If seeing the British House of Cards put you off Kevin Spacey's version then you should try out Boss instead, which is in a similar vein but darker. The second series airs on More 4 later this month but don't bother with it if you haven't seen season 1, nothing will make any fucking sense. Basically it's Kelsey 'Frasier' Grammer as a very corrupt mayor of Chicago with his political career in terminal decline, spurring him on to be even more ruthless than he already was. And he makes a very convincing bastard, there's no point me saying it's his best role ever as I've only seen him in two shows and we both know what they are. But an Emmy award would not have gone amiss, think it was pipped to the top by Homeland which though a great show is a lot less intelligent than this.
I think Lars Von Trier had a minor producing role in Boss. It's a decent show that didn't do very well, can't help but think that if it had an HBO label on it everyone would've bought the boxset by now. It is however very confusing and makes no attempt at making life easy for the viewer but don't let that put you off, it's perfectly entertaining if you just accept that not everything makes sense.