If you haven't seen either or both of these, you've no doubt heard of them. They attracted a lot of attention because they represent something new in the TV world, shows produced by a company that made its name by renting DVDs to millions of people. Apparently they decided that producing their own "content," as it is so winningly called in the entertainment and internet businesses, would make them even more money than supplying what other people produced.
I didn't set out to watch either of these shows because they're Netflix originals. I started with House of Cards because several people recommended it to me. There are two series–it seems silly to call them "seasons" when they aren't tied to any particular schedule, like ordinary television. As you've probably heard, it's about a scheming congressman named Frank Underwood, and follows the implementation of his schemes. Whether or not it can be taken as being at all representative of the way Washington really works, I don't know. My guess is that it starts off with a picture that's basically accurate, but adds several layers of implausibility.
I thought the first season was excellent, though I had to suspend a certain amount of disbelief to accept Underwood's successes. I thought the second season, which began with something so startling that even if you weren't watching it you may have seen headlines about it, went rapidly and steadily downhill. The biggest problem was that it simply became too hard to believe. And beyond that I lost interest in most of the characters. Underwood himself went from a slick and unscrupulous operator to a complete monster. And his wife, Claire, is just as ruthless and just as dedicated to acquiring power as he is (does that remind you of any real-life couple?).
One mildly distressing aspect of it is that Claire, who is pretty much as villainous as Frank, and in some ways more creepy in the way she can put a layer of feminine warmth over an icy heart, is played by Robin Wright, who played the princess in The Princess Bride. I hope this is good acting and not anything much resembling her real character. It is disheartening to think of that delightful character as having become in her fifties someone who seems like she should be running Planned Parenthood (and one of the lesser irritations about the second series is that it gets into abortion politics, which of course means evil pro-lifers). There's to be a third season, but I doubt I'll watch it.
Orange Is the New Black is about an affluent young woman–a yuppie, more or less–serving time in prison for smuggling drugs at the behest of her lesbian lover. We–my wife and I–lasted only three episodes with it, agreeing after the third one that we'd both had enough. The fundamental premise is interesting (and is based on a true story). And it's well-acted–I almost said "of course," because it seems to me that the general level of acting in American movies and TV has gotten pretty high. But it's just too full of disgusting things. I have no doubt that a women's prison can be a disgusting place, but the series seems to take pleasure in emphasizing it at every turn. You feel like they're actively trying to gross you out. Well, they succeeded, so that's that.
One of the things that I found distasteful was something that happens to be the latest liberationist cause: a prominent character is "trans-gender," meaning…well, you know what that means, I'm sure. The fact that I find the whole idea–the surgery, etc.–very unpleasant to think about is enough to mark me as a bigot–specifically, a "transphobe"–in progressive eyes. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone who is in the distress that must be required for him or her to take such steps. But I won't pretend that I think it's a good thing. There comes a point where you just have to stop caring what people who invent terms like "transphobe" think about you.
Light On Dark Water 
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