《纸牌屋》开辟互联网电视剧新时代

∷宋云峰

2013年2月1日，美国著名的在线流媒体（streaming media）服务商奈飞（Net flix）公司投拍的美国政治连续剧《纸牌屋》（House of Cards）第一季（共13集）在奈飞网站上连续播出，受到包括美国总统奥巴马在内的在线流媒体网民的广泛好评，动摇了传统电视剧制作和播映的根基，开辟了互联网电视剧的新时代。接着，2014年2月14日，奈飞公司又将拍摄完成的《纸牌屋》第二季全部13集在自己的网站上连续播出，再一次引起观众热议。同时，奈飞公司宣布已投拍第三季。

House of Cardsis an American political drama television series, developed and produced by Beau Willimon. It is an adaptation of a previous BBC miniseries of the same name and is based on the novel by Michael Dobbs. The entire first season, thirteen episodes,premiered（首映）on February 1, 2013, on the streaming service Net flix. A second season of thirteen episodes premiered on February 14, 2014. On February 4, 2014, ten days prior to the first available streaming release of the second season, Net flix announced that the show had been renewed for a third season.

《纸牌屋》人物形象的塑造

在《纸牌屋》里不仅完全没有道德层面的“好人”，连遵纪守法、照章办事的人都几乎销声匿迹。男主角弗朗西斯·安德伍德（Francis Underwood，由奥斯卡影帝凯文·斯派西Kevin Spacey饰演）是个老奸巨猾的政客，第一季里他从党鞭（国会多数党督导）爬到了副总统的位置，第二季里继续党同伐异，向权力巅峰冲刺。而他周围全是同类，为了获取权力，每个人都可以采取包括诽谤、贿赂、谋杀在内的一切手段击倒对手。这里当然有为了增强戏剧效果的夸张手法，但做到了细节真实。《纸牌屋》是将美国政坛阴暗面放大到极致的演绎，是各种整人手段的教科书。

Set in present-day Washington, D.C.,House of Cardsis the story of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey),a Democrat from South Carolina’s 5th congressional district and House majority whip（党鞭，国会中主要政党的党内督导）who, after being passed over for appointment as Secretary of State, initiates an elaborate plan to get himself into a position of power. The series is primarily about ruthless（无情的）pragmatism（实用主义）, manipulation, power and doing bad things for the greater good.

《纸牌屋》第一季导演大卫·芬奇

《纸牌屋》制片人鲍尔·威利蒙

奈飞公司

《纸牌屋》的投资公司奈飞（Net flix）对该剧成功所给出的解释是大数据的胜利。奈飞公司是世界上最大的在线影片租赁服务商，它不像一般的电视台，想知道观众对节目的反应，需要聘用专门的收视调查公司进行抽样统计才行。奈飞在公司的技术平台上就可以了解到每一位观众的收视动作，包括在哪里停顿、回放或者快进，看哪个节目最多等等。用户每天在奈飞上产生三千多万个这样的行为，订阅用户每天还会给出400万个评分，还有300万次搜索请求，询问剧集播放时间和设备。通过对公司在美国的2,700万订阅用户以及在全世界的3,300万用户形成的大数据分析，奈飞试图寻找保证票房的规律。

Net flix, Inc. is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in North and South America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe(Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway,Sweden, and the United Kingdom), and of flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States, where mailed DVDs are sent via Permit Reply Mail. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos,California. It started its subscription-based digital distribution service in 1999, and by 2009 it was offering a collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 million subscribers. As of mid-March 2013, Net flix had 33 million subscribers.

《纸牌屋》制作模式的创新

决定投拍《纸牌屋》之前，奈飞公司就从海量用户数据的分析中得出结论：人们对政治剧集、导演大卫·芬奇和奥斯卡影帝凯文·史派西的期待值出现了高度重合。他们找到了大卫·芬奇（David Fincher，导演过《社交网络》、《七宗罪》等）和凯文·史派西（Kevin Spacey，出演过《美国丽人》、《七宗罪》等），决定花1亿美元改编十分受欢迎的英剧《纸牌屋》。芬奇认为观众在互联网时代的口味也逼着电视剧的制作和播放采取一次过瘾的方法，制片威利蒙则断言五年后在线流媒体将取代传统电视节目，而斯派西也感觉多集电视剧对人物的塑造会比电影更加丰满、复杂和有趣。

“The captive（被迷住的）audience is gone. If you give people this opportunity to mainline（沉溺于）all in one day, there’s reason to believe they will do it.”（导演David Fincher）

“This is the future, streaming is the future. TV will not be TV in five years from now... everyone will be streaming.”（制片人Beau Willimon）

“I was lucky to get into film at a time that was very interesting for drama. But if you look now, the focus is not on the same kind of films that were made in the 90s. When I look now, the most interesting plots, the most interesting characters, they are on TV.”（主演Kevin Spacey）

该剧获得成功后，主演和监制斯派西对奈飞一次让观众过足瘾并承诺至少连拍两季的全新模式赞赏有加，并与传统电视剧制作的试拍（一集或一季）模式和放映时吊观众胃口（通常是每周播一集）的模式进行了优劣对比。

Spacey called Net flix’s model of publishing all episodes at once a“new perspective.”He added that Net flix’s commitment to two full seasons gave the series greater continuity.“We know exactly where we are going,”he said.In a speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival,he also noted that while other networks were interested in the show, they all wanted a pilot（试播）, whereas Net flix—relying solely on their statistics—ordered the series directly.

