My primary reasons for watching House of Cards are only two. First is Kevin Spacey who is an acting God and second the political hotchpotch that American federal system goes through. Now the Dynamics that inhibit House of Cards can be mind-boggling and that's in no small parts find it's origin in Frank and Claire Underwood's dirty deeds. HoC just completed it's fifth season run and even in it's fifth season, it scored four Emmy nomination and most importantly, one for outstanding drama series. Now if you ask me if it's really outstanding, I would say 'no' having watched it's first 8 episodes out of 13 for nothing really happens. It's like watching GoT season 6 where barring the last 2 episodes, nothing happened and it truly resembled like a Bollywood formulaic film. But we all know GoT is nothing without it's last two episodes and it always makes them grand through slow burning of it's preceding episodes. But how many shows can afford such luxury with limited budget and timeline constraints. HoC definitely cannot. I have seen Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why in meanwhile and they both were also Netflix products. While Stranger things was definitely a novelty, 13 Reasons Why, despite being a blockbuster, suffered heavily through it's slow narrative. Slow narrative and pacing can work provided you make something like Breaking Bad where each episode is full of tension. But here I. HoC, despite the best efforts of Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, season 5 runs out of gas very early. It's like monkeys are jumping everywhere and we are watching them without any fun. Also, like the Suits, where the identity of second lead as a fraud couldn't be revealed till 6th season and God knows why not, HoC needs to bring Underwoods down soon. They really have become villains par excellence who could do everything to save 'their' White House but again, their acts are getting 'stale'. How could an under-secretary become the President of United States and that too while committing two murders himself and many through his henchmen like Doug Stamper? That tells us that HoC, which once was favorite show of Barack Obama, is really only a TV show and although it has done wonders for Netflix and made it a force to reckon with, it needs to stop soon and most preferably, next season. One Name, One Nation doesn't and shouldn't work anymore!!!!
It's really hard to switch on to a different language from the one you have constantly been tinkering with. I grew so accustomed to writing in Hindi in last few days that it started dawning on me that I might never be good again with my English. So this is a tester, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday, one of my movie group friends, an American by nationality, questioned my fondness of documentaries. I specifically wrote in one of my columns that documentaries demand your unwavering attention and once you gave 'that' to them, you are rewarded much more handsomely than a proper, narrative, fictitious film. My reasoning for believing so is that a documentary is an experience of a creative process. It doesn't get made to 'entertain' you. They are there to reveal something to you. They teach you something. You get overwhelmed by them. 'Racing Extinction (2015)' was one such documentary. I watched it in last couple of days. I couldn't complete it in one ...
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