House of Cards, Season 2: So Gay.

Spoiler alert: Don't read this post if you haven't seen ALL of Season 2 of "House of Cards" and there's even a remote possibility that you'll ever watch it.

I'm not much of a TV person.  We don't even have cable.  But when I am addicted to a TV show, I don't mess around.  The  shows to which I have been Super Into in the past five years are few: "Breaking Bad," "Downton Abbey" (yes, it's a soap opera; I don't care), "Mad Men" (Jon Hamm! Christina Hendricks! John Slattery!), and most recently, "House of Cards."

Before we get down to our Queer Business, let's catalog the two main reasons "House of Cards" is so awesome:
 

(1) Kevin Spacey.  I love KS.  Love.  In my opinion, the best working actor.  I'd pay to watch the man sit on a chair and smoke a cigarette for two hours.
(2) Robin Wright.  (Yes, the same RW who was in "The Princess Bride" way back when.)  With that fantabulous haircut, icy-hot smile, and killer acting instincts, she's more than equal to the task of playing opposite Spacey. 

Together, the new First Couple's chemistry is elegant, dynamic, multi-layered, beautiful, and frightening--often all at the same time.  We started Season 1 with Frank Underwood jogging alone; Season 2 opens with Frank and Claire jogging together.  This is a not-so-subtle foreshadowing of the season's dynamic, in which Frank and Claire are no longer working at cross-purposes.  They subtly undermine the sitting President and First Lady, quietly understand the implications of Frank's murder of Zoe (best season opener ever, BTW), and even seduce the cautious-but-willing Meecham together.

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...Which brings us, of course, to one of the two queer subplots.  While we don't get a whiff that Claire has an, erm, softball-playing past (let alone bats for both teams), Frank does.  In Season 1, we got a hint at Frank's college reunion (when he tells an old friend, "You meant something to me," with unmistakably romantic overtones), but weren't beaten over the head with it.  Which I LOVE, because it would be waaay too easy to show Frank lusting after congressional intern boys.  We don't get the sense that Frank is hiding some big dark secret; he's simply attracted to both men and women, so in the context of his selectively-open marriage (remember Claire's icy "What does she give us?" re: Frank's liaison with Zoe in Season 1?), it makes sense that he would sleep with both men and women. 

What makes this so interesting and weirdly modern (no judgment, just my own prudishness showing) is that Claire is not only cool with Frank's predilections, but helps them along.  The morning after the couple seduces Meecham, Claire asks how Frank slept, and when he says he slept great, tells him, "Good.  You needed that."  OMG, Claire.  OMG.  Not to mention, how many threesomes have you ever heard of that involve two men and one woman rather than the other way around?  I love that this turns the typical straight male fantasy on its head.

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And, of course, there's the other Big Queer Subplot, which involves Rachel Posner, the ex-sex worker with whom Frank's chief henchman, Doug, has become obsessed.  After meeting through a proselytization attempt on public transit, Lisa Williams moves in with Rachel, and soon converts her... in more ways than one.  I saw this one coming a mile away, yet I was still surprised by it--and surprise + inevitability makes for great drama. 

Sure, "House of Cards" isn't exactly brimming with homos, but it's a heck of a lot gayer than most of the other good dramas around these days.  Plus, I love that a character's being gay isn't the be-all and end-all of the character.  Rachel's relationship is a big deal because she's finally found love and Doug is devastated, and Rachel has to break with Lisa because of her (Rachel's) sex-working past--not because Rachel is--gasp--queer.  Same deal with Frank.  He's bi--maybe--but he doesn't seem to be "struggling" with this fact.  Another way "House of Cards" does queer so well is that it doesn't flinch or pull punches or leave the gay stuff to hints and allusions (like, say, "Mad Men" does, and "Downton Abbey" has done since Episode 2).  Nope, the gay kisses get screen time.  Almost like they're equal relationships or something.

I bet my DGF and I aren't the only "House of Cards" binge-watchers out there.  What did you all think?  (And what should my next addiction be?)

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