blahppy endings
Well, I was going to take myself to a 5:10 showing of a movie at Pacific Place after work yesterday, but I stupidly did not double-check that the schedule would be the same yesterday as it had been two days before -- and now the 5:10 showing had been eliminated. Having walked downtown before discovering this (literally about a block away from the theatre, when I pulled out the AMC app to check in for my ticket), there was no other movie with a workable showtime that I actually wanted to see in any place I could get to on time. Damn it!
So, no movie last night after all. I just went ahead and walked to the library to return the book I had that was one day overdue and which I had only managed to get a little over a third of the way through in the three weeks I had with it. Even though I was over 100 pages into it, I don't much like the writing style (or grammar for that matter) so it never hooked me; I decided, fuck it, I'm giving up on this book. I had another one to pick up and so I did that.
Shobhit was driving home from work at the same time, and was at that spot of Broadway a block away from the Capitol Hill library minutes after I was there, so he picked me up and drove me the rest of the way home from there.
We made mushroom burgers for dinner -- as in portabella mushrooms in place of a burger patty, between split bagel halves. Otherwise I made mine like a regular burger, with the same condiments and toppings as usual. It turned out very, very tasty.
We ate while watching this week's episode of Modern Family, which, I must say, has done an astonishingly good job of being both well-written and funny after a whole decade on the air. Alas, I cannot by any stretch say the same of The Big Bang Theory.
So then we watched the final three episodes of the eight in the sixth and final season of House of Cards. The verdict? "Whatever." That's what I said.
I have to admit that I agree with Shobhit that the show suffered from the absence of the character Frank Underwood. I had a feeling Shobhit teetered on feeling they still should have kept Kevin Spacey on, but I think he's willfully ignoring too much awful shit about the man. (I didn't remember this last night, but I see after a quick Google now that as of last year he had fifteen accusers -- that's not a "give him the benefit of the doubt" number. (The only number that could be at best would be 1, and should be zero; it's always the accusers who should be given the benefit of the doubt, before the accused.) I shouldn't even have to offer more support of his awfulness, but it turns out he was a horrible racist as well. I decided long ago that I was done with Kevin Spacey, period; I cannot stomach him onscreen in anything anymore at all.
The flip side of this is the character. Let's set Kevin Spacey the actor aside for a moment, and just consider the character Frank Underwood. He was ruthless and evil, yes, but as Shobhit pointed out -- he was also playful. He would turn to the camera and chat with a smirk and amusing quips. Claire Underwood was never like that, and keeping her from being like that this season is true to her character, but not as workable for the conceit of the main character breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience. Claire was always cold. She's just not as inviting when she brings us into her world by talking to us, as Frank had been. By definition, then, this season is less fun.
Mind you, I felt like House of Cards passed its peak about three seasons ago. And I can't imagine another actor being cast to replace Kevin Spacey in the same role. I keep wondering what plan they had for finishing the series before they ditched him; Shobhit and I always theorized the series would end with his assassination. But, this season having Claire as the President is in keeping with season 5, with her angling for the Vice Presidency. I was actually a little uneasy about it when she turned to the camera to look at us for the first time ever when that season ended. I never thought it would work as well with her doing that. And this season, even Doug Stamper does it a couple of times! What the hell?
Anyway. I was kind of on board with this season when it started; felt like it was really getting good around episode 4 (Claire made some pretty exhilarating, if typically evil, tactical moves), but then by the end I was honestly kind of let down. And so goes yet another series that started great and then ended . . . blah.
[posted 12:46 pm]