House of Cards , UK

[JHan]

First time I'm watching the UK original series, after reading this great review:https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/before-you-watch-the-new-em-house-of-cards-em-do-yourself-a-favor-and-see-the-original/283795/

Brit humor is uniquely suited to Political Satire.

"After the smiles. After the handshakes. After the arms around shoulders and the merry, hollow laughter. After the conditional promise and the purchased friendship. After the elusive, dangling reward, the nagging threat. After all that - the calculation of the odds, the sifting of the probabilities - and then, the fear. Fear in the smell of damp newsprint and the crackle of the radio. Fear that this might be the day that we wake to find the magic gone."

[Me.]

1. Watching The Comrade In The WH

makes me want to put a bit of stick about

[JHan]

6. hehe

[elleng]

2. It really is uniquely suited.

Watched it years ago, before U.S. version.

[JHan]

4. it's even made me get the book :)

[pansypoo53219]

13. after that, why bother w/ our version.

[California_Republic]

3. He is so classy. FU. Second season is the best.

[JHan]

5. Ian Richardson is brilliant.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Love it!

[apkhgp]

8. I only watched the first fifteen minutes of this

IMHO this is Classy, Dignified, and Respectable. Definitely not the sort of ill-advised, ill-mannered claptrap that we have been subjected to on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Far be it from me, but if we could transplant some of that over here to Washington ( OUR White House, House, and Senate ) we might be able to see a better class of politician.

[JHan]

9. Well that's the thing..

"Classy, dignified and respectable" on the outside, but ugly within is the same ugly regardless of manner

I agree with the reviewer that the UK version is far more cynical and "darker" than the U.S version.

[Honeycombe8]

10. I saw the top & bottom one on PBS decades ago. It was wonderful! The Brits are the best...

at that sort of program. Intrigue, humor, wit, murder. After all, they've been doing it for centuries.

The Netflix House of Cards (with he whose name we no longer mention) was equally wonderful, if not better. The final season, with only Robin Penn Wright as the star, comes out in November, which I'll binge watch. Sigh. A streaming service era gone by. The first truly wonderful original program by a streaming service, IMO.

[JHan]

11. I left U.S. House of Cards in season 3 , not because I hated it..

I'm just terrible at following up on these shows lol. But I'm gonna revisit it once I get some other viewing out of the way.

Another fave brit series of mine is Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister.

[Honeycombe8]

12. I saw the Minister shows, too. PBS in Dallas had a Sunday night Brit lineup.

I watched it every Sunday. Solo, Yes Minister, As Time Goes By, To the Manor Born, Are You Being Served?, Fawlty Towers, Good Neighbors, Hallo Hallo, and others. I miss those days. I'd get ready for bed & snuggle in bed with my pets & watch the Sunday night lineup as I drifted off to sleep, relaxed for the work week.

My 2 favorites were The Vicar of Dibley and To the Manor Born. I bought the DVD series sets of those.