Is House Of Cards Worth Watching? (10 Reasons It Is) (2024)

Is House Of Cards Worth Watching? (10 Reasons It Is) (1)

House of Cards was the first Netflix original production to make a splash in the entertainment industry.

This political drama was first available for streaming on Netflix in 2013 and featured a star-studded cast, despite one of their lead actors being removed from the show swiftly after sexual assault claims began to arise.

Netflix may have taken a gamble on the creation of this series, but it clearly worked in their favor and allowed the streaming service to compete with traditional media groups.

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House of Cards is worth watching if you enjoy intense, realistic dramas.

Although some people may not want to watch the series due to Kevin Spacey playing the lead role for most of the show, it’s still worth watching because the other members of the cast and production team worked too hard to have their entire project ruined by one bad employee.

House of Cards is a part of Netflix’s history and paved the way to help other streaming services take the leap of faith in creating their own exclusive content.

This show was once an international hit and deserves to be watched by new viewers.

Here are 10 reasons why the show is worth watching.

1. House Of Cards Took Netflix To The Next Level

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House of Cards is the series that took Netflix from being a media distributor to a media creator, allowing Netflix to create a new level of demand for their service.

Rather than having to rely on other companies to give Netflix the right to distribute old shows and movies, House of Cards proved that Netflix could create its own desirable media.

This political series also taught Netflix what their viewers wanted most out of their shows.

Consumers seemed to gravitate toward shows with short seasons that could be watched within a couple of sittings, now popularly known as binge-watching.

Before releasing their own original series like House of Cards, Netflix had a collective 33 million account holders and was making less than $1 billion quarterly, with a total market value of only $5.7 billion.

By 2017, Netflix had 109 million account holders, was earning almost $3 billion per quarter, and had a total market value of $85 billion.

As more production companies have been creating their own streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+, Netflix has quickly realized that its future relies on the original content that they produce.

Without House of Cards, Netflix may have never gone on to create other hit series like Narcos, Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, or Bridgerton.

Netflix was able to prove that they were more than a video rental service and were ready to challenge the way people consume entertainment.

2. The First Season Is A Fan Favorite

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Most House of Cards fans agree that the show’s first season has some of the best writing and intense moments of the entire series.

The first season does an amazing job of pulling the viewer into the story and causing them to get heavily invested in the futures of Frank Underwood, Claire Underwood, Doug Stamper, and the entire country.

During the first season, viewers are quickly shown how corrupt the political world is when Doug Stamper convinces another character to do his dirty work and ends up unfairly ending the career of an opponent.

Fans agree that season two is an excellent follow-up to the first season despite agreeing that it isn’t as compelling as the first season.

All the seasons from season one to season five consist of 13 episodes that are labeled as chapters.

The third season follows the trend of being a good season, but not as good as the prior two.

However, this downward trend quickly changes in season four thanks to the revitalized plot and new threats that the cast of characters must face.

The fifth season helps tie up some of the loose ends from the previous seasons before the major changes in season six where Claire Underwood becomes the president after Kevin Spacey had been fired from the show.

The House of Cards fanbase is incredibly divided in their views of the final season of the show due to the sudden change in plot caused by real-life circumstances.

Yet, fans of Claire Underwood will love the final season.

3. Their Unique Use Of Shadows

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House of Cards has a certain color scheme that the film crew likes to use, which helps give the show a clear stylization.

Scenes from the political drama will often have yellow lighting in the background and blue lighting in the foreground.

Although some fans theorized this lighting choice was some kind of hidden message, the series’ director of photography, Igor Martinovic, corrected them and explained that the lighting effect was a natural occurrence that is caused by the way our eyes perceive shadows.

People typically associate light with warm colors such as yellow, orange, or red.

The visible parts of shadows are often perceived as cooler tones like blue and purple.

This effect is most often noticed during nighttime scenes because the characters are using lamps with warm-colored lighting.

It also doesn’t help that many of the characters are seen in cool-colored clothing, such as light blue button-ups and grey jackets.

While the colors of the shadows may be accidental, the shadows used in the House of Cards series are purposely created to indicate that something sinister is going on behind the public’s back.

When viewers are first introduced to Frank Underwood, he is shrouded in darkness to demonstrate that he isn’t showing his true self.

