Before ‘House of Cards’ Season 4, We Need to Talk About Doug. One of the biggest storylines in “House of Cards” Season 3 was Doug Stamper’s decision on how to handle Rachel. Quick recap [Spoilers ahead for Seasons 1- 3]: Rachel Posner (played by the superb Rachel Brosnahan) was a former call girl who Doug hired to seduce Peter Russo (Corey Stall) into drinking again, thus ruining his chance to become governor and eventually leading to his death at the hands of Frank Underwood.

After Rachel escaped Doug’s grasp in Season 2 (by beating him over the head with a large rock), in Season 3 Doug tracked her down and killed her, after much thought to the contrary. READ MORE: Beau Willimon and Kevin Spacey Tease ‘House of Cards’ Season 4, Judge You For Liking Frank and Claire Too Much. At a recent FYC event for the Emmy- winning series, Indiewire spoke to Michael Kelly, who plays Doug, about his character’s difficult decision.“In the original script, I let her go,” Kelly said. So [creator Beau Willimon] came to me and he said, ‘I want to talk to you.

I’ve got a thought.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And he said, ‘But I want to run it by you first,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he was like, ‘I think you gotta kill her. What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, dude.’ And then another minute passes and neither of us say anything, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are going to hate me.

1. · Watch recent full episode of MTV shows on MTV.com.
2. Doug and Roberta have never driven their 2003 Mercury Marauder on public roads. They flat-bedded it from the dealership in July of 2002, and stored it in a heated.

They’re going to hate Doug.'” Whether viewers do hate Doug is just as big of a question as whether or not they should hate Doug, and it all comes back to the time he took to make the decision. Ignoring how long he had at home before tracking Rachel down in Arizona, Doug still had to sit with her on an excruciatingly long car ride, listening to her plead for her life from the back seat.

Then, he let her go, before doubling back in a heartbreaking twist. For some viewers, it was too much. After extra careful consideration, Doug lost his last shred of empathy as he shoveled dirt onto Rachel’s body, and the whiplash was too extreme. He came so close to recovery — even making the kind decision before going back on it — and then he gave it all up for Frank. Audiences spent an entire season watching this character get his life together after being thought dead at the end of Season 2, and now he’s right back where he started. Kelly, too, was worried about a backslide, as his initial thought was how much fans would hate his character. But should they hate Doug? While it’s morally impossible to defend the actions taken by President Underwood’s Chief of Staff, it’s much easier to understand why he had to kill Rachel in order to remain true to himself — as despicable as that may make him.“That whole arc for him over the whole season is about getting back to where he belongs,” Kelly said. Watch Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? Online Forbes.

7 Common Spiritual Dream Meanings. by Doug Addison. One amazing way that God can speak to us is through our dreams at night. Unfortunately, most people do not. Dear journal. One of the first three original Nicktoons, featuring eleven-year-old Doug Funnie and his experiences with his friends, family and community.

It’s not just about getting better. All he wants is to be back where he knows he belongs, which is by Francis’ side.

So it was the only way you could end it, if you think about it.”From the character’s perspective, it’s hard to argue against this point of view. What Doug did may have been “about getting back to where he belongs,” but other fans may have seen it as him falling back into another addiction (his struggles with alcoholism and its connection to Rachel was well- chronicled throughout the season). It’s a largely subjective interpretation, and Kelly’s heard mostly positive responses from a select group of targeted viewers.“I was just at the Correspondents Dinner this weekend, and there’s your audience right there, and I think it was a very mixed reaction,” Kelly said. But 9. 0 percent of the people were like, ‘Yeah, dude. Fucking Doug’s back,’ as opposed to, ‘Why did you do that?'”While politicians’ comments to a TV star may not be the ideal sampling to represent fan reaction, they may be right. Doug, as we’ve known him through the first two (better) seasons of “House of Cards,” had little in common with the broken man in Season 3. His arc felt more like stalling than progress, especially with that ending.

This Emmys season, Kelly is getting an even bigger push than normal from Netflix, which is both understandable and possibly ill- timed. Voters may have noticed Kelly’s expanded arc in Season 3 and how effectively he played each stage of Doug’s physical recovery, mental relapse and return to form.

Or they may only remember not liking Doug by the end of Season 3 — “House of Cards'” worst season by comparison — and that alone may influence whether or not they cast a vote in favor of the actor playing him. While the quality of the show overall shouldn’t be linked with the performances within it, the two often are, for better but mostly for worse. In a perfect world, Kelly would be honored for his detailed performance and “House of Cards” would be passed over in favor of better seasons from last year (like “The Americans” Season 3 and “The Leftovers” Season 1).

