Review by Gary Tooze

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Disc:

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• Politics for the Sake of Politics (3:54): Politics is only the back drop, the themes are universal. What is the show about? It’s about relationships and power, not just politics.

• Direct Address (5:39): Talks about the great device (breaking the 4th wall/Francis talking directly to the viewer) from original show and how they use it in the show.

Disc 2

Disc 3
• Table Read (7:36): Behind the scenes of table reads cut together with the actual scenes from the show so you see how the scene changes. This is for episodes 12 & 13.

Disc 4
• Line of Succession (17:53)

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Description: Masterful, beguiling and charismatic, Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and his equally ambitious wife Claire (Robin Wright) continue their ruthless rise to power in Season 2 of '. Behind the curtain of power, sex, ambition, love, greed and corruption in modern Washington D.C. the Underwoods must battle threats past and present to avoid losing everything. As new alliances form and old ones succumb to deception and betrayal, they will stop at nothing to ensure their ascendancy.

 

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Sony's Blu-ray package of the highly lauded series House of Cards is as clean and crisp as you might imagine from a new HD-broadcast series. The 13 X 50-minute episodes are housed on four Blu-rays. 4 episodes on the first disc and three each on the remaining - with supplements on each disc.  The original aspect ratio of 2.0:1 is supported. This is transferred on dual-layered discs with reasonable bitrates for the feature content per Blu-ray. There are plenty of dark scenes in House of Cards (dark topics) but the bitrate is supportive and I saw no noise or compression artifacts. The brighter the scenes the more depth - which is common. Detail is strong, visuals, especially close-ups, are crisp. It is quite flawless and in 1080P.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent audio quality with a supportive and tight DTS-HD Master 5.1 track at 2177 kbps. Any action, and it's not abundant although there are effect sounds that jump to the rear speakers. Jeff Beal's score floats in and out through scene changes. Everything sounds pristine in lossless and there is depth in the score's drums. There is a French language DUBs and some subtitle options signifying the three discs as being region FREE - playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

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BOTTOM LINE:
House of Cards is another very strong TV series. I got wrapped up in Season One, then watched the British version (not as good, IMO) and rifled through Season Two on Blu-ray. Perhaps not at the high level of the first season, but still excellent viewing. And look at the directors! We lose some, interesting, characters, add a whole bunch more. There are some awful personas in House of Cards - and the moral implications are as well thought-out as the political nuances. This has a lot of value - absolutely recommended!  

Gary Tooze

June 13th, 2014