House of Cards

[Totenkindly]

Well, it looks like everyone dropped this series or at least didn't bother to discuss further.

I finally picked up Season 4 earlier this week and just finished. To be honest, I liked it better than Season 3. I think the Underwoods do better when they are under threat and need to work together to keep from going under and to realize their ambitions. This was the effort of the first two seasons, but once Frank became president, then the third season was a bit more unfocused and without as much clarity.

There was something that happens partway into Season 4 (regarding Lukas) that felt very exploitative, the kind of thing that writers do when they don't know what to do with a character or with the plot, so I was kind of rolling my eyes... but there was actually method to the madness. It cleared off part of the board, put a few people in stasis, and the vacuum gave rise to a few other characters taking the initiative to do things. it's interesting to see what happens when the normal characters who command scenes temporarily are not there, so other characters then have space to do something. It also kick-started a few seemingly dead plotlines.

Frank has some pretty disturbing dreams in mid-season, and I love that they actually explore them. They're actually pretty horrific, emotionally; I thought they were great and disturbing. But one thing that does happen is that Frank and Claire are forced to become a team again, and as I noted above, when it's the Underwoods against the world, that's when they become most interesting. I'm glad the series went back to its roots in this way.

And okay -- Ellen Burstyn. I love this woman. (She plays Claire's mom.) She's so great in whatever she's in, one of the best actors currently living today, and here is no different. She elevates the material. There was one episode this season that left me sobbing for a bit, and it's mostly due to her.

Anyway, I have watched Game of Thrones more consistently, and I favor fantasy as a genre above political intrigue (it's just my personal inclination), but I consider House of Cards to be a better show dramatically. There are some basic reasons for this. One is the casting -- Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright ARE their characters, and I believe them when they are on the screen. They both can actually exude the kind of charisma the Underwoods wear as their public face, charming each in their own way (and Claire with a kind of queenly grace, while Francis is more down to earth), but each is also fiercely intimidating and even terrifying when they pull out the stops. And it's scary to witness... like, even as a viewer, I'm just like, "holy shit." (Francis gets a few good sequences in Season 4, the best maybe with Durant in terms of lowering the boom. But Claire as well, she can leave human connection behind when need be and simply be frank, forthright, and ruthless.)

I am not a fan of Joel Kinnaman, although he improved as the season continued -- I didn't much like him in Suicide Squad and any other movie I've seen in him, and he can be pretty damn flat as an actor. I don't find him particularly charismatic, which doesn't gel with him supposedly coming off well on social media. (it feels like a miscast.) However, I found him decent in the 'backroom' scenes and especially the one where he and Francis get together alone. Great scene.

Doug is getting himself in trouble again. I find Doug interesting in that what is happening inside of him seems to be ambiguous both to the audience AND to him. I wonder if he understands why he does the things he does. And of course this ties into his alcoholism. In any case, he seems to be particularly getting himself involved in something that will be doomed to fail in the end because (1) Doug has only one true love and that is Francis Underwood and (2) Doug's a ruthless asshole once he shows his true colors, he's not the nice guy he portrays himself as. He's obsessive and single-minded. Unless the show might be setting up a scenario in which Doug might decide he needs to change his life / finds something better?

Anyway, I thought the season was pretty great from Episode 3-10. The last few episodes got a little muddled, and I'm not sure how I feel about the domestic terrorism thing. Even the last moments of the season... pretty intense and am not sure how i feel.

But to get back to my previous point.... The last reason I really like this show much of the time is, because unlike GoT now, it gives the characters and the scenes space to breathe. Nothing feels rushed. Logistically things make sense. What other show has scenes where the characters say little and sometimes nothing, and simply exist in the same scene, yet that scene says more than any dialogue could say? I love love love that the scenes do not feel hurried and that characters are just being themselves with each other. I could watch most of these episodes again and enjoy them all over again.

----

Side note: Neve Campbell looks/sounds an awful lot like Kate Mara in some of these scenes. Just a curiosity. Another side note, I think Rooney Mara is a better actress overall than Kate.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, finished Season 5 last night.

General assessment - Season 4 was better than Season 5, which spends much of its run-time covering the election between the Underwoods and the Conways which is a bit of a mistake because (1) Will Conway is kind of one note and (2) the series feels like it gets stuck for awhile in the election, which is dragged out through some crazy scenarios and then of course shifts because one side gets the right information about the other which ruins its chances. I'm not saying it's all bad, but typically the acting is great but the overall big picture is the problem. I think the high point is somewhere around episodes 7-10. I also just didn't like all the terrorist stuff, which came across as too on-the-nose for some reason.

Claire's relationship with Tom, which was really interesting in Season 4, kind of goes on autopilot and becomes one-note. The writers decided to resolve this by end of season, which I guess is the best thing to do if you don't know what do with it.

Hammerschmidt is an annoying character, he's kind of self-righteous and obsessive... ironically become a bit like Lucas, who he would ridicule for being such. Despite claiming to be rational, he often is very opinionated and will dismiss some stories out of hand and not others.

I liked the addition of Judy Davis (Patricia Clarkson, always a win) and Mark Usher (campbell Scott, who I think is doing better work or at least more prominent work in the end half of his career than the beginning). They're both pretty crafty though, and you can't really trust either -- partly because it's not really clear what they want, exactly (they keep a great game face) so it's hard to predict what they plan to do. I was definitely disappointed to see so little Jackie Sharp and Remy Danton as the series has continued; oh well, actors come and go.

