Everything You Need to Know About ‘House of Cards’ in This 4-Minute Video

Culture

The new season of House of Cards was released before dawn this morning and already the rave reviews are rolling in. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright's icy glares are sharp as ever and their sinister aphorisms are pitched just right: "The higher up the mountain, the more treacherous the path," says Frank Underwood (Spacey) in the first episode of season 1, setting the perfect, foreboding tone for what's to come.

But before we look ahead to season 2, let's review the glory that was season 1. This amazing four-minute refresher from the YouTube show What's Trending will tell you everything you need to know before binging tonight:

If you blinked at any point during that, you probably missed a huge story arc. Here's the point: Underwood accomplished a lot in season 1, there is still much more to do ... and this show is out of control.

Towards the end of season 1, Spacey and Wright tended to drift into the background, letting the minor characters work through the petty conflicts that the sinister couple had set in motion earlier on in the season. But they were always the characters viewers wanted to see most. Now that those secondary story lines have played out, here's hoping we see Spacey and Wright re-take the foreground. There's clearly a lot of calculated madness left to wreak.

Date or not, this will be a good Valentine's Day.