You just have to accept the premise.
I agree it skirts melodrama but that doesn't bother me. A show like this is going to skirt it. Political dramaissoap opera for men. I think I said it in this very thread, months ago, and remarked that they managed to avoid the worst parts of it successfully in s1 by developing Franks character. But they can't do that as much in s2 since it's already been done. You go too far in 1 direction and it becomes Days of our Frank. But if you go too far in the other direction you have to read the wikipedia to understand what the fuck is going on. Mindful of that difficulty with the subject material, I think they've done just about the best possible job of it.
Mr. Hearst is an abstraction. So is Frank.
That's why I equate it to Mad Men. Mad Men is more of an ensemble. HoC is what Mad Men would look like if it was 90% Don Draper all the time. And actually look at the complaints about Mad Men, they're similar complaints. "Too much Betty" is just another way to say "Too much soap opera". Do you quickly forget 50 Shades of Draper?
Whenever the Raymond Tusk character shows up (great actor)... you know how it's gonna be. He's going to be the robber baron. He's a character actor and thats his character. The last season of deadwood would have been better if Sweegin had just taken him out back and shot him, too.
So yeah. Let it digest for a little while. Its still top notch.
The green screen sequences bugged me more than the other stuff.
