House of Cards: Netflix's Big Gamble

This past weekend saw the release of "House of Cards", an original series from Netflix and Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet Productions. In order to recoup the estimated $100M production, Netflix needs to add over 500K new subscribers. While the immediate goal is fairly easy to meet (they have 30M subscribers today), there's a bigger battle to consider--Netflix vs. HBO. The latter has the content to crush Netflix, but to really move into online (I'm sorry, but requiring a cable account doesn't cut it), HBO would have to bite the content companies that feed it--rather unlikely, especially in the short term.

For now, 13 episodes of House of Cards are available--posted simultaneously by Netflix in a bold move. We watched the first two, and this is not the cheery world of The West Wing--it's amoral and dark. If that's not your bag, you may want to steer clear. Spacey gives a great performance as an ambitious congressman, if possibly a bit too Tennessee Williams-esque for me. When he wants to present his thoughts, he turns to the camera and just speaks up--a gimmick, but it works. His supporting cast, especially Robin Wright as his wife, do a great job as well.

If you have Netflix, check it out. If not, this may be a good reason to sign up.

Star Trek: TAS--Beyond the Farthest Star

Mindy has been enjoying her comic-a-day blog, so I thought I would give it a try--and I finally found what I hope is an interesting topic.

We've just finished watching Star Trek: the Original Series on Netflix, as part of a plan to watch all available episode of all the Trek series.  Before we move on to Next Generation, we've started watching "The Animated Series" from 1973-74.  I remember watching it as a kid, and wanted to see how it holds up--in a nutshell, not too well.

Filmation is best known for the He-Man series, but they did a lot of licenced character animation for Saturday morning TV (Superman, Archie, Fat Albert).  Their style was cheap at best--the definition of "limited" animation.  Star Trek at least had Roddenberry's involvement, as well as scripts from well known sci-fi authors (David Gerald and Larry Niven both wrote episodes).  Most of the original cast lent their voice talents to the show, but since they taped each voice separately, it's rather disjointed.  Stock shots are used A LOT, to the point you see them multiple times in the same episode.  Whoever was in change of continuity took the day off--characters appear in long shots, the disappear when the camera angle changes, and then reappear again.  Roddenberry later decided the show was "not in canon", although you do see some concepts slip into later series.  The show only lasted 22 episodes--unless a Saturday morning show was a hit, they rarely made a lot of epsidoes, as they were rerun frequently,

We watched the first episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star".  If you watch it on Netflix, look for the following:

• Uhura has apparently been "roofied" in a long shot from above the bridge--she's lounging in her chair
• An orange lizard creature in Chekov's seat--that's Lt. Arex, a three-armed alien.  You wouldn't know that from this episode, as it is not explained.
• The use of "life support belts", not used in any other series
• Lots of cheap explosion effects--even for Filmation, it's crappy
• Lt. Kyle at the transporter controls--and his floating mustache
• The "automatic bridge defense system"--a spherical gun on the ceiling.  Probably a good idea, considering how often the bridge is commandeered.
• There's also a second door on the bridge--again, it's about time.
• Scotty gets stuck in the engine core "door" (more like a hatch) for no appearent reason

More to come!