Over the weekend, I tweeted that Kevin Spacey was a shoo-in for a Best Actor Emmy for his performance on House of Cards.  Adam informed me that Spacey was ineligible because House of Cards didn’t meet the Emmys’ definition of broadcast television.  I imagine five years from now, the Emmys and the old-guard TV establishment it represents will finally catch on to the changing landscape of modern viewing habits.  The age of “appointment television” is almost completely dead, and “must-see-TV” has become “I’ll-see-it-when-I-damn-well-please-TV”.  Shows and networks are pushing the boundaries of when we can see them, where we can see them, and as House of Cards showed us this past weekend, how we can see them.  However, we might not have as much power over our viewing habits as technology would lead us to believe.

This weekend, Netflix premiered House of Cards.  All of House of Cards.  It was a bold strategy that signaled that not only was Netflix now in the television business (even though it isn’t their first original series), but that they had quality programming on the level of HBO.  House of Cards is a show with the same level of plotting, character development, twists, and turns that we’ve come to expect from the celebrated premium channel.  In some ways, House of Cards is even better than some of HBO’s recent offerings.  Beau Willimon‘s adaptation of the BBC series is radical not only in its distribution, but also in how it spits in the face of those who claim that they need characters to “root for”.

House of Cards isn’t Netflix’s first original series, but it’s the most important to the streaming service’s future.  Arrested Development has the benefit of a built-in audience, but House of Cards is built from the ground-up (aside from being a remake of the British series), and Netflix is hoping that the clout of executive producer David Fincher and star Kevin Spacey will help draw in viewers.  Judging by the trailers, the show looks to have a highly entertaining and pitch-black take on modern American politics.  All 13 episodes are now available online, and if I weren’t working, I’d be marathoning them right now.

Netflix is hoping it can lure in new members by offering the series premiere for free on its website.  Furthermore, all Xbox users can watch the show this weekend provided they’re already Netflix members.  No Gold Xbox Live membership is required.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer for House of Cards.

Netflix is kicking their original content into high gear this spring with the debuts of David Fincher’s political thriller series House of Cards, new episodes of Arrested Development, and a gothic thriller series called Hemlock Grove.  The latter comes from producer Eli Roth (who also directed the pilot), and a first trailer for Hemlock Grove has now been released online.  The show is based on Brian McGreevy’s novel of the same name and revolves around “the eccentric residents of a dilapidated former Pennsylvania steel town and the murder of 17-year-old Brooke Bluebell.  Through the investigation, the town’s seamier side is exposed, revealing that nothing is what it seems.”  The trailer looks like a cross between Grimm and Twin Peaks, with a touch of The Twilight Zone.  Color me intrigued.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The show stars Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, and Dougray Scott.  All 13 episodes will be available at once on Netflix on April 19th.

It’s almost here, folks.  New episodes of Arrested Development will be before our eyes in just a few short months, at which point we’ll see what the Bluths have been up to in the six years they’ve been off the air.  The entire new season will be released at once on Netflix sometime this spring, and recently the season order was increased from 10 episodes to 13 or 14 episodes.

We know that each episode focuses on a single character, and now creator/showrunner Mitch Hurwitz has provided a surprising amount of details regarding the show’s return, including the fact that Jason Bateman’s Michael Bluth is the only character that appears in every episode, and each episode will show what happened to each character directly after the events of the season three finale in 2006.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

If you have sometimes wished that the fake TV shows referenced in real TV shows were themselves real, then Netflix is making your Christmas dreams come true.  Hitching their cart to their upcoming revival of Arrested Development as the savior of all things Netflix, the purveyor of online streaming and DVDs through the mail has recently added a swath of fake entertainment referenced in the show, including Caged Wisdom: Musings from Prison, Girls With Low Self-Esteem: Orlando, and of course the film Les Cousins Dangereux.  Hit the jump for the full descriptions of each that Netflix has included.

Netflix is getting Disney-fied.  It was announced today that Netflix and The Walt Disney Company have signed an exclusive multi-year deal that will see first-run live-action and animated feature films from Disney stream exclusively on Netflix.  The deal begins in 2016 and includes films theatrically released from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Disnenature after that date.  Said films will be made available exclusively on Netflix’s streaming service as part of the first pay-TV window, and the deal also includes direct-to-video new releases from Disney starting in 2013.

For those discouraged by the long wait for 2016, the two companies also struck a separate multi-year deal that will make catalog Disney titles available on Netflix imminently.  This is very welcome news, as the prices of Disney’s home video releases can be steep and you’re SOL if the movie you want is “in the vault.”  Hit the jump for the full press release.

Netflix, the ever-evolving DVD and streaming service, has really raised the bar on web series and online original content recently, both with the news of its resurrection of the beloved Arrested Development and its upcoming David Fincher adaptation of Michael Dobbs‘ House of Cards series.

