House
of Cards is a Long Form Television series with a hybrid genre of political
thriller and drama. One of the main conventions of this type of genre is
verisimilitude in terms of narrative, which is evident in the first episode of
the show. Frank Underwood is the protagonist, leading the main storyline.
He is the House Majority Whip in congress, who has been promised by President
elect Garrick Walker that he will become Secretary of State, achieving a bonus.
When Linda Vasquez informs Frank that this position is instead going to Michael
Kern, he begins to plan his revenge that has effects on future events in the
series. This also affects Claire Underwood as she was expecting her husband's
bonus - and encourages 'Francis' to be angrier, insisting her sinister nature.
Ironically, she makes some staff cuts at her charity in order to gain some
money - a selfish act that her office manager disapproves of. Alongside this,
another main character known as Zoe Barnes is aiming to progress in her career
and often attempts to take on journalism projects. Many of her colleagues such
as Lucas and Janice reject her attempts to support them in their work,
underestimating her skill and keeping her in a low position. This reflects
Frank’s storyline, and creates a parallel narrative until they eventually
interlink. She discovers Frank Barnes and bargains that they can both get what
they want if they work together. As a pair, they leak the Education Bill
(needing to be announced in 100 days), creating an issue for the new President
and his government. The show conforms to its many genre conventions,
including elements such as suspense, grey areas between good and bad,
tracking shots, off screen sounds, low key lighting, political corruption and realism. The main
twist in the show is that Frank Underwood, the protagonist, is not
the hero of the story as expected. Instead, he is leading a sinister
cause of revenge in order to selfishly gain what he wants, and ruin
whoever is in his way. This is shown to the audience fairly quickly into
the series, as in episode 1 he is depicted to kill a neighbor’s suffering dog
without remorse. The media language of low-key lighting from this point until
the resolution of the episode creates the effect that Frank is the villain of
the series despite leading the story. The narrative of the dog is one that
symbolizes the nature of the series, as the death of the dog seems to highlight
how Frank reacts to negative situations. The end of the episode shows Frank as
successful as not only is the Education Bill leaked, but also the ‘murderer’ of
the dog is found by police – therefore creating a resolution for Frank in all
aspects of the narrative in this episode.
