House of Cards is no less than evil at its grandest, bolstered by one sterling performance after another as it moves smoothly toward its jolting conclusion.
Rarely has anything this side of Le Carre contained so many tantalizing twists... It's all managed in plausible manner, too, thanks to a stunning script by Andrew Davis.
This sustained misanthropy is at first invigorating; American television is always so careful to include at least one character we can identify with, or feel represents Good, that Davies' cynicism is refreshing.
Richardson's Francis Urquhart reminds us that his is the nation whose imagination produced Iago, and Uriah Heep, and Kingsley Amis's Dixon. This comedy here is truly cruel -- and, one layer down, even bleaker and more squalid than it seems at first.
