I finished House of Cards a week or so ago. It's good though I find it difficult to follow most episodes' political stuff. I get the gist of Frank-needs-this-to-happen, but I don't understand a lot of the political maneuvering and specifically why Frank needs it to happen. I don't know what half the characters on the show do, what their titles are. It's strange how a character will show up in one episode, barely do anything, then be super-important a few episodes later. I suppose ultimately all you really need to know is by the end of season one Frank manipulated his way into the vice presidency and by the end of season two Frank manipulates his way into the presidency.
That said, I can see the show realistically going for at most two more seasons, including the upcoming season three in February. Frank has one year in his current role before the title of the show starts making sense. There are clear signs of Frank's apparently obvious downfall. Tom Hammerschmidt is still around and wasn't bullied like Janine. I have a feeling he's going to come back especially given the current status of Rachel Posner/Discount Eva Green. Liam McPoyle from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia may pose a problem. That scene of him in the car with Nathan Green (that really douchey looking FBI agent) later in the season was one of my favorites in the show for reasons that I don't feel like tagging for spoilers. Personally, Frank taunting Martin Spinella was probably my absolute favorite.
I find almost every storyline revolving around Claire Underwood to be particularly boring and terrible. She's like the Daenerys Targaryen of House of Cards, except Daenerys at least has an end game. Claire's subplots just seem like they're there because a few episodes needed more conflict to fill the time quota.
Zoe Barnes' death was the biggest surprise for me. At first, I totally thought it was going to happen given the setting then the conversation made it seem like it wasn't and then it actually happened. That part happened so fast I had to pause the show and collect myself. It did kick off one of the more interesting subplots of the show even if Lucas Goodman is one of the least interesting characters. Still, it seems like it's eventually branching off into two subplots: whatever Liam McPoyle is up to and whatever Tom Hammerschmidt is up to. If the latter finds Rachel Posner, I can definitely see the pieces falling into place as the show moves toward the finale. That isn't a spoiler since it didn't happen. I'm just speculating.
Anyway, I feel like the show relies on coincidence far too much. Any setbacks Frank encounters are minor and he typically just wins all the time (besides the catalyst for basically everything that happens being a massive political loss). Even Walter White, despite how smart and manipulative he was, hit a few snags. Frank, for example, embarrassed himself on national television, but that barely affected or changed anything. The show is seemingly setting him up for a major fall, but I keep thinking the writers won't go down that road because it's so obvious. What if Frank just wins and is never held accountable for all his crimes? That would certainly be shocking despite so far, two straight seasons of Frank just generally having an A+ time.
Topic: Rate the last TV show you've seen (Read 1196187 times)
