Kevin Spacey plays a congressman who will do anything to gain more power in House of Cards. His wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, is equally ambitious and calculating.

As a northern Marylander, there were three things required of me this weekend:

a) Attend a Baltimore Ravens rally during which a dog fashion show took place

b) Watch the Super Bowl, and

c) Watch the first season of Netflix’s original series House of Cards — filmed in Baltimore.

Items “a” and “b” weren’t that difficult, seeing as the Baltimore area this weekend was suffocated by purple. But watching House of Cards – this required some planning.

As the clock struck midnight on Friday, Netflix’s $100 million, David Fincher-headed (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) experiment officially went online, immediately opening an entire 13-episode season exclusively to the 27.2 million U.S. subscribers of the online streaming website.

And as a college student at home with seemingly unlimited time and an understanding of the crazy gamble Netflix had made, I planned to start the season around 4 p.m. Friday.

I watched the entire season in 24 hours. It was worth it.

I had a sense it would be worth it when, after an unfortunate and well-publicized animal death within the first five minutes, the violence on the show dropped to a minimum for today’s blood-lusting norms (though I always thought it could be around the corner).

It only got better as incredibly small details, such as text messages highlighted on-screen and Congressman Underwood’s (Kevin Spacey, Horrible Bosses) constant conversations with the audience in the middle of tense situations, stood out and made the show seem like a real piece of art.

And as central Maryland references kept popping up, reminding me of Harford County and Baltimore’s stand-ins for South Carolina and Washington, I knew I was watching something that could change the television industry.

The first season’s real strength, though, is its acting, providing performances that stick with you long after the final episode. Underwood’s wife (Robin Wright, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) plays a power-hungry Washingtonian just as well as, if not better than, Spacey does. Kate Mara (Deadfall) offers a tutorial on how not to mix journalistic ethics with a heightened sex drive – and does it convincingly.

And the bit players, whether fellow congressmen, chiefs of staff or hard-ass editors, only add to the incredibly complex story and suspense of a powerful man seeking revenge against those who break promises.

House of Cards paints the Washington we all think about in our nightmares with Picasso-like beauty. The irony of The West Wing recently landing on Netflix should not be lost, as Netflix’s original program takes the exact opposite approach to portraying our nation’s governance.

If we learn anything about politics from this show, it is that those leading us simply aren’t the 30-second polished people their campaign ads show them to be, regardless of how hard they try.

But I learned even more about my TV viewing and entertainment in general. Watching this show early in its run made me feel important, as if I knew a big secret before everyone else.

Ridiculous, right? And yet, this is what Netflix wants. This weekend, Twitter slowly became a feeding ground for people making inside jokes, asking questions and spreading their feelings about the show. An hour of acting, dialogue and plot suddenly became social currency.

House of Cards was going viral, meaning more people would buy Netflix to watch, meaning the company’s plan was working brilliantly.

This is only what I saw over three days. The real test for House of Cards, as much an experiment as an amazing show, will be how many people it reaches in its limited form a week, a month and a year from now.

Sitting in the county where it was filmed, the show does feel like it is rising, just like your sense of dread as you realize the twisted Washington it describes.

My advice: Grab some water and food, sequester yourself and watch House of Cards in one sitting. Even if you only watch for Spacey’s questionable Southern accent and a bevy of cliffhangers, you will step into America’s next great television experiment. And it just might be an amazing ride.