The love-hate relationship between political scientists and House of Cards

I’m working through a number of different theories about why “House of Cards” is so profoundly wrong about American politics while still being a rather entertaining and addictive show. Maybe it’s actually a comedy. Maybe it’s being written by an evil political scientist who knows full well how the American political system works but is aggressively (and most effectively) trolling other political scientists.

Seth Masket in the Monkey Cage.

I completely agree: fantastically unrealistic politics, incredibly entertaining.

My rule of thumb: any political show, spy novel, or detective story with a devious and complicated plan that comes to fruition was written by someone who has never, ever tried to implement a devious complicated plan.

This reminds me of an earlier post on the best television on Washington DC.

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