Well, I was doing really well. Since Jan. 10, I had worked out every night on my elliptical trainer. That is, every night but two, and in each of those cases, I made up for it by playing a couple of sets of tennis AND working out on the elliptical on the subsequent day.
I had worked my way up to 40 minutes each night (I even got my workout in at the hotel when I spent that night in Hilton Head), plus a few crunches (50) and stretches as I was cooling down. If the machine was to be believed, I was burning as much as 450 calories in each session.
I was also sticking, more or less, to my new paleolithic diet (I say “more or less” because when you have as many food allergies as I do, and try to ban a bunch of additional foods on top of that, sometimes you stretch the rules to get through the day). Almost none of my pants were too tight anymore. I was weighing in at 175 on scales that had had me as high as 183.8.
But then, I got some kind of stupid bug late last week. No fever or anything (I don’t think — I have had some chills, and shiver when I come into contact with cold sheets), just some sniffles and a cough and a bit of an upset stomach. Not the flu, according to the test they did at my doctor’s office. Just generalized, don’t-feel-like-doing-anything crud. I still have it.
Four days now without working out. That generalized feeling of good health and sense of accomplishment that had been building for six weeks has now been seeping out of me for four days. And I know it’s going to be hard to build that momentum back.
On the upside, since I did not feel like doing anything, it seemed like a good time for a Netflix-watching binge. And since we had just been discussing it, I decided to try to catch up on “House of Cards,” of which I had been so dismissive heretofore.
I finished the first season, and stopped watching late last night in the middle of the fifth episode of Season 2.
Some assorted observations, in no particular order (MULTIPLE SPOILER ALERT!):
- We shouldn’t call them “seasons” any more, since we tend to watch them in a weekend. We could call them “series,” the way the Brits do, or maybe just “binges” — as in “Binge 2, Episode 5.” In any case, the old word doesn’t work now.
- The fall of Peter Russo, the only semi-sympathetic character on the show (with the possible exception of Freddy, who cooks the best ribs in D.C.), was expected — because I had seen the British version. It was unpleasant to watch, but not as unpleasant as watching Denzell Washington fall in the same way in “Flight” — because you cared more about Denzell’s character. One is torn between disgust at how easily he falls off the wagon (not to say that Rachel Brosnahan doesn’t make a very convincing temptress, assuming you’re a congressman with a weakness for jailbait), and sympathy. After all, weakened by this bug and feeling that I might as well since I couldn’t work out and was falling apart anyway, I had a beer (something cavemen didn’t do — but probably would have if they could have) at an early Mardi Gras party Saturday night. But I stopped at one, and they didn’t find me dead in my car. So, points for me.
- Finally, the most irritating character on the show got the heave-ho. Since it didn’t happen at the end of the first season (the way it did in the Brit series), I thought she’d be inflicted on us through a second, but she was gone in the first episode of the new binge. The way she went illustrated part of the problem with the character. She was stupid enough to stand on an invisible part of a subway platform with a homicidal maniac, and to grant his wish that she delete all records of their relationship, then and there. Which was like saying, “Push me.” Basically, the girl never had the sense to be scared. Like teenagers with new driver’s licences, she thought she was invulnerable. She never got a moment to reflect on how wrong she was.
- I quickly lost patience with her boyfriend Lucas Goodwin‘s crusade to nail her killer after that. I was rooting for the feds to scoop him up on the trumped-up cyberterrorism charge, and hoping they could ditch him through rendition, or maybe “disappear” him the way they did Dunbar in Catch-22. I just couldn’t feel his outraged grief, and that made him tiresome. (This alleged newspaper editor is played by an actor named Sebastian Arcelus. Really. Actors who portray credible editors have names like Ed Asner. Or Jason Robards, or, at the extreme end of the spectrum, Cary Grant.)
- How unrealistic is this show? This unrealistic: A Democratic officeholder puts together a complex, precarious deal to raise the age for Social Security benefits to start, and it passes. The very idea that Washington could get its act together to do something that substantial is more far-fetched than having a white Democrat represent South Carolina in the House (after all, we did have John Spratt in that seat until recently).
- Has there ever been a congressional aide as quietly, self-effacingly competent as Doug Stamper? No. There has not.
- The only major character who is feckless and ineffectual enough to be credible is the fictional president. What a stilted dweeb.
- In fact, I’m starting to reach a conclusion that the makers of “House of Cards” probably never intended: I’m starting to root for Francis Underwood. OK, so he’s ruthless. So he can be unpleasant. So he steps over a body now and again. This guy gets things done — pragmatic things, things that need to get done for the good of the country.
- Oh, wait — maybe that was what the makers intended: I just saw the tagline over at Netflix, “Bad, for a greater good.” Huh.
Superman leaped tall buildings in a single bound. Frank passes reform legislation. Either would seem impossible in the real world.
So I guess you could say the series is growing on me a bit. What will that S.O.B. get done next? i plan to keep watching…
Related Posts
The cuff links at the end of Season 2, Episode 1 were a great touch. Need to get me a pair of those.
