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Andrew’s rewatching the original British House of Cards, and I don’t begrudge him the entertainment, but (a) with the occasional exception for McKellen in Richard III, I really don’t enjoy watching villains practice villainy, and (b) the Urquharts of the world did blithely take over the UK back in the ‘nineties and the rest of the population’s been paying for it ever since..
Cut for spoilers
He finished the first series last night and began To Play the King tonight, which I’m really trying to tune out, because, ok, I get that I’m supposed to dislike Mrs. Hardy, Urquhart’s new protégée-who’s-prolly-going-to-eventually-sleep-with-him, but it’s more than that— she annoys me.
Elizabeth Urquhart picked this one out especially for her husband, to help him forget the journalist he had an affair with in the first series, and my headcanon is that she spotted Mrs. Hardy quoting Camille Paglia at some cocktail party so everyone will know how cool and edgy and Not Like Those Other Women she is, and went “1. Hot, 2. Sufficient intellectual trappings to amuse Francis, 3. Not actually smart enough to be my future competition or to figure out he’s actually murdered people with his own hands.” From the moment she purrs: “I’m interested in power— I’d like to observe it up close, to figure out how it works,” I decided that even the possibility of seeing this one eventually get her comeuppance was not sufficient incentive to put up with listening to her for a whole series.
ETA— Oh lord I walked back into the living room and the character was actually *saying* “I’m not like her” after hearing from Urquhart about how the journalist from Series 1 “killed herself” after he “broke off their affair to protect her.” She then led him to the bedroom.
Cut for spoilers
He finished the first series last night and began To Play the King tonight, which I’m really trying to tune out, because, ok, I get that I’m supposed to dislike Mrs. Hardy, Urquhart’s new protégée-who’s-prolly-going-to-eventually-sleep-with-him, but it’s more than that— she annoys me.
Elizabeth Urquhart picked this one out especially for her husband, to help him forget the journalist he had an affair with in the first series, and my headcanon is that she spotted Mrs. Hardy quoting Camille Paglia at some cocktail party so everyone will know how cool and edgy and Not Like Those Other Women she is, and went “1. Hot, 2. Sufficient intellectual trappings to amuse Francis, 3. Not actually smart enough to be my future competition or to figure out he’s actually murdered people with his own hands.” From the moment she purrs: “I’m interested in power— I’d like to observe it up close, to figure out how it works,” I decided that even the possibility of seeing this one eventually get her comeuppance was not sufficient incentive to put up with listening to her for a whole series.
ETA— Oh lord I walked back into the living room and the character was actually *saying* “I’m not like her” after hearing from Urquhart about how the journalist from Series 1 “killed herself” after he “broke off their affair to protect her.” She then led him to the bedroom.
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Date: 2019-11-21 11:44 am (UTC)From:Also the series has one of my favourite cuts in all of television at the start of the third series.
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Date: 2019-11-21 08:46 pm (UTC)From:You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment.Same. He's a splendid example of the magnificent bastard, utterly without redeeming qualities - except of entertainment to the viewer. And that he delivered in spades. I've not seen the reboot, because I didn't have Netflix at the time it was first broadcast, but also I couldn't really imagine any Urquhart as good as Ian Richardson.no subject
Date: 2019-11-21 02:21 pm (UTC)From: