A Drama’s Streaming Premiere
EARLY in the new Netflix series “House of Cards” the narrator and card player Representative Francis Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, looks straight into the camera and tells viewers: “Power is a lot like real estate. It’s all about location, location, location. The closer you are to the source, the higher your property value.”
Underwood is speaking at a presidential inauguration, just outside the Capitol in Washington. As viewers observe the swearing-in he asks in a delicious Southern drawl, “Centuries from now, when people watch this footage, who will they see smiling just at the edge of the frame?” Then Underwood comes into frame again. He’s just a few rows away from the president. He gives the camera a casual wave.
Underwood, having been spurned in his bid to become secretary of state, is on a quest for power that’s just as suspenseful as anything on television. But his story will unspool not on TV but on Netflix, the streaming video service that is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in original programming. Its plan for showing “House of Cards,” an adaptation of a 1990 BBC mini-series set in Parliament, will itself be a departure from the usual broadcast approach. On Feb. 1 all 13 episodes will be available at once, an acknowledgment that many of its subscribers like to watch shows in marathon sessions.
Another 13 episodes are already in production. Odds are, then, that viewers are going to spend quite a while inside Underwood’s head as he tricks, coerces and sometimes intimidates his opponents. “He makes you complicit in an odd way,” said David Fincher, the acclaimed filmmaker who directed the first episode of the new series.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/arts/television/house-of-cards-arrives-as-a-netflix-series.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
This is a remake of the original BBC trilogy. I'm guess it will become compulsive viewing if its anywhere near as good as the original. I'm UK and only noticed yesterday this will Netflix only at least unless they sell on DVD too in the future.
The choice of name Francis Underwood is based on the intials : FU. 
I'm guessing this will become the catchphrase assuming he talks to the camera almost continuously as did Francis Urquhart in the original
= new reply since forum marked as read
I hadn't watched the trilogy when first shown here in the UK 1990 - 1995. As much as I like Ian Richardson I have a feeling Spacey will be good in the role too.
I just watched it all again too.