Yeah, but they only work if you see them side-by-side.
Agreed. The cufflinks are a a nice note. But Brad’s point of them only working when they’re side-by-side is (to me) why they’re great. It’s an inside joke.
but Doug, you aren’t a DR
Christopher Buckley had that phrase tattooed on his hand when he was a merchant marine so it would show whenever he saluted. He later regretted it and had it painfully removed….
I’d go with the F and U.
but those aren’t your initials….
Not many people have talked about it, but my favorite part is how Underwood breaks the fourth wall all the time. The direct addressing of the audience is a wonderful technique that is rarely done. However, it can be a powerful moment.
If I remember correctly, Underwood doesn’t break the fourth wall in Season 2; Episode 1 until the very end, and then it’s through him looking in the mirror back to the viewer. Loved it.
Mel Brooks occasionally broke the fourth wall in humorous attempts to get the viewer in on a joke in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Belushi briefly does it in Animal House, when he looks back over his shoulder at the viewer (with a devious look) before he peeps in on the changing sorority girls.
Anyway, just thought I would note that. It allows the viewer access to the interior monologue that you get in a book, but rarely get in a film or on tv.
Nobody ever did it better than Eddie Murphy in “Trading Places.”
Good call. It’s hard for me to think of other examples, because it’s usually so quick…just a look is sometimes all you get.
House of Cards is really embracing the fourth wall, though. It’s not just looks or sideways glances. It’s whole monologues. I can’t think of another film or tv drama that has embraced this technique as much as House of Cards.
Well, an example of where breaking the wall is essential to the character and the film is “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Best moment was when Ferris’ sister saves his bacon from Ed Rooney, and all Ferris can do is look at the camera.
Also great was when Cameron insists he hasn’t seen anything good today, and Ferris is speechless. He looks helplessly at the camera as though beseeching us to help him out…
I really like the glances he gives us.
Just thought of another broken fourth wall moment: The end of Goodfellas , when Henry Hill is sitting alone in the Courtroom and starts directly addressing the viewer.
That combined with the single camera shot of going into the Copa (now copied countless times) are examples of Scorsese’s genius.
That’s a great stroke of cinematic style, but the MOST impressive thing in the movie was when Henry pistol-whips his girlfriend’s neighbor nearly to death in his own driveway.
I’ve never seen violence depicted so shockingly and convincingly. It’s so revelatory of character, and at the same time intensely ambivalent. You WANT this guy to get beat up for what he did, but you’re not prepared for the utter lack of reserve, of inhibition, of hesitation in the way Ray Liotta attacks him…
As I said on an earlier post, there is only one “Oh. Come On!” moment in Season 2. Let’s see if you can figure it out,. Probably somewhere around episode 9-10-11.
OK, I’m impressed. I just watched the scene in which Frank — the Macchiavellian modern man, who cares nothing for that Southern “Lost Cause” stuff — meets his great-great-great grandfather, who died at Spottsylvania.
And suddenly, his birthright as a Southern man grabs him by the throat. It freaks him out. Augustus gets in his head.
Was that his Citadel (or whatever fictional name they call it) ring he buried there at the end?
What did they call it? The Palisade? I cannot recall
The Sentinel — which makes no sense. A citadel is a place. A sentinel is a person.
Why can’t fiction writers ever use the actual name of the place? Are they afraid the institution would sue? It always seems like a silly game to call it something else…
yes, it was the ring
And what was the significance of that? Was he trying to put his alumni status away from him (doubtful, since that’s something that means a lot to him)? Was he seeking solidarity with his dead ancestor by burying a totem of particular importance to him, the closest thing he has to a relic of military honor?
It was just an intriguing gesture.
Of course, I had a practical objection to it: That ring isn’t going to remain in the ground there. This was a ground-breaking. It will either be dug right back up by someone who will pocket it (or return it, if it’s engraved with personal info), or will be hauled off with construction debris. It’s not going to lie there in the soil with his great-great-great granddaddy.
I immediately wondered whether that very ring wasn’t going to crop up later.
Has Kevin Spacey suffered some crippling trauma to his shoulder, like John McCain? What makes him throw a ball that way? It’s like his arm’s broken…
He’s an actor. I’m guessing he never picked up a ball in his life. Those throws in the backyard were brutal to watch.
“Verbal” Kint from the Usual Suspects probably had a better arm…
It really, truly looked like his arm was broken. I know this is really retro and superficial of me, but I lost a lot of respect for him. What, he can’t even ACT like he can throw a ball?…
I think he IS kind of a sissy…
OK, maybe so, but are we supposed to think F.U. is a sissy?
In any case, the rich guy did him a BIG favor by turning off the power just before his pitch…
By the way — five days without working out. Had trouble sleeping last night. And I’d been sleeping like a log ever since I started exercising.
I had been taking Ambien every night to sleep. I quit taking it as soon as I started working out, and I slept BETTER than when I was drugged…