result. Frankly, I think people like Spacey should be given the opportunity to apologize, clean up their act, make amends, and continue their careers. It depends on the specifics, of course, but I'm sick of the unforgiving and often highly hypocritical sanctimonious rage.
shareNo, I can't look at his face anymore.
I think they should have just canceled the show.
Be like who could watch The Cosby Show now.
shareAgreed, fully.
The very idea that a paltry Star Trek Discovery actor who shouldn't have even been at Spacey's party in the first place so many decades ago is the one who twisted up a great TV show makes me angry. They should have used Spacey, and I for one would love to see what the original script for this season was.
Let's get something straight, sport. Spacey WAS NOT FIRED for his attempted rape of a teenager 30 years ago. He was fired because he was assaulting crew members who worked ON HOUSE OF CARDS. Recent and current assaults that happened to people who worked ON THIS SHOW. Understand now? He was fired for assaulting and harassing his colleagues. Do you think if you went into work tomorrow and started groping and grabbing, or doing even worse, a colleague that you wouldn't be fired?
Again, to make it clear for you: He wasn't fired for the attempted rape 30 years ago. He was fired for assault and harassment of over a dozen house of cards workers. Get it?
Also, your victim blaming is very telling about you. And the fact that you mock Spacey's victim in the past as paltry. How does that even matter? Who gives a fuck how big of a name he is? Seriously, what difference does it make that he's a small time actor? Christ, Spacey has some fucked up defenders.
No, he was fired because of Anthony Rapp's 'MeToo', sport. That was the first domino to fall for him, everything that came after is gravy.
shareWrong yet again, sport. Netflix decided to end the series after seasons 6 after Anthony Rapp's allegations. But Spacey wasn't fired until the allegations from crew members. Are you really going to dispute facts? There's this thing called google, have you heard of it? Try it out. It comes in handy. But incase you can't, here's a link for an article that breaks Spacey's firing. He was fired a week after Rapp's allegations. In between, he was accused of rape or attempted rape by other underage boys AND of assault and harassment by cast and crew members of the show. He was fired because of his actions to the crew members. You were wrong.
Grow up and just admit you were wrong. It's not hard.
I simply refused to watch it and took House of Cards off of my watchlist when I realized what they were going to do.
Personally, I think this whole situation is a perfect representation of the psychotic times we live in. Kevin Spacey is a brilliant actor, there is no other way to put it. That he is also a flawed human being doesn't change it. History is stuffed to the brim with artists who produced brilliant works but were at the same time flaming assholes to one degree or another. Gesualdo murdered his wife but we still listen to his Madrigals. Beethoven absolutely ruined his sister in law the most shameful of reasons but we still consider him a great composer. Wagner was an anti-semite. John Wayne was an obnoxious drunk. Stanley Kubrick abused his actors, etc... Only today, though, do we think the appropriate response when somebody gets out of line like Spacey did is to destroy their career. Seriously?
Our culture has reached a point of intolerance now where when somebody like Spacey does something offensive we can no longer even look at his face less we risk being offended. We re-shoot movies to remove their work, and now this - a drama series that focuses on a character that Spacey poured his talents into to create one of the most memorable and complex villains I have ever seen, a character that routinely breaks the fourth wall to confide with us, one that seems to stop at nothing to get what he wants - we KILL the character unceremoniously off camera because, you know, Kevin Spacey did something offensive, then we try to continue the story without his character because, you know, the other actors still want to keep working.
Well too bad for them. House of Cards without Frank Underwood is like a meal with no main course. If we, as a culture, have come to the point where we think it's appropriate to destroy a persons life work - their art - because they've committed transgressions that most find offensive, then we live with the consequences
This whole post is disgusting. Spacey didn't just do things that people find "offensive". He was a fucking predator. He harassed and assaulted numerous people that worked on this show. People he knew would be unlikely to say anything because they'd be afraid of being called liars, or get fired to keep their claims quiet. How can you say he shouldn't have been fired when he was assaulting the crew and people who worked just as hard as he did to make the show? Do you think that's different from any other job? Do you think if you went into work tomorrow and started groping and grabbing and assaulting your coworkers that you shouldn't get fired for it?
House of Cards is a tv show at the end of the day. There are REAL people who were victims of Spacey, REAL people he preyed on and attacked. And you think it's just "offensive"? Seems like you only care about the show and nothing else. You certainly don't care about people. You just want your own pleasure at a fictional TV show and if real people are hurt in the process of it, fuck them, right.
Offensive. Jesus christ. If someone tries to rape you one day, tell me if the only thing you think is that's its offensive.
Also, nobody is saying Spacey isn't a great actor. Nobody is saying he didn't win two Oscars or get nominated for emmys. So your rant about other talented but terrible people is just laughable. Just Beethoven's music will still be listened to, Spacey's movies will still be watched. This show will be rewatched. People will keep watching The Ususal Suspects, American Beauty, and Seven. Your post is not only whiny and screechy, but also pointless.
I offer no defense of Spacey's probable crimes, but I can understand the distress and the conflicted emotions an afficionado can feel when the art they love is in some fashion besmirched by the behaviour of the artist.
I try to divorce the two, and to enjoy the movies and shows as I enjoy the art and music of many historical and historically talented monsters. It's not always possible to do so, but I do think it's valid to try.
