The “House of Cards” has fallen.
Spoiler alert: season three is boring. The brilliant and thrilling plot twists that earned this Netflix political drama so much fame since its release in February 2013 are gone.
Much of the show’s popularity hinged on its its ability to highlight the extent of Frank Underwood’s ill-intentioned, conniving, and manipulative nature yet simultaneously make you hope he gets what he wants — a classic case of rooting for the bad guy.
As he rises from his position as the U.S. House of Representatives majority whip to President of the United States over the first two seasons, audiences are enthralled by how he controls so many moving parts at once as he climbs the White House ladder.
Season three leaves previously dazzled viewers disappointed.
“Every conflict was the result of character inconsistencies. Lost were the terribly beautiful moments of political intrigue, only to be replaced by second-rate character drama and even worse relationship drama,” senior Andy Reuss said. “Perhaps the greatest sin of all was that the season was boring. Any surprise came from disgust for the unnecessary sexuality rather than genuine astonishment at a plot twist. Unfortunately, ‘House of Cards’ fell prey to the bane of modern entertainment: cheap melodrama.”
Plot developments hooked readers in the first two seasons by captivating them with how complex yet methodical was Frank Underwood’s rise to the government’s helm. Even when everything appeared to be in shambles, he guided the ship past every obstacle. And the show’s writers carefully chose when to reveal his hand at every turn.
This season, however, it seems that Underwood is more often surprised by plot developments than viewers are. The only aspect he seems to still have a handle on is who is sleeping with whom. But even that is unusually boring, because the answer is the same every time: the person with whom the character should least be having sex with.
From the first episode, season three dashes hopes of it matching the quality of one and two. While season two begins with Underwood killing one of the show’s main characters by pushing her in front of a moving metro train, three struggles to get rolling as we watch Underwood urinate on his father’s grave and former chief-of-staff, Doug Stamper, obsess over the absence of Rachel Posner and struggle with a nagging alcohol problem after a life-threatening injury. If season three cut down Doug’s airtime by half, it would already by better.
Another character disappointment is first lady Claire Underwood. From her immature insistence on receiving the job of United Nations ambassador despite the Senate’s rejection of her appointment, to her refusal to attend the Iowa victory party, she lets viewers down.
What previously made her character so magnetic was her ability to be just as rational and shrewd as her husband.
Ironically, now that she begins her ascension to power, she decreases in respectability and strength — the very traits she seeks.
“It’s sad that the last show ends and you think Hillary Clinton may actually be better than Claire,” senior Bailey Pritchett said. “At least Hilary was effective; Claire was an awful UN ambassador.”
The underlying problem of season three is its reliance on appealing to viewers’ lust for sex and emotional conflict instead of calculated schemes. For example, season one’s major conflict involved a pragmatic affair between budding political journalist Zoe Barnes and Frank Underwood. It was an ideal blend of sex and sensibility.
Now, viewers watch chief-of-staff Remy Danton passively desire former lover and newly-married presidential candidate Jackie Sharp. A scene where he is detained by police officers for speeding and not having identification attempts to pull at our heartstrings when he tells Sharp the situation highlighted a void in his life, but it fails. His feelings seem forced, and he vacillates so long about how to improve his life that viewers get tired of watching him (and just about every other character, too.)
As Claire walks out the White House door to end the season, so do many of the show’s loyal viewers, who are just as disgusted with what Frank’s “House of Cards” has become.