Despite having plenty of lights and windows, the White House is shown as being a dark place, and the dirtiest deals that are done on the show use very little lighting.

The darkness is a representation of the dark intentions that each politician is hiding from the public eye.

4. Robin Wright Is The Real Star Of The Show

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Throughout the series, Robin Wright plays the vice president and ex-wife of Frank Underwood, Claire.

Wright has earned an Emmy Award and six nominations for her role as Claire Underwood in the hit series, despite things taking a turn for the worse after Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault case came to light.

While some House of Cards fans may not like the way that the series ended, Wright and the writing team were simply trying to do the best they could with the material they had in a restricted amount of time.

After killing off Frank Underwood, Claire Underwood was able to assume the role of president.

Meanwhile, Wright assumed the role of director to help her character stay as true to form as possible while also wrapping up the entire story.

Wright has stated that she regrets not having Claire Underwood get nominated for the presidency and go through her own election.

Sadly, the writers couldn’t fit an entire election into the shortened final season of the show.

Throughout House of Cards, Claire Underwood proved that she was one of the most calculated people in the White House.

Wright wishes that her character could have won an election to prove to viewers that a female politician could win a presidential election.

Without the support of his ex-wife, Frank Underwood would have never been able to become President of the United States.

When he proved that he couldn’t be all the country needed, Claire Underwood rightfully took his place.

5. Each Episode Cost $5 Million

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Netflix may have been new to the world of media production, but they weren’t afraid to spend as much money on their original series’ as they needed, and House of Cards is no exception.

This series cost about $5 million per episode to create, with a majority of the budget going toward the actors’ salaries.

Netflix wanted to prove that they were a production company that could be taken seriously and wanted some of the biggest names in Hollywood, no matter the cost.

Kevin Spacey cost the House of Cards production team millions before he was fired.

The first two seasons of the political drama cost about $100 million to create and went on for another four seasons.

Originally, each episode cost Netflix about $4.5 million, but Dave Fincher was frequently increasing the price of production and each season became more expensive to produce.

The reason Netflix can handle such high production costs is because of its lack of need for marketing.

While other companies are spending millions to help their product reach consumers, Netflix uses an algorithm to give users recommendations based on their previous viewing history and favorites.

Netflix found that if they wanted to make a lot of money in the entertainment industry, they were going to have to spend a lot of money on high-quality content.

The shift toward original content has allowed this streaming service to remain a major player even as traditional media companies are making the digital switch.

6. Netflix Gave Complete Creative Freedom

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When Netflix was first branching into film production, the company wanted to show that it could also be a place where the top talent that Hollywood was known for could succeed.

To entice filmmakers to work with them and take the Internet space more seriously, Netflix promised their filmmakers complete creative freedom.

What attracted Dave Fincher to the project was the promise that NetFlix would not get in the way of his creative vision, despite Netflix being willing to also hand over millions.

Netflix’s executives believed that the only way they were going to have content that was going to stand out from the crowd was by handling production differently.

Companies like HBO were notorious for getting in the way of creators’ original visions for their works.

When House of Cards was in production, the trend for television was to make edgier versions of shows that were once popular with older generations.

Although House of Cards was a remake, the focus was not on making the fashion or personalities of the characters more modern.

Instead, Fincher and his team could focus on making a show that was timeless and not reliant on now-forgotten fashion trends.

While it may have been a risk for Netflix to pay millions of dollars without any control over the project, House of Cards brought in millions of subscribers and allowed Netflix to return some of the creative control to those who knew it best.

By offering creative freedom and committing to producing the first two seasons before any production officially began, Netflix helped the original author, Michael Dobbs, feel more at ease about the adaptation of his novel.

7. It Started As A BBC Miniseries

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Before Robin Wright and Michael Kelly were starring in the American version of the hit drama series, House of Cards was a British Broadcasting Company miniseries that originally aired in 1990.

The original series starred Ian Richardson, Susannah Harker, and Miles Anderson.

Frank Underwood was named Francis Urquhart and Claire Underwood was named Elizabeth Urquhart in the BBC adaptation.

The miniseries only consists of four episodes, compared to the American version’s 73 episodes.

Since the miniseries is based on British politics, it more closely represents the plot of Dobbs’ original novel.

However, the ending of the miniseries was vastly different from the novel’s ending.

