Tag Archives: Robin Wright

House of Cards S04E08 Recap & Review

March 8, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode eight ahead.

Thomas Yates (Paul Sparks), the soft-spoken ex-biographer of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), makes his re-appearance into the House of Cards mythos in season four, episode eight. He is being buttered up by Republican Presidential candidate Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman), who is trying to get his hands on the untold Underwood story. Yates doesn’t appear convinced with Conway’s rhetoric, but the guarantee of newfound fame after a decade long literary slump may be too hard for the writer to pass up.

In the White House, Underwood is vetting a new VP possibility, namely NRA-sympathizing Democrat Sen. Dean Austin. Although Frank sees no political zeal in him, he is the Continue reading House of Cards S04E08 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E07 Recap & Review

March 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode seven ahead.

Season four, episode seven of House of Cards begins with Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) dropping out of the presidential race. Though, I suspect this isn’t the last we’ll see of Dunbar, who knows something is amiss with Frank’s rise to power.

A terrorist organization named ICO (not dissimilar to ISIS in nature) is becoming an increasing military threat, leaving President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) with a choice of Continue reading House of Cards S04E07 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E06 Recap & Review

March 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode six ahead.

The solution to the U.S. foreign relations issues with Russia and Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen) comes in the form of Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) banding together some old faces, namely Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali) and Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney).

Meanwhile, Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) makes moves in order to raise Frank Underwood’s (Kevin Spacey) position on the liver donor list. This means letting a man die, something the loyal Stamper would Continue reading House of Cards S04E06 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E05 Recap & Review

March 7, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode five ahead.

The cold open of House of Cards episode five is yet another nightmarish vision from Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), this time depicting a Confederate Civil War soldier shooting him in his hospital bed. The assassination attempt on his life may prove to be politically beneficial, but this scene shows that it will only help in heightening his already troubled mind.

Frank’s Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), now returning to the forefront of the show, is working furiously to Continue reading House of Cards S04E05 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E04 Recap & Review

March 6, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: spoilers from House of Cards season four, episode four ahead.

Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) may have to run with his wife Claire (Robin Wright) as his running mate, or risk further sabotage from her and Leann Harvey (Neve Campbell). He and Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) search for a different way to satisfy Claire’s political desires while also investigating the leak of a racially sensitive image to the press. Stamper heavily suspects Seth Grayson (Derek Cecil), whom we already know leaked the photo of Frank with a Confederate Civil War re-enacter.

The solution for the campaign problem (and by proxy the Claire problem) is to Continue reading House of Cards S04E04 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E03 Recap & Review

March 6, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers from House of Cards season four, episode three ahead.

The third episode of the new season of House of Cards shows the continued efforts of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) to salvage his struggling presidential campaign. Returning to his hometown of Gaffney, South Carolina, he speaks in a church. The scene is great, cross-cutting between the speech itself and Underwood preparing for the speech. The lighting contrast and his mumbling recitation show the reality of his feelings for the people that he is claiming to be working for, that they are merely votes that he desperately needs.

On the other end of the political totem pole, Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus), aka John Carlyle, is working on parole, cleaning cars. In order to secure a car, he engages in sexual favors with a co-worker. He uses this to Continue reading House of Cards S04E03 Recap & Review →

Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards S04E02 Recap & Review

March 6, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode two ahead.

Episode two of House of Cards season four opens on a conversation between Claire Underwood’s mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn) and a group of her perhaps monetarily influential friends. She encourages endorsement of Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) for president so that her daughter may begin her own political rise once Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is out of the oval office.

The episode re-introduces Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen), where a man fleeing Russia seeks asylum in the U.S., fearing for his life when an attempt to unseat Petrov goes south. To President Underwood, this appears like Continue reading House of Cards S04E02 Recap & Review →

Drama, Television Reviews

House of Cards S04E01 Recap & Review

March 5, 2016 Alex Brannan

Caution: Spoilers for House of Cards season four, episode one (and perhaps any previous episode of the show) ahead.

Season four of House of Cards opens on a strange yet perversely poetic image: former Washington Herald senior journalist Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus) glibly reciting erotica so his prison cellmate can get off on the bunk below him. Goodwin was previously framed by hacker Gavin Orsay (Jimmi Simpson) and Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) loyalist Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) in order to prevent further suspicion over the death of Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) at Underwood’s hands.

The reason for Goodwin’s lewd helping hand becomes clear later on, when it is revealed that he Continue reading House of Cards S04E01 Recap & Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Everest (2015) Movie Review

September 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

In 1996, a pair of commercial expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest went terribly wrong. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) both lead competing commercial expedition companies. They decide, due to overcrowding of climbers attempting the voyage up on the same day, decide to work together to reach the summit.

The dramatics are set up early on, as we see Continue reading Everest (2015) Movie Review →

Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It, Television Reviews, TV Drama

House of Cards (2015) S03E04 Recap/Review

March 10, 2015 Alex Brannan

Caution: major spoilers for this episode follow, as well as possible spoilers from episodes prior.

Episode four of this political drama opens on a Supreme Court hearing, the same hearing that the President was ignoring earlier in the season in his jumbled attempt to get his America Works project off the ground. The hearing surrounds a drone strike that apparently killed innocent civilians.

While this is going on, Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is attending the funeral of three soldiers. In the Supreme Court hearing, we hear that he has given authorization to the Solicitor General Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) to effectively put full responsibility on the government for the attack that caused innocent deaths, arguing that the strike killed its criminal target and was legal and justified. The cross-cutting with the funeral tells us that Continue reading House of Cards (2015) S03E04 Recap/Review →