Putting television ‘aside’: novel narration in House of Cards

Abstract

Television serial formats over the past decade have evolved considerably under the influence of new media technologies. Hand in hand with the advent of new distribution channels, new viewing habits and consequently new narrative features have developed in serial filmic narration. Netflix's 2013 release of House of Cards – with episodes directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey in the lead role – adds to this development. While implicitly drawing attention to the new format's structural and narrative logic, the series borrows strongly from literary genres, including the novel and drama. One of the most distinct features of the series is the theatrical aside, in which the protagonist seemingly addresses an extradiegetic audience. Making the aside, together with the rhetorical figure of metalepsis its starting point, this inquiry will provoke larger questions of filmic serial storytelling in general, and the role of an embodied filmic narrator figure in particular.