In anticipation of House of Cards‘ release, Netflix has created character profiles that say something about each, while also revealing their true nature.  Hit the jump for the pics and the trailer.  The show stars Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Kate Mara, Corey Stoll, Michael Kelly, Sakina Jaffrey, Kristen Connolly, Sebastian Arcelus, Boris McGiver, Constance Zimmer, Jayne Atkinson, Michel Gill, and Reg E. Cathey.  All 13 episode of House of Cards premiere on February 1, 2013.

The Killing returns.  Months after AMC cancelled the drama series following its second season, it appears that a deal is being hammered out to now bring the show back.  Deadline reports that The Killing producer Fox TV Studios was relentless in their pursuit to keep the show alive, and after talking with a number of potential buyers they finally found a partner in Netflix.  AMC will be teaming up with the streaming juggernaut for the third season, with AMC airing the episodes first before they go up on Netflix.  Hit the jump for more.

The first official image from the new season of Arrested Development has been released.  Just last week we learned that Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter had joined the growing list of guest stars that will be making appearances in the new episodes, and this official image shows O’Brien and Richter alongside Jason Bateman.  The two presumably play versions of themselves, as it appears that the scene in question takes place backstage at Conan.

Additionally, though we had previously known that the new episodes would be available on some undetermined date in spring 2013, The Film Stage reports that they’ll be released all at once on Netflix in April.  Hit the jump to check out the image.

Fans are eagerly awaiting the resurrection of Arrested Development when the show returns with new episodes on Netflix early next year, and creator Mitch Hurwitz is making damn sure the wait hasn’t been in vain.  In addition to the return of the entire cast, we already have confirmation that series favorites Judy Greer, Henry Winkler, Scott Baio, Mae Whitman, Jeff Garlin, Liza Minnelli, and most recently Carl Weathers (baby you got a stew going!) are returning.  Now comes word that a couple of welcome newcomers will pop up in the new batch of episodes: Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter [Edit: I somehow forgot that Richter appeared in the episode "S.O.B.s" during the show's third season].

AD star Will Arnett appeared on Conan last night, and during the segment he revealed that O’Brien and Richter will appear in the new season.  No word on whether they’ll be playing themselves or characters, but either way this is very good news.  Hit the jump to watch Arnett’s appearance on Conan.  The new season of Arrested Development will premiere on Netflix in Spring 2013.

With the exception of Arrested Development, there is no higher-profile show for Netflix than David Fincher‘s House of Cards.  The series “follows ruthless politician Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey), the majority whip of the House of Representatives, and his wife, Claire (Robin Wright), as they pursue power and all the good things that come with it in Washington.”  Netflix, if it plans to survive, has to develop original content, and Fincher’s adaptation of the BBC TV series could be a major hit.  Since Netflix doesn’t have to abide by the same rules as traditional networks, the New York Times is reporting that the subscription streaming service will premiere all 13 episodes on February 1, 2013.  Fincher developed the series and directed the first two episodes with other episodes being directed by James Foley, Joel Schumacher, Carl Franklin, Alan Coulter, and Charles McDougall.

Coupled with the fourth seasons of Arrested Development, 2013 could be a huge year for Netflix in terms of breaking away from its flagging steaming service, and breaking into a redefinition of broadcast television.  Hit the jump to check out the first poster for House of Cards.

In the action thriller Taken 2, from director Olivier Megaton and co-screenwriters Luc Besson (who’s also a producer on the film) and Robert Mark Kamen, Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent who stopped at nothing to save his abducted daughter (Maggie Grace). Two years later, the family of those responsible are now seeking their own vengeance, this time on his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), with whom Bryan is hoping to reconcile.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, actress Famke Janssen talked about the surprise global success of the first film, her immediate reaction upon hearing about the sequel, working with a new director this time, and the experience of shooting in Istanbul. She also talked about taking three years away from acting to dedicate herself to her full-length feature debut as a writer/director, called Bringing Up Bobby, going through three hours of make-up to play a witch in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, what attracted her to the Eli Roth Netflix series Hemlock Grove, and the next film she’s hoping to direct. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Though series creator Mitch Hurwitz has stayed mum on many of the plot details regarding the upcoming revival of Arrested Development, he recently spoke to Vulture about the show, and revealed a few “spoilers” (brace yourselves for the big reveal: “Michael walks through a door”).  He also claimed to own Ron Howard body and soul, and can force him to do whatever he wants (like come back to narrate the show).  For more about the emotions and excitement on set to bring this great series back, plus other tidbits from the interview, hit the jump.

Yesterday, we reported the exciting news that the fourth season of Arrested Development might be thirteen episodes instead of its originally-announced ten-episode order.  The upcoming season will premiere on Netflix, and today an unnamed spokesperson for the company tells The Huffington Post that the Bluths will return in spring 2013.  That seems like a reasonable window since filming is already underway.  However, the spokesperson also provided another exciting tidbit: the new season will be at least ten episodes, which lends further credence to David Cross‘ comment that he thinks season four will have thirteen episodes.

Hit the jump for more.