At the end of the miniseries, Mattie Storin dies instead of Francis Urquhart.

This major change allowed Dobbs to create multiple sequels to his original book, despite his main character originally dying.

Although the American version of House of Cards may follow a different government with differing ways of conducting business, it shares more similarities with the books than the original television adaptation.

Both series featured plots that mimicked the real-life political climate of the time.

Around the time that the British Broadcasting Company aired the first showing of House of Cards in 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was being removed from office following the misuse of her position and power.

Although the original House of Cards was popular in its home country, it never saw the same level of international popularity that occurred with Netflix’s adaptation of the series.

Fans who are looking for more House of Cards should give the original series a try.

8. Plenty of Familiar Faces

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House of Cards is filled with real-life political comedians and interviewers, helping the series seem even more real.

By having fictional politicians being interviewed by real political reporters, the series seems more believable and the decisions made by the characters seem even more important and urgent.

Stephen Colbert had Frank Underwood on his first major show, The Colbert Report, prior to the comedian taking over The Late Show.

Underwood was also interviewed by comedians such as Dennis Miller and Bill Maher.

Right before Morley Safer’s death in 2016, the popular 60 Minutes correspondent appeared on the drama series in a segment that was exactly like his show.

Some of the other celebrity correspondents to appear in House of Cards include Rachel Maddow, Chuck Todd, and Wolf Blitzer.

Kim Dickens from Deadwood and Fear of the Walking Dead took on the role of Kate Baldwin during the 3rd and 4th seasons.

One of the strangest cameos that the series featured was the Drepung Loseling Monks from Tibet.

The casting for House of Cards was an international affair, calling on the talents of Lars Mikkelson to play Russian president Viktor Petrov.

After Viktor Petrov was introduced, the popular Russian punk rock band, Pussy Riot, even appeared on the show.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Jimmi Simpson plays computer hacker Gavin Orsay. Benito Martinez from The Shield takes on the role of Senate Majority Leader Hector Mendoza.

9. It Became Surprisingly Popular In China

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One of the most shocking audiences that House of Cards took by storm was the Chinese movie market.

The American politics at play in the Netflix original series are confusing enough for American viewers, and it was interesting to watch a country with a completely different system of government get pulled into the story of one corrupt politician’s path to power.

While the majority of the world may have Netflix, China has an equivalent called Sohu.

After House of Cards’ debut on Sohu, it became the most watched show on the platform and even had leaders of the Communist Party on the edge of their seats.

Part of what attracted the Chinese audience to this American political drama was the fact that a show like it would never be allowed if it were about the Chinese government.

House of Cards gave Chinese viewers a show that was like nothing they had ever seen before.

Within the first week of appearing on Sohu, House of Cards had been watched 24.5 million times.

Research showed that a majority of the Chinese viewers were government-sector employees and even included Wang Quishan, who is one of the most powerful leaders in China.

House of Cards writer Kenneth Lin was shocked by the international popularity that came after being released on Sohu, but Lin believes that the popularity comes from everyone’s fear of greed beating out justice.

Although China is known to ban anything that reflects negatively on their government, the House of Cards writers got around the potential banning by showing that Chinese businessman Xander Fung was uneasy about his corrupt partnership with Underwood.

10. The Final Season Gave Long-Time Fans What They Wanted

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Prior to the final season of House of Cards airing, fans of the series were disappointed to see what had become of Kevin Spacey and were nervous when Netflix temporarily halted production.

Luckily for fans, the writers were able to rework the story to include a reason for Kevin Spacey’s sudden disappearance.

The production team killed off Frank Underwood, similar to how Michael Dobbs killed off Francis Urquhart in his inspirational novel.

Season six begins 100 days into Claire Underwood’s presidency as she deals with constant death threats and public pushback.

Fans of the final season see it as an improvement from the previously convoluted plot of season five.

After five seasons of fans having to watch as Claire Underwood focuses on helping advance her ex-husband’s career, she is finally able to take control and do what she believes is best.

Claire Underwood is the only character in the entire series to appear in every episode and is finally able to have her moment of success, even though she still must clean up the mess that her ex-husband left behind.

Although there may not be any new House of Cards content coming out, the show is still an intense yet bingeable series that sucks you in before you even notice that you’re hooked.

Is House Of Cards Worth Watching? (10 Reasons It Is) (2024)
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