Two fine programs - one about evil people who succeed, the other about peple wh make terrible mistakes

A note on two TV series, one concluded (for this season) and the other on-going (for me): American Crime (ABC) as noted previously is one of the finest and most under-the-radar of the genre. The 2nd season (a completely different narrative from the first season, with many of the same actors and the same creative team) ends, like most tragedies, with many characters, maybe all characters, punished and chastened. This series is a story of a crime, as the title says, in fact of multiple crimes: an alleged homosexual rape at an unsanctioned by "winked-at" captains' party for the basketball team at an Indianapolis prep school; drug sales; Internet hacking and posting of private information; assault and hate crimes against blacks, gay men, Hispanics; bullying; and finally a fatal shooting - and all of these strands woven neatly together into the tight web of a plot. Though a few of the characters are sympathetic and likable victims, many others - including particularly the two leads, played very well by Timothy Hutton an Felicity Huffman - are manipulative and self-centered - and virtually every character, including the high-school kids and the adults, is deeply flawed and makes terrible judgements. The series forces us every step of the way to ask: what would we do? who's right and who's wrong? The ending is sensibly and suitable open for interpretation - feels like a real conclusion, dark but credible.

House of Cards - we're up to episode 10 of season 4, the conclusion of the "open convention" and the nomination of the Underwoods as a president-vp team - continues to fascinate the way one can be fascinated by looking at a cage of snakes in a terrarium or zoo. Unlike American Crime, each of the characters is despicable, but each is smart and conniving - it's a constant collision of radical forces, leading to some very strange outcomes and powerful scenes: Frank Underwood/Kevin Spacey giving hell to his rival/protegee the secretary of state, homicidal Chief of Staff Doug Stamper trying to push around his staff underlings and taking out his destructive, pent-up rage in a hotel men's room, the ice-cold Clare Underwood/Robin Wright seducing novelist-speechwriter Tom Yates - like a spider seducing a fly. These are some of the great scenes just from episode 10. However: Do others find it hard to believe that Clare would be so beloved among the party leaders, conventioneers, and the public at large? Were others surprised at the weakness of her convention speech - supposed to be the greatest short speech since Gettysburg? As the Underwoods embark on the campaign, taking on Joel Kinnamen as a Schwartzeneger-like Republican, the background noise builds - as intrepid reporter is putting together the pieces to show that Underwood actually killed or sanctioned the killing of 3 people.