'House of Cards' returns to Netflix starting Feb. 27
The award-winning political drama will be back in session for another season come February.
Frank Underwood will be running the country as president in February, at least on Netflix.
"House of Cards" will return to its streaming ways on Netflix come Friday, February 27, the company announced in a tweet posted on Monday. An initial tweet teased "Breaking News," saying that "President Underwood and the First Lady will be making an announcement today at 11 A.M. EST. Please stand by..."
A follow-up tweet with a "special announcement" from the White House showed a brief video clip of Underwood and his wife Claire getting on a plane, presumably Air Force One. We then see an upside down version of the American flag followed by the launch date: 02/27/15.
Based on a British series, the American version of "House of Cards" stars Kevin Spacey as devious politician Frank Underwood and Robin Wright as his wife and counterpart in political crime.
The series premiered on Netflix in 2013 with 13 episodes that followed the political antics of Underwood as he manipulated people and events to climb the ladder from Congressman to Vice President. Season 2 aired earlier this year as Underwood committed even more foul deeds that eventually landed him in the Oval Office as the leader of the nation.
As one of Netflix's original series, "House of Cards" has been a critical success. In 2013, the show garnered 14 Emmy nominations, the first time a series from an online-only service was in the running for the coveted award. The show won Emmies for casting and cinematography as well as for best directing of a drama series. In 2014, the show's second season earned a total of 31 Emmy nominations but came up empty at the end of the night.
Perhaps more important than any awards, "House of Cards" has brought a certain credibility and cachet to Netflix, showing that online shows with top actors, writers and creative talent can compete with the best of traditional network and cable programming. Netflix has been mum about just how many people watch the series. But the show is important as the company has increasingly positioned itself as a provider of original content in an attempt to challenge such competition as HBO.
By offering both original content along with Hollywood TV shows and movies, Netflix serves as a relatively low-cost option to viewers who want to cut the cable cord. But the company not only faces HBO and other cable networks. It now has to contend with services such as Amazon Prime, which has also been moving into the area of original programming.
Netflix's challenge now is to keep up the level of quality of shows like "House of Cards" and expand its lineup to other series that viewers will want to watch. The company recently acquired the rights to ""="" shortcode="link" asset-type="article" uuid="1ded34ae-67d4-11e3-a665-14feb5ca9861" slug="netflix-said-to-land-marco-polo-in-quest-for-original-content" link-text="stream " section="news" title="Netflix said to land 'Marco Polo' in quest for original content" edition="us" data-key="link_bulk_key"> a dramatic series about Polo's early years slated to start airing on Netflix on December 12.
"House of Cards" fans, however, will have to wait a few more months to see exactly what new political chicanery Frank and Claire will cook up now that they're actually running the country.
(Via The Verge)