Season 2 of House of Cards was released yesterday on Netflix. In sticking with Netflix’s formula, all the episodes were released at once, prompting a flurry of binge watching over the weekend (which yours truly will no doubt participate in). The show combines two of my favorite things: breaking the fourth wall and craven political drama. Despite its being Netflix’s first real bid at “prestige television” (a la The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men), it’s not so much a great show as a soap opera with higher production values. I enjoy it nonetheless.
One small thing I found interesting in the adaptation of the UK show House of Cards to the US is that while they kept the first name of the main character the same (Francis, played by Kevin Spacey), they changed his wife’s name from Elizabeth to Claire (played by Robin Wright). I assume this came from some unconscious sense that “Francis” and “Claire” simply go together as names, but even still the linking of those two names comes to us from Francis and Clare of Assisi. And while this more holy “power couple” might be a strange lens through which to see the political power couple, Clare of Assisi is the patron saint of television, so why not.
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