Haven't seen it yet, but a friend highly recommended it, so I'm looking forward to watching. Glad to hear that you liked it as well.

DH is watching it..he says it is no west wing but he does continue to watch:)

DH and I are watching it. I think we have four or five episodes left. I really like it. I think they've written the president and especially the president's chief of staff as pretty naive characters, but I guess that was necessary to give the Spacey character room to work.

Did anybody watch Political Animals last fall? I think it was on FX or maybe TNT. It was only six episodes, I think. I figured it was meant to go further but didn't get picked up. It seemed loosely based on the Clinton's. and the English Ciaran Hinds did one of the best Southern accents I've ever heard on screen. Kevin Spacey's is OK, but tends toward the overly affected.

Definitely not West Wing but nothing matches up to the greatness of West Wing in my opinion. The characters on this are pretty much the antithesis of West Wing!

I agree w/ you jakabedy that they are more naive than is realistic. I haven't seen Political Animals but I heard it was good and it is on my list of shows I want to watch.

I've started watching and do like it. Funny thing, before I read these comments I was thinking this is *evil* West Wing!!!

I LOVE this show and Kevin Spacey is incredible.

Spacey's interpretation of Frank Underwood is supposed to be overly affected, otherwise how to you explain his asides to us?
He is perfect in a role that was written with him being the first choice to play it.

I was not expecting a West Wing style series based on everything I read and saw about House of Cards.

That said, I flew through 12 of the 13 episodes and I'm holding off watching #13 because I don't want it to be over - lol

Joanie-

When I said Spacey was affected, I mean in terms of the Southern Accent. That's all. Actors tend to want to use a sort of stereotypical patrician accent. I guess because that's what all the actors before them have used. I don't think it's a middle-class, Gaffney SC accent.

jakabedy...

Ah, I see.
I'm not from the Gaffney SC or anywhere near the south so the accent works for me.
Since it's not a true story about a real person (lawdy, I hope not), it must be a case of artistic license.

Spacey is probably my favorite male actor. I wanted to pace myself with the series, but it didn't work. I think I watched it all in 3-4 days. Now it's over, sniff.

Before I watched it I read a review that said it starts out very slowly but around halfway through it really gets good. Well, I enjoyed the first half (evil west wing) much more than the second half (over the top hollywood). Still, I'm looking forward to the next 13. And btw, much of it was filmed about 20 minutes from me. A friend of mine is an extra in it.

Cindyloo123 I agree, I liked the first half better than the second half.

If you have Amazon streaming, the original UK series is available on there for free. I am going to watch an episode of that and see how it compares and if it hooks my attention as much as this one did.

Nice to know I wasn't the only one that liked the first half better. Beagles let us know how you like the UK series. I'm pretty desperate for something to watch this month, lol.