That, though, is unlikely to happen in an organization that continually honors shows long past their prime. With a nighttime soap like “House of Cards,” where the juicy twists outweigh the real- world politics at play, the story has to keep moving forward. It can’t reboot characters. It can’t double back on itself. It can’t second- guess its decisions. In essence, it can’t do what Doug did in the story, even if Doug had to do what he did to be true to his character. Hopefully next year — whether you love or hate the character — “House of Cards” Season 4 will challenge Doug as much as the actor portraying him— not keep him driving in circles. READ MORE: Netflix Ratings Report: How Many People Are Watching ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Daredevil’ and More?

Irwindale Speedway VP Calls Out Carmakers For Their Glorification Of Street Racing. Modern cars are fast. Sometimes very, very fast. And occasionally even faster than you could possibly use on public roads. That makes fast cars tricky to advertise—commercials showing these fast cars racing on public roads could be seen as a tacit endorsement of illegal street racing, and big carmakers would never do that, right? Right? Doug Stokes, VP of Communication at Irwindale Event Center (you know, the Speedway) and has spent his life in motorsports.

Recently, Doug saw the latest of many car commercials that showed a carmaker’s fast car being fast on normal, city streets. Doug’s no fool; he knows that in commercials, roads are closed, and everything is staged, but there’s no question about the implication of the ad: buy this car so you can drive it fast. Anywhere. An open letter to the industry: 0.

Who the hell do I have to complain to? It (was) just a quiet Sunday afternoon, my wife and I were watching the U.

S. Open finals on TV. There were, of course, number of adverts from top- tier companies … and then there was one, near the end of the match, that made the two of us whoop louder than the sellout crowd at Flushing Meadows. The ad that stunned us was a Mercedes- Benz commercial which shows a number of growling drag racing vehicles racing against a new model Mercedes. The machines (including a funny car, a dragster, and a full- out drag bike and the Mercedes) line up curb to curb on what looks like a city street, a traffic light goes green … and the machines leap forward in a five- wide drag race … the Mercedes gets to the end of the block first. Apparently it wins what looks everything like a patently illegal street race and the voice over indicates what Mercedes model it was and indicates that it would be a good idea for the people watching to buy this car … I guess based on its “track” … er, street racing record.*I frankly don’t think that it was the very best example of “The Best or Nothing” slogan that tags the advert. Likewise, a recent (at least here in Los Angeles) TV commercial shows two late model BMW’s seemingly racing each other through a (it seems) deserted industrial site with a quick close- up of another (was it one of the two street racers?) BMW cornering very hard, so hard that the driver needs to crank in a huge amount of opposite to keep control as the car slides right up to a painted double line that’s NOT on a race course, but apparently on a normal street somewhere.

There you go, “The Ultimate Driving Machine” going way, way too fast apparently on city streets. And then we have Fiat- Chrysler running a whole flight of TV ads that show a wide range of way too fast activities with two (or more) cars quite apparently racing each other.

Of course building a car (the Dodge Demon) that’s banned from competing in “as delivered” form by the NHRA, and then bragging about it in print in enthusiast magazines says: (at least to my ear) “Race this one the street, because it is so powerful that NHRA wants you to install a big old honking roll cage if you ever want run it at the drag strip.”A quick word about myself if I may, I’m the VP of communications at Irwindale Event Center located about 2. East of Los Angeles. We operate a half- mile NASCAR- sanctioned paved oval and an eighth- mile NHRA- sanctioned drag strip. We opened the drag strip in 2. California that operates on a weekly basis all year long.

Thousands upon thousands of drivers (young, old and in between) have used our facility to have some safe, controlled, high- speed fun with their performance cars. It’s almost impossible to prove a negative, however, I think that our drag strip has helped to dampen illegal street racing in the area. And, from that perspective I feel that I can say the following: … Yeah, sure, yup, correct, you’re right; I know those commercial are a fantasy, innocent, innocuous metaphors, simply flights of advertising license. On the other hand, all of the above automobile commercials most blatantly portray and appear to glorify illegal street racing.

And supering- in some sort of tiny “closed course, do not attempt” screen when the hottest model Dodge cars are purposely seen racing with each other (or in earlier TV adverts, joyfully driving right through the middle of an idyllic outdoor wedding party knocking over tables and scattering people like a terrorists.)Finally and directly to all three of the above manufacturers, as well as any others that I’ve missed: All of you know that you can show the fun of cool, high performance driving without using (and thereby glamorizing) often deadly and illegal street racing (no how much you see it as harmless marketing hyperbole ). You are all better than that, I’m sure. Doug Stokes. PS: I’d like to invite anyone in the industry (who wants to see what I’m talking about) out for one of our “Thursday Night Thunder” events at Irwindale Dragstrip.

Heck .. I’ll even buy you a hot dog, soda, and a bag of chips. It’s worth emphasizing, as Doug mentioned in his letter, that he’s not against fast driving. Watch Fool`S Gold Tube Free there. At all. In fact, Irwindale has been providing a safe place for people to take their fast cars for years, and even has a weekly event to let anyone race their own car for only $2. Doug has makes some really good points here; street racing kills people, those involved in the race and otherwise, and car manufacturers should own up to their involvement and glorification of racing on public roads.