Its characters have a degree of obnoxiousness that takes some getting used to.

He is a politician. Of course he needs to continue conniving.

I didn't get sucked into the most recent season like the ones prior. Season 4 is pretty great. Season 3 was a bit of a dud with only the last three episodes or so being worth it. You may have to pass on HOC if it isn't doing anything for you in S2. You will just miss out on some great Claire moments.

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Anne or Anne with an E (I'm not entirely sure which is the correct name for my region.)

So I'm pretty much the last person to expect to be into this sort of thing, but I dig it. I dunno if it's just because I'm feeling a little homesick and it's nice to hear Canadian cities get name dropped in hilarious accents.

Anyways, it's a new show about Anne (with an E) from Green Gabels, a book series that I've never read but was aware of. It follows the titular Anne (with an E) as she is accidentally adopted (they wanted a boy) by a brother and sister to basically act as free labour. Things happen, she gets to stay, and live a life as a child, something she never got to do because she had been an orphan her entire life, which have left her with a nasty case of PTSD.

Despite this, she is a very imaginative, curious, well spoken, educated, and polite girl who is headstrong and determined. She can sometimes go to Bridge to Terabithia levels of obnoxious at times, but she gets nicely balanced out by her adoptive mother's grounded and stern, but never mean, personality.

Costumes and set design are top notch, it really does look like late 19th / early 20th century. There's some gorgeous cinematography and I definitely need to check out Prince Edward Island sometime in my life.

Overall, a very well thought-out and executed show.

SHOOTER with Ryan Phillippe.

Two episodes in and really digging it. Follows the very basic premise of the movie but is taking it into some very different directions so far.

Oh, and the Executive Producer? Mark Wahlberg.

I'm starting Twin Peaks over in order to be fully within the atmosphere for the third season.

Nothing beats the episodes focusing on James and the cougar.

I'm not aware how Spacey plays it, but Sir Ian Richardson (RIP) talks to the audience, more or less telling them what's going on - "Prime Minister's Question Time: a chance to do some damage" etc, and I don't think it's perhaps as mired in the political element as the US one might be. It's pretty straightforward once you understand the nature of any leadership challenge won and then held onto with an iron fist. I defy anyone not to be gripped by it. It's classic British drama.

Yes, the US version is full of cheap exposition too.

I ain't seen it, but the thing about the version I have seen, the BBC one, is that although it's politically-set, of course, it's almost more a backdrop. It's the inner workings of Francis Urquart's mind we see more than anything else; what he'll do to take and keep power, the things and the people he betrays, who he'll literally murder or have murdered to keep his grip on power. As I say, almost literally Richard III for the twentieth century.

I was answering your question about whether or not the US version copies how the original breaks the 4th wall (aka cheap exposition). But yes, I'm aware that it's about the ground breaking concept of a power hungry politician.