《纸牌屋》主演和监制凯文·斯派西

《纸牌屋》英国版（1990）

《纸牌屋》火了，这部剧集还引起了亚马逊、微软等公司对投拍互联网剧集、消除正规电视剧与在线电视剧差异的兴趣。亚马逊正在制作至少11部试播剧集，这些剧集仅可通过互联网观看，原因是这家公司正在与奈飞展开“竞争”，利用人们对于在智能手机、平板电脑和互联网电视上观看电视节目的兴趣，以扩大自身在流媒体播放服务这一领域中的占有率。与此同时，微软也正在制作自己的电视连续剧，而且有报道称，谷歌、苹果、英特尔和推特（Twitter）也正在考虑开发自己的类似产品。由此可见，奈飞的《纸牌屋》实际上开辟了互联网电视剧的新时代。

附：《纸牌屋》第一季故事情节

The series opens with a congressman Francis Underwood displaying his ruthless practicality by killing a suffering pet dog with his bare hands while explaining to the audience how there are times when we require someone to do the unpleasant thing yet the necessary thing. Along this theme we follow Francis“Frank”Underwood, a power hungry Democratic congressman from South Carolina and House majority whip.After securing the election of President Garrett Walker to gain himself appointment to Secretary of State, Underwood is devastated to learn that he is being passed over（被顶替）. Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez tells Underwood that the president wants him to promote his agenda in Congress and will not honor their agreement. Seething（怒火中烧）inside, Underwood must quickly gain control of his anger and hide his disappointment to present himself as a helpful lieutenant（助手，副手）to the president and his agenda.In reality Underwood begins an elaborate plan behind the president’s back, with the ultimate goal of gaining power for himself.

His wife Claire runs a charity, but her intentions are not explicit（明确的）. She seems to use her charity for power and in fluence and yet the ultimate purpose for its need is unknown. In the opening episode, she deems the successful charity organization that she has put together to have too limited a footprint（足迹，影响）. Keen to be on the international stage, she decides to change her organization to one that supports international well digging to provide clean water. This is met with great misgivings（疑虑，不安）by her of fice manager. Claire directs her to fire eighteen of her employees, cutting the staff in half. At the end of the day she checks in to ask how the process went, and then informs the manager she is being let go as well. It is clear from the outset（开始）that Claire is as cold-hearted, ruthlessly pragmatic and has a deep desire for power like her husband.

Underwood begins a highly intricate（错综复杂的）plan to obtain a cabinet position, acquiring pawns（走卒，棋子）he can manipulate in his power play. He begins an extramarital（私通的，婚外的） relationship with Zoe Barnes, a young political reporter, and then makes a deal with her in exchange for the leak（泄密）of damaging stories about his rivals in the House（国会众议院）.Meanwhile, he manipulates Peter Russo, a troubled congressman from Pennsylvania, into helping him undermine（暗中破坏）Walker’s pick for Secretary of State, Senator Michael Kern. Underwood eventually has him replaced with his own choice, Senator Catherine Durant. Underwood also uses Russo in a plot to end a teacher’s strike and pass an education bill, which improves Underwood’s standing（地位）with Walker.

Because the new vice president is the former governor（州长）of Pennsylvania, a special election is to be held for governor. Underwood helps Russo get clean and props up（资助，支持）his candidacy, but later uses call girl（应召女郎）Rachel Posner to break his sobriety（清醒，节制）and trigger his downfall shortly before the election. Distraught（心烦意乱的）, Russo decides to make amends for（补偿）his failure by coming clean（坦白交待）to the press about his role in Underwood’s schemes（阴谋）. As a result, Underwood stages（筹划，策划）his suicide and leaves him in a closed garage with his car running. With the Pennsylvania special election in chaos, Underwood convinces the vice president to step down and run for his old position of governor—leaving the vice presidency open to Underwood, as was his plan all along.

Walker appears to have other plans. Underwood ends up vetting（审查，调查）a surprising choice for Vice President, billionaire Raymond Tusk. Tusk later reveals that he is actually appraising Underwood for the position.Meanwhile, after Underwood brings their affair to an end,Zoe begins piecing together clues（线索）about Underwood’s scheming. The season ends when Underwood receives and accepts the nomination for vice president.