TELEVISION: Season three of House of Cards gives Poly students more of a reason to procrastinate.
by Joey Vangsness, Staff Writer
It is no secret that instead of staying on top of schoolwork, we teenagers prefer to lay around and watch Netflix all day. “Binge watching,” or the act of watching multiple episodes of a TV show in one sitting, is an increasingly popular trend among teenagers and television providers are reacting accordingly. House of Cards, a captivating tale of power and corruption produced and released independently by Netflix, recently had its entire third season uploaded to Netflix’s online streaming service. This enables those who prefer to watch their shows in junk-food-fueled, all-night benders to watch whole seasons in a single sitting.
House of Cards tells the story of Francis and Claire Underwood as they fight their way through Washington, D.C. in a quest for political status and revenge. Season three resumes their story with Francis assuming the presidency after a hard-fought climb up the political hierarchy, initially starting as a state representative in season one. Throughout his journey to the top, Underwood shows time and time again his manipulative nature, promising fellow members of Congress favors and influence. Underwood’s rise to power is full of legally mischievous acts and a surprising amount of murder. His wife, Claire, moves up right alongside him in her own quest for power.
This is not Netflix’s first show released solely online. The Norwegian drama Lilyhammer was the first show Netflix offered to exclusively stream in 2012. The highly anticipated fourth and final season of Arrested Development included 15 episodes that were released altogether in 2013. The extremely popular prison drama Orange is the New Black has two seasons available only on Netflix and has been renewed for a third season. Netflix’s newest show is The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy by Tina Fey and other writers of the NBC comedy series 30 Rock.
With all these great shows available in large chunks, it is no surprise viewers prefer to watch more episodes at once. As opposed to the traditional one-episode-per-week model of television, Netflix offers a superior viewing experience.
While Francis Underwood exerts his power over others through threats and political plays, Netflix exerts even more power over us by providing almost unlimited access to extremely well-produced shows full seasons at a time, holding viewers spellbound for days. And I embrace Netflix’s omnipotent influence over me; I finished all 13, hour-long episodes of House of Cards’ third season within five days of its February 27 release and cannot wait until the fourth season is available.