House of Cards

How does the existence of one House of Cards impact another house of cards?

The excellent new online series House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Kate Mara, will be available in its entirety Friday on Netflix. The emergence of a political drama as good as House of Cards got me wondering about the current state of competition between Netflix and the traditional TV channels.

There's more original content coming from Netflix, too. There's a series called Hemlock Grove, debuting April 19; the new Arrested Development, coming in May; and a series called Orange is the New Black, from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, currently in production.

And here's a really important thing for Canadians with regard to Netflix: With the firm start dates for House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, those series are debuting in all Netflix territories simultaneously.