Think about your favorite movie. All time, hands down favorite. Got it? Now, imagine if the lead actor, or the director was accused of something terrible. Would that change how you feel about the movie? Would it alter how it made you feel, and why you loved it so?
Unfortunately, these days more and more people are having to deal with the issue of interpreting art after they have discovered terrible things about the artist. Bill Cosby, Andrew Kreisberg, Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey are just some of the names that have come out in recent months and years tied to terrible, disgusting sexual harassment and sexual assault rumors. When then news first broke about Kevin Spacey, my mind went to "House of Cards," the hit show in which Kevin Spacey starts as Francis Underwood, a cutthroat southern democrat with a political agenda that he will do anything to accomplish. I had never seen the show, and the idea of watching the show now, after hearing all the terrible things that had come out was something that I found to be interesting. So, I set off to begin watching, not knowing how, or what, I was about to feel.
The first season of the show I found to be the most jarring and unsettling, given what we now is being alleged against Mr. Spacey. This show at its core is about power, and the things people will do and become to wield it.
Frank Underwood begins a sexual relationship with a reporter, Zoe Barnes. As the relationship devolves and the facade of actual connection fades away, you realize that what it really is about for both parties. For Zoe, it was about getting information that she could use to continue to grow her blossoming journalism career. For Frank, while he insisted that he was using Zoe to leak information to further his political agenda, it seemed that he craved the feeling of having power of Zoe, which displayed itself in a encounter on Father's Day that I will say left me feeling very uneasy.
I feel that it would have done so regardless of the allegations coming to light, but knowing that Spacey has been accused of using his power and stature in the industry for sexual purposes, it was all the more off putting. And not just in a sexual nature, the show is filled with example upon example of Underwood and his cohorts using their position and power to manipulate the world to their liking, most of the time at the expense of due process, the law, and even moral grounds.
But the thing that resonated with me the most was the show's use of 4th wall breaking to have Spacey's character speak directly to the viewer. Often we would see him talking kindly or calmly to a peer or member of congress only to turn to the camera, sullen faced, and tell the audience how everything he was saying was untrue. It mirrors are current view of Hollywood to a unsettling degree, how we lift up and idolize people we know nothing about.
The news of people like Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. resonates so much is because we never expected it from them. Because all we see is who they are on screen, or on the stage. We don't get to see what they are saying when they are looking away, what truths they are really holding on to. We trust them because they have filled the roles of people we like, people we admire, even people we aspire to be. In the case of Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, we looked to them to provide us with honest and informative information and stop at nothing to bring it to us, not knowing the real truth about them.
As I finished the series, I found myself appreciating the show for the artistic achievement it is, but also for reminding me of the real hazard of the superficial; of taking things at face value. It also let me reflect on the idea of power, and what it does to people. I try to imagine what I would feel about the show had I watched it all before the allegations came out. I feel there might have been a part of me that respected Frank Underwood for his tenacity, and for his political genius. But I found my thoughts unable to leave the egregious abuses of power he utilized episode after episode. It wasn't strength, it was cowardliness. It took no skill, it was just disgusting, brute manipulation of people at the cost of their aspirations and dreams. It wasn't something to be respected, but something to resent.
In the end, "House of Cards" was an apt name for both a show about politics and for Spacey as a person; impressive at first glance but when you really begin to see what goes into them, they falls apart under pressure.
