Binge TV and Me

My husband and I spent last evening as we have  the previous four, bingeing on Netflix’s addictive House of Cards, Season 2.

I live in D.C. , with more than a few years of flirting on the margins of politics for work.  Nothing about the series – set in a sinister capital city that looks terrifyingly beautiful at night, filled with pathological politicos and their flaks and lackeys clogging the halls of power – is even remotely accurate (unless, of course, you’re talking about Eric Cantor or Ted Cruz).  

What I love, love, love about this series is the smarmy comic charm of the thoroughly evil Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, and his Lady Macbeth, Claire, brought to chilling life by Robyn Wright.  The former Mrs. Sean Penn really reasserts her acting chops in the series and deserves every award in the book for her portrayal.  And as for Kevin Spacey – his Faustian vice president is one for the ages.

I’m not going to spoil this season’s developments, delicious as they are. But candidly, it’s been worth missing some of the Olympics for the past few days.

Which leads me to the Olympics.  Maybe it’s Sochi, maybe it’s the hype, or maybe it’s the amazing bad taste demonstrated by an NBC commentator’s cruel, tabloid-style interview of Bode Miller a few days ago, but I’m kind of done with this year’s winter spectacle.  Except for figure skating, of course.  I can’t miss the figure skating.   As NBC skating commentator Johnnie Weir notes, figure skating is drama.

And that takes me right back to the new golden age of television. Boy do I love watching TV again!  Whether it’s Homeland or Shameless or True Detective or Episodes…the adults have taken over the asylum by opening its doors, changing the rules and delivering against changing demographics and desires of people with the technology tools to entertain themselves differently.  Hooray for the disrupters like Netflix , HBO and Showtime and the amazing burst of creative energy that explodes nearly every evening now from our PDAs, tablets, phones or big screen TVs. 

Coming soon:  Season 2 of Orange is the New Black.  If you haven’t seen Season 1 yet, you should.  Prepare for your mind to be blown.