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Welcome to Slate's Spoiler Special podcast.

I'm David Hagland, and I'm joined not by Dana Stephen Slate's film critic, but by June Thomas, a culture critic for Slate. Hello, June.

Hey, David.

This is a very special spoiler special because we're not discussing a movie. We're going to be discussing all 13 episodes of Season 1 of House of Cards, which became available on Netflix on Friday.

June and I both managed to watch all 13 by Saturday night.

Right.

And, David, I was, you know, that's the kind of thing I do every weekend.

But I was very surprised that you did it because you're a kind of guy who I imagine, like,

reading books and going to movies and actually leaving the house and the couch. I should have been reading some books, but it was cold out. It was.

My girlfriend and I had no plans, and we just clicked next again and again and again. Awesome.

So definitely one of the things we want to talk about is why we kept clicking next, but maybe first we should get into some of the plot of this show.

Right. So I'll kick off. So this is an American version of a British show, a BBC show from 1990.

House of Cards, of course, makes a little more sense in reference to the House of Commons.

But I was impressed by how much Bo Willemann, the author,

differentiated it and made it a believably American show. But it tells the story

of Frank Underwood, who is

the chief whip in the house.

The majority whip, yeah, majority whip.

...