House of Cards

The opening shot of the first episode of Season One of "House of Cards" shows Kevin Spacey as South Carolinian Congressman Francis "Frank" Underwood breaking a dog's neck, playing against Blake Snyder's screenwriting maxim to, early on, show a protagonist "saving the cat" in order to evoke investment in the character.

Spacey brings his "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" southern drawl to his House Majority Whip, yet Robin Wright, as his nonprofit-running wife Claire, forgot to wear the requisite Rock Creek crash helmet hairdo. Frank's been passed over as Secretary of State, despite all his party service, so he's bent on destruction. Ostensibly, they are the Macbeths, childless and ruthless, but rather than being a modern interpretation of political ambitionists, they, and the series, are predictable and melodramatic.

The pedigree of the Netflix-produced series is solid - including director David Fincher, and Chicago playwrights Rick Cleveland ("Tom and Jerry," also the TV series "Six Feet Under" and "The West Wing") and Keith Huff ("A Steady Rain") - but the device to have Underwood narrate his scheming directly to camera, rather than just doing it, is a crutch that undermines his evil.

The supporting players are misfired politico caricatures too, from 16-year-old-looking Kate Mara as Washington Herald reporter Zoe Barnes, dressing to accentuate her Pippa Middleton bum; Kathleen Chalfant's Katharine Graham-doppelg�nger Margaret Tilden; to Corey Stoll as Representative Peter Russo, looking and acting like womanizer Anthony Weiner. Plus, there are no 4 a.m. diners in D.C. and it's downright cold outside at inauguration time, showing that the series' ethos remains Hollywood hipster rather than Beltway insider.

This four-disc set contains all 13 "chapters" of Season One, but I think the Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy series "Veep" provides a superior format for skewering legislative hypocrisy and bureaucratic buffoonery.

"House of Cards: The Complete First Season"
DVD Set
$24.99
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/House_of_Cards/70178217?locale=en-US