And while it is, admittedly, difficult to still laugh at O.J. Simpson's pratfalls in The Naked Gun, for example, I think it will prove very easy in the coming years for people to continue to enjoy Francis Underwood, even despite the ever growing parallels between character and performer.
There's a difference between you and the other poster. There's no issue in continuing to enjoy the work a bad person already did. I personally will still rewatch House of Cards. The first two seasons are great and are fun to rewatch. There's no problem in that. Or watching his movies, or another actor's movies or listening to a singers music.
The other poster is pretty much saying he's more angry at the show firing Spacey than at Spacey for being an attempted rapist. If not a full blown rapist. He's saying what he did, which was harass or assault over a dozen people that worked ON the show, is simply "offensive". He's saying someone being a talented actor or singer or athlete is more important than the same person hurting people. And that is disgusting.
So you, I'm in agreement with. I understand and respect your post. But the other poster isn't conflicted about loving Frank Underwood and knowing his actor is a horrible person. He's saying, "Fuck his victims, rape and assault isn't a big deal, I want Underwood".
Nice batch of strawmen - you could service several hectare of corn with the number of them you’ve erected.
shareIMO the basic disagreement here is whether Spacey's repeated, repugnant gropings are forgivable. He was a sexual predator who parlayed his fame into outrageous behavior for which previously he never got called out. His celebrity status no doubt amplified his arrogance and he assumed nobody would have the guts to cross the wealthy and famous star. That said, I don't think the man should be denied the opportunity to apologize, make amends, and continue his career. In this world where racist scumbags like Louis Farrakhan freely operate on Twitter while others are banned for far less offenses, and is lovingly embraced by an ex-President, it's a little hard to take seriously the immense moral outrage over Spacey's crotch grabs.
shareYou know what? I was just going to ignore your mock outrage, but the more I read your sanctimonious diatribe the more difficult that became.
Here’s the bottom line. Spacey has not been charged with anything, at least as far as I know - you may know differently, but I’ve not read anywhere that he’s been charged with any of the crimes you mention in your histrionics. That being the case, absent Spacey being tried and convicted for his alleged rapes and assaults, it is only that, allegations. To the best of my knowledge nobody was raped or forced to do anything against their will, in fact, they had the right and ability to deck him if he got out of line. Did he get out of line? I’m sure he did. Did he push it too far? Probably. Did he rape or assault anybody? There’s the question. If he did, why hasn’t he been charged for this?
Your whole post was disgusting when you get down to it. You celebrate the destruction of Spacey’s career, labeling him a “fucking predator,” when you don’t know the particulars of what happened.
If Spacey tried to rape or assault me, it would’ve landed in the hands of the authorities. That doesn’t seem to have happened here.
I agree with you for the most part, except if it's true that Spacey went around grabbing young men's crotches without their consent then I'd say that qualifies as a "sexual predator." Still, I don't see any allegations of behavior so far over the line that he deserves to be blacklisted until the day he dies. I'm guessing there are other factors behind the scenes in play. It might be, for example, that he was an arrogant jerk toward so many producers, directors, and fellow actors that nobody will miss him, or fight on his behalf. Hollywood won't say so, but they implicitly embrace the likes of Roman Polanski. Selective outrage is ugly.
shareIf there are other factors behind the scenes then so be it, but the previous poster said he was “assaulting the crew,” a “fucking predator,” and an “attempted rapist,” if not a “full blown rapist,” feigning moral outrage that anybody wouldn’t agree with them that Spacey deserves to have his career ruined over these incidents. I have NO doubt that when this same poster notices my responses he will be back with more “how dare you” outrage and strawmen directed towards me. So be it.
I have absolutely no doubt that, as another poster pointed out, Spacey never got called out for his outrageous behavior which, combined with his celebrity status, encouraged him to become even more outlandish, but I have yet to hear an account of him raping or assaulting anybody, or continuing sexual advances past the point where he was told to fuck off or go elsewhere. To me that is the difference between somebody being an outrageous jerk, and being a sexual predator.
zach your post isn't aging well at all.
sharePerhaps there's a reason creepy kev is so good at playing creepiness... because he is a creep irl lmao.
What people struggle with is that these artists (musically and in acting) can be really good at that thing but also be a complete P.O.S irl. I prefer to seperate the two, enjoying the talent from the person, whatever their political, religious or whatever stance they have that might differ from their own. Kev being a creep irl doesn't make his performance any less brilliant, but even I can see how it might affect his employment options. It's just a shame is all...
I simply refused to watch it and took House of Cards off of my watchlist...share
The Spacey allegations is crazy unfortunate difficult situation that ruins his whole legacy.
sharePerhaps if he didn't make a public apology and come out as gay at the same time things could've been different, all his coming out did was open up more accusations mostly from people who worked on House Of Cards.
shareI have to agree. I just binge watched HOC and was a bit disappointed with season 6. The writers did a decent job given the circumstances, but the show suffered without Spacey. I definitely did not like the anti-hero Frank Underwood (although I enjoyed watching him at the same time) and was looking forward to seeing Frank get what he deserved somehow. I did feel cheated out of that possible ending.
shareThe final season without Spacey was just so-so, I thought. It was like when Steve Carell wasn't in The Office anymore - it had its moments but wasn't as nearly good.
Overall though House of Cards was a fantastic show, I thought. Nine out of ten rating for me, with the final season being about a C/C+.