HoC Synopsis episode 1

Synopsis

Season 1 Episode 1 "Chapter 1"

House of cards is a Netflix exclusive political drama set from 2013 to the present day, with 5 seasons and 65 episodes (as of 23 January 2018), it focuses on corruption within the American government and has 4 main narratives within the show, Frank Underwood, Claire Underwood, Peter Russo and Zoe Barnes. Franks story is the main narrative of the show with him being the central character and the other stories branching off of it, creating new narratives.

The antihero and main character of the show, Frank Underwood is a democratic congressman from South Carolina who serves as a house majority whip for the United States House of Representatives. When Walker was elected as the president of the United States he had promised the position of Secretary of state to Walker, unfortunately Walker gave the position to Michael Kern a senator. Frank is given the role of staying in congress and helping Donald Blythe an old school tax-and-spend liberal to write a new education bill as they thought he was too left wing and needed help bringing it to the centre to have a chance of getting it passed. This then trickles into Claires story.

 Claire, franks wife, is a CEO for a clean water non-profit charity, on the basis that Frank got the Secretary of state position she would get a large donation from SanCorp (a natural gas provider company). Since she does not get this donation she has to let half of her staff go, this leads her to get angry at Frank saying “youre better than this Francis” and “my husband doesn’t apologize, even to me”. Claire saying this drives frank towards getting revenge against Walker, making plans with his wife.

Frank starts to seek out loyal pawns that he can use against Walker starting with Peter Russo a member of congress who has been having a 6 month “office fling” with his assistant. Frank uses the fact that he was arrested for drink driving as a way to blackmail him by offering to cover up his recent arrest. This leads to drama (a common genre convention) with his girlfriend/assistant as he was with a prostitute, Rachel Posner. When Russo and Frank talk he makes it known that Frank knows about his drinking problem saying “it’s a bit early in the day for me”, and asking for his “absolute, unquestioning loyalty.”

After his encounter with Peter he meets Zoe Barnes a young reporter for the Washington Herald, who he briefly encountered at the symphony when she was with a date. Zoe wants to get a step up in reporting and wants to prove her boss the editor in chief Mr Hammerschmidt that she can do bigger and better things. She goes on to offer Frank that she be his outlet straight to the media. Frank leaks the education bill he is working on with Blythe to Zoe. Leading Zoe to publish it the day after Walkers inauguration, causing the first presidential scandal of Walkers presidency, as he had talked about the bill during his inauguration. 

House of Cards

ReporterNotes

• House of Cards is actually based on a 1990 British miniseries. The four-episode series took place in the time period following Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister and was adapted from a novel by Michael Dobbs.
• In order to better understand Frank Underwood’s position, Kevin Spacey spent some time with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House Majority Whip from California.
• President Walker reigns for the first two seasons, and he and John F. Kennedy share some intriguing similarities. A president running on platforms based on energy and youth, facing domestic and spousal issues, and dealing with cabinets ransacked by internal scandals that threaten to take them down with the ship.
•  Frank Underwood, has a lot in common with President Lyndon B. Johnson. Both Southern politicians are known for their intimidation, thirst for power, ability to move legislation through the tough to traverse Congress, obvious dislike for the President they usurped (JFK and Walker respectively) and each proceeded to ascend to take the position for themselves.

Genre Political drama

Created by    Beau Willimon

Based on     

House of Cards

by Michael Dobbs

House of Cards

by Andrew Davies

Starring         

Kevin Spacey

Robin Wright

Music by        Jeff Beal

Country of origin      United States

Original language(s)           English

No. of seasons        5

No. of episodes       65 (list of episodes)

Production

Executiveproducer(s)         

David Fincher

Kevin Spacey

Eric Roth

Joshua Donen

Dana Brunetti

Andrew Davies

Michael Dobbs

John Melfi

Beau Willimon

David Manson

John David Coles

Robin Wright

Location(s)   Baltimore, Maryland. Joppa, Maryland (soundstage)

Cinematography    

Eigil Bryld

Tim Ives

Igor Martinovic

Running time           43–59 minutes

Production company(s)   

Media Rights Capital

Trigger Street Productions

Wade/Thomas Productions

Knight Takes King Productions

Distributor     Netflix



Names - Frank Underwood (Congress), Pres. G Walker, Claire Underwood, Jim Mathews (Vice President),  Linda Vasquez (chief of staff), Claire Underwood (CEO of charity), Mr. Hammerschmidt (editor in chief WH), Zoe Barnes (Reporter, Washington Herald), Lucas (Reporter, WH), Michael Kerne (Senator, becomes secretary of state), Peter Russo (Congress), Christina Gallagher (chief of staff), Donald Blithe (educational secretary)

Narritives - 

•What are the genre conventions of a thriller

    A thriller has a lot of twists and turns and usually ends in a cliffhanger

•What are the genre conventions of a drama

-tense

-intense music

-emotional/provoking emotions

-realistic location

-two extremes, fast paced and action packed or slow and tense

-character development

POLITICAL DRAMAS

-corruption

–You are expected to decode the narrative from watching the film

–At least three narrative (strands) exists, describe theme as part of the synopsis.

–Describe the Genre of the film

–Identify the main characters and their character role hero/anti hero, protagonist/antagonist

Synopsis

House of cards is a political drama set from 2013 to the present day, it focuses on corruption within the American government and has 4 main narratives within the show, Frank Underwood, Claire Underwood, Peter Russo and Zoe Barnes. Franks story is the tree trunk of the story with him being the central character and the other stories branching off of it.

The antihero, Frank is a congressman who serves as a house majority whip for the United States House of Representatives. When Walker was elected as the president of the United States he had promised the position of Secretary of state to Walker, unfortunately Walker gave the position to Michael Kern a senator. Frank is given the role of helping Donald Blythe write a new education bill as they thought he needed help bringing it to the centre to have a chance of getting it passed. This then trickles into Claires story.

 Claire is a CEO for a clean water non-profit charity, on the basis that Frank got the Secretary of state position she would get a large donation from SanCorp (a natural gas provider company). Since she does not get this donation she has to let half of her staff go, this leads her to get angry and conspire with Frank to overthrow Walker.

Frank starts to seek out pawns that he can use against Walker starting with Peter Russo a member of congress, blackmailing him by offering to cover up his recent arrest of drink driving with a prostitute (as Russo has a history of drink driving and substance abuse), and then bribing the police with money to let him go.

After his encounter with Peter he meets Zoe Barnes a young reporter for the Washington Herald. Zoe wants to get a step up in reporting and wants to prove her boss the editor in chief Mr Hammerschmidt that she can do bigger and better things. She goes on to offer Frank that she be his outlet straight to the media. Frank leaks the education bill he is working on with Blythe to Zoe and Zoe publishes it the day after Walkers inauguration, causing the first presidential scandal of Walkers presidency.