Netflix

What's better than a series that streams online? After watching four seasons of "Mad Men" in about three weeks last year, I was sold. So the new Netflix streaming-only series of 13 episodes of political intrigue "House of Cards," immediately slid into heavy rotation in my house, a daily soap opera. Kevin Spacey stars as a charming and scheming House Majority Whip from South Carolina. Robin Wright is his wife, the oddly ruthless head of an NGO. Kate Mara, as gaunt and scary as her sister, Rooney, is great as a reporter willing to give her all for a scoop. There's a sprawling ensemble cast, enough political current-events to resonate and that sense of involvement that the soaps used to offer. Spacey turns to the camera throughout the series to offer sly asides, in the grand old "dear reader" tradition of serials, and it works perfectly ... I'm on Chapter Nine and streaming again tonight.

- MILTON MOORE