Tag: Robin Wright

“House of Cards” (Final Season)–A Different Shuffle

Written by diana on November 20, 2018. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 3 Comments on “House of Cards” (Final Season)–A Different Shuffle

In the earlier five seasons of House of Cards, Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) represented the Machiavellian Chief Whip then Vice President, and then President. As he manipulated his fellow party colleagues, foreign prime ministers (principally Russia), we witnessed the dark truths of American politics by a despotic megalomaniac. Now, in Season 6, Frank Underwood is dead, but we don’t know how. His widow, Claire Underwood (the phenomenal Robin Wright) is President and has inherited her dead husband’s enemies. Dealing with the aftermath of her husband’s death, and...

“House of Cards”, Season 4: Still Stacks Up

Written by diana on March 29, 2016. Posted in movie reviews. 4 Comments on “House of Cards”, Season 4: Still Stacks Up

Released on Netflix on March 4, “House of Cards: Season 4” grabs viewers yet again—primarily because of the spectacular rise of Claire Underwood (the incomparable Robin Wright). Equal to her husband Frank as a partner in crime (Kevin Spacey at his best), Claire’s rapid and ruthless ascension to power left this viewer breathless. For better or worse, this is a marriage like no other portrayed on television. Season 4 weaves in past stories, corpses, ex-lovers, and accomplices at lightning speed, to remind us that what Claire wants most in life is to be significant: to be recognized for the power...

“House of Cards” –On the verge of collapse

Written by diana on March 16, 2015. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “House of Cards” –On the verge of collapse

In Season 3 of Netflix’s award-winning series, “House of Cards”, the Beltway game is passing Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) by and only he seems not to know it. This season is wife Claire Underwood’s story. Whatever the subplots and character arcs, this series continues to hinge upon the tortuous dynamics between Frank and Claire Underwood. They’ve been combustible before, but never quite like this. And now it is Claire’s turn to get center stage. All thirteen episodes again are ready for binge-viewing and, are made for devouring before catching your breath and dissecting...

“House of Cards”–Season 2: The Main Course

Written by diana on March 12, 2014. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 6 Comments on “House of Cards”–Season 2: The Main Course

House of Cards–season 2 I just binged on the second season of the Emmy-award winning “House of Cards,” the Netflix-produced political saga starring Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood and Robin Wright as his wife Claire as it continues its narratively complex drama– even better than 2013’s! (See my February 2013 review of the first season, “House of Cards”–A Bulimic Buffet for Couch Potatoes?) In this riveting thriller of political ambition, power, and hubris of Shakespearian proportions, we see the Underwoods cement their lethal relationship as...

“House of Cards” — A Bulimic Buffet for Couch Potatoes?

Written by diana on February 11, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 6 Comments on “House of Cards” — A Bulimic Buffet for Couch Potatoes?

Why wait a week to watch another episode when an entire buffet is available? A lot has been written recently about “binge-watching” the practice of sitting on the couch or in bed to gorge on an entire season or a majority of episodes of a television series in one batch. The bulimic viewer was not possible before Tivo, DVRs and Netflix video streaming (aka Instant Queue). Netflix has given us 13 episodes of “House of Cards”, a reinterpretation of the 1990 BBC miniseries which starred Sir Ian Richardson as a conniving Parliamentarian who rose to the level of prime minister before...

“The Conspirator”–Is Anyone Listening?

Written by diana on May 23, 2011. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “The Conspirator”–Is Anyone Listening?

“The Conspirator” opens with a gripping Civil War battle scene and treats us to incredibly imaginative camera angles, shot in sepia tones to time-travel cinematically to the late 1860’s. This is a story that sits underneath a story we all know– the history-book narrative of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater. What few of us know is the untold story– of Mary Surratt, (played by Robin Wright), a Southern middle-aged widow who ran the boarding house where Booth and five other conspirators plotted to either kidnap (an important...