What better way to spend a Saturday night but to binge out on the machinations of the most duplicitous Washington power couple ever to grace the small screen?
Netflix drama House of Cards returns to Australian TV screens this weekend.
The internet streaming video service threw away the Hollywood playbook a year ago when it sent out all 13 hour-long episodes of its flagship original drama in one fell swoop.
It will do so again this time to its 31 million subscribers in the United States, plus those in Canada, South America, Britain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Finland.
The season two premiere will screen on Foxtel's Showcase channel on Saturday at 8.30pm (AEDT).
Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey stars as the vengeful and manipulative congressman Frank Underwood, with Robin Wright as his wife and willing accomplice Claire, and Kate Mara as ambitious young reporter Zoe Barnes.
Netflix has ordered up a third season, and hinted there may be even more, after House of Cards collected nine Emmy nominations, the first ever for an internet-delivered series, and won Wright a best actress Golden Globe.
"We think there is plenty of great storyline (to keep the show running)", Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said.
Season two of the show, which is actually filmed north of Washington in the city of Baltimore, finds Underwood assuming the vice presidency, having ruthlessly undercut rivals and even murdered someone in a protracted act of revenge after earlier being denied the promised post of secretary of state.
Eschewing mainstream television's fixation with ratings, commercial-free Netflix won't comment on how many people stream House of Cards, saying only that it is "one of the most popular series" in its line-up.
