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mudsharkbytes's Replies
I stopped watching halfway through season 5 when the whole kicking Kevin Spacey’s ass thing started. Before I stopped I WAS a big fan.
So you went from saying I wasn’t a fan or I didn’t pay attention to I’m stupid and lazy - classy.
I agree with everything you said except the blame does not lie on Kevin Spacey.
Yes, in his personal life Spacey is an obnoxious asshole, but it's our seeming cultural need to destroy somebody's career when they behave in antisocial ways that is the real reason the show went out with a mew... There was no overriding need to kill Frank Underwood or take Spacey out of the show. I believe it would've been the most popular season of the lot had Spacey been allowed to continue, frankly.
Personally, I didn't watch the last season and I plan on keeping it that way. As far as I'm concerned, the series remains unfinished.
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
I have some friends that don't subscribe to any streaming services that I like to share different Netflix and Amazon productions with. I was really excited to show them Hill House then changed my mind when I finished episode 10 - that's how disappointed I was.
Reading the responses of others here helps make sense of the sudden shift in tone at the end, but to me the ending was way too stylistically dissonant from the rest of the series.
It's not that I wished for it to end with a terrible fate befalling the family, but a, basically, happy ending, even if "bittersweet" as was pointed out, just felt wrong, as if Mr. Brooks suddenly turned into Mr. Rogers... It really kind of spoiled the whole series for me.
Personally I thought episode 6 was one of the best in the series.
It was obvious the dialogue was scripted, not improvised, and the camera movement was likewise carefully choreographed, not meandered about.
It was virtuoso storytelling in nearly every sense.
I disagree.
This isn't about giving Spacey power, it's about having respect for what they have done up to this point.
Continuing the series absent Frank Underwood is asinine. Spacey's astonishingly well crafted Frank Underwood character IS "House of Cards," all other plot lines and characters are peripheral, however, unfortunately, Spacey the actor's behavior is now considered poisonous, so no more seeing Frank Underwood to offend our sense of justice, since balance demands the destruction of Spacey's career for his offensive behavior.
If they cannot use Spacey any more then the only real option left is to end the series. Since the upcoming death of Frank Underwood was not conceived of as a plot device to further the overall story, but instead as a social construct to keep the audience from being offended by seeing Spacey's face, I have no desire to watch the cockamamie / twisted plot constructs necessary to produce a Frank-less "House of Cards."
Underwood is the only character in the series to break the 4th wall, and every time he does it is memorable. Will Claire now start speaking directly to the viewer? Absurd. It's much better to cancel the series unfinished but on a high note than it is to limp across the finish line crippled like this.
I've said this repeatedly and I mean it.
House of Cards without Frank Underwood is like serving Veal Parmesan without the veal. House of Cards IS Frank Underwood. As far as I'm concerned the only two options are either continue with Spacey or cancel the whole deal. Making up some cockamamie plot device to eliminate Frank Underwood from the series simply so they can continue to milk the "House of Cards" cow is asinine.
I thought the acting was stellar - some of the best I'd ever seen in fact. Did you even watch the episode with the family arguing in the funeral home, the one done in basically three long takes a-la Birdman? Sure, maybe there were some hidden edits there, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to stay in character for long takes like that?
I do have problems with this series, especially the ham-handed ending which was so out of place, but acting? Seriously?
I've boycotted IMDB since they callously canned the message boards, so it's nice to see what they're rating it. I would've given it a 9 easily but the last half of the final episode really spoiled it for me, easily knocking it back a couple of points to a 7 or so.
Too bad too as up until that saccharine ending I was of the opinion that this was one of the best examples of supernatural horror I'd seen in a long time.
The ending was way out of character with the rest of the series. All of a sudden in the last 1/2 hour or so Hill House turns out to be friendly and just misunderstood? Seriously?
Truly, up until the ending I thought I was watching one of the best television shows in the supernatural horror genre I had ever seen. The episode where the entire family disfunction'd in the funeral parlor, shot in a "Birdman" style with just three cuts until the final few minutes, was virtuosic filmmaking (and acting for that matter).
Tagging a happy ending on this series felt a little like suddenly seeing Winnie the Pooh come dancing out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. It just felt wrong and spoiled an otherwise excellent series.
It's because of people like you that IMDB closed their message boards. I mean, really, how asinine can you be to publicly state such a narrow-minded and ridiculous theory?
Personally, I thought it was the best series I had ever seen until the 2nd half of the last episode, which really turned me off.
Well I’m glad I didn’t see your post until AFTER I saw the movie. I essentially disagree 180 degrees with everything you said, including your critique of the soundtrack which, as it turns out, was largely composed by the director.
I wondered how long it would take me to find somebody who wanted to come on here and trash this masterpiece, and it didn’t take long at all. Sad.
You mention music. All the way through I was struck by the excellence of the soundtrack, and I don’t mean the various selections by other artists, I mean the incidental music composed specifically for the movie. Turns out it was composed by the writer / director Jaco Van Dormael. Most of the solo guitar work was him as well. Impressive!
It’s not a problem that you noticed Joanie was up to no good - the director gave plenty of clues that she wasn’t what she claimed to be well in advanced.
The words Annie spoke could’ve easily been written out phonetically - the idea being it’s not the words themselves, it’s the correct syllables pronounced in the proper order.
Since you already know it’s garbage why ask?
Your welcome
Glad I wasn’t in your theater. Where I was the audience was more involved and there weren’t any ill-mannered twerps ruining the mood for everybody else.
He was mad because you didn’t pay him. He was Jamaican remember? “You forgot to pay, mon.”
Geez, I liked ‘em both.
I don’t think the goal of this movie was to be funny, I think it was to do a reasonably accurate adaptation of the book it was based upon. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment about that, but I found the movie to be clever, entertaining, well made, and Franko’s portrayal of Wiseau was spot on.