The season ends in an unexpected way and feels like kind of a cheat. Not enough to say the season sucked in terms of the power of some of the scenes, but in terms of the big-picture arc of the series? It seems like they weren't sure whether they'd get another season and tried to both position themselves + try to provide some form of closure. Unfortunately, I found it unsatisfying. I'll discuss it in the following explicit spoiler:

Okay, so the season ends with a few whammies.

We've been watching Frank's presidency (so newly acquired through an election, however crooked!) devolve into not just a censure but probable impeachment, due to leaks coming from the White House as well Hammerschmidt's incessant assaults bolstered by new leaks. And everything Frank does (seemingly coming out of his large ego) is just making it worse, including needling Walker when he doesn't have to, so that instead of pleading the Fifth in front of the investigation committee, he actually spills on Frank and accuses him of a number of illegal crimes. Meanwhile, Doug seems to be doing some dumb things, but... it could just be Doug, because when he gets obsessive he can overreact. The worst is following Lisa, the temp girlfriend of Rachel, through the back alleys and then letting her live after she drops her groceries and runs. Doug, man, you're either in or out.... you can't NOT kill someone after exposing yourself. it just feels like things are suddenly crashing and feels a bit rushed but the end is inevitable.

Frank can't get control of the situation, then finally insists at the end of Chapter 12 in testifying himself before the committee, goes on a large rant (in a public hearing) about how they are assaulting the office of the presidency which is something he cannot stand for... and then drops the bombshell that he will resign the presidency the next day at 6pm. Since Claire is VP, this will leave her as president, which she has briefly done during the period she was VP and no president was yet elected... and of course behind the scenes when Francis was in a coma after being shot in Season 4.

In the beginning of the last episode, Frank tells Claire that actually HE was the leak. While at the hobnob in a mid-season episode among all the rich people of the world who have a lot of behind-the-scenes power, he realized true power is beyond the presidency. So he has basically orchestrated his own downfall (with Doug) so that he can resign and she can be President while he moves forward and operates real power outside the White House. So now the Underwoods will control BOTH fronts. Everything he and Doug did -- especially in terms of Doug implicating himself for the murder of Zoe Barnes (and no one knows what's up with Rachel yet, though) -- was to get Claire in place and release Francis to do some real masterminding outside the White House. Claire will issue a pardon for both Frank and Doug, it just has to be done in a way so as to not damage her presidency... although she has about 90% of a four year term left to her disposal. Enough time to make the term essentially HER own, rather than Francis' She just needs a VP of her own who is more trustworthy than most people she knows.

Of course, nothing is straightforward. After Davis gets the secret incriminating files from LeeAnn, she's released as WH Chief of Staff (a position she held a day or two) since she's no longer of use, and she is presumed dead after her car is purposefully run off the road under Frank's direction. Hammerschmidt realizes he has been used, to some degree, and is floundering. Francis is waiting for his pardon (which was supposed to be dropped on National Television after Claire announces they have killed the terrorist leader and are also dropping 30,000 troops in the region)... but Claire never announces it. Francis tries to call her repeatedly on cell... and she either ignores him or hangs up the call. Finally standing at the desk of the president, she looks at the camera and says, "MY TURN."

Since Francis did not fill her in on his plan, I think this pisses her off. And... she also murders Tom -- a guy she loves -- because he's too much of a threat to Francis and her staying in office. It crushes her, but in this way she also is complicit like Francis was, because he also murdered someone he was involved with (Zoe)... although Claire truly did love Tom and he was there for her mother as she was dying in Season 4. She just prioritized power over love. So she made these sacrifices, then found out Francis had all along planned to resign. She realizes probably on some level she cannot trust Francis, who has reneged on their deal to be a team repeatedly... he just keeps going back to his worst instincts. So she's gonna let him sweat it. The presidency is what she has wanted, anyway -- Francis even tells her as much. And she has far better numbers than Francis ever did.

Okay, anyway -- the deal is that we were promised a series on a man who ascends to the Presidency, then because of his own corrupt and greed, falls. It's a House of Cards. he's finally done in by his own weaknesses and lies and committed crimes. This feels like a huge letdown. Not only does the "fall" only take three episodes or so, but we find out as an "oh by the way" that the falling man actually jumped, because it's part of his plan to become even more powerful. Kudos on doing the unexpected, but (1) the game was a cheat, because it was all done off-camera, the audience could not be invested and (2) what now? Even if Francis falls at some point, he is no longer president, and it won't feel the same, it's all just kinda meh. Rich sneaky men get arrested all the time and go to jail for white collar crimes. Not everyone gets impeached from the highest executive office in the USA. We all wanted to see Francis take a big fall after all the shit he's done to people.

IOW, the season (and possibly the series?) ends in a twilight limbo of sorts. I guess Claire is president, but she's better than Francis in some ways despite their complicity and watching HER fall is not really that big a deal, if that is the plan; she's not really the one who deserves a fall nearly as much as Francis. And watching Frank fall isn't a big deal considering he's not falling from someplace that high. I'm really not sure why they went this way, other than wanting to do something new. And of course, if the series ends this way, it'll be one of the worse series endings in history for a show that had a lot of initial promise for its first two seasons; it's like the better acted and produced version of Heroes --
"Oh yeah, remember those first [two] seasons? They were great.... but yeah, too bad about the rest."

 

[Totenkindly]

Season 6 (all eight episodes of it) finally dropped, after Spacey getting fired in the initial weeks of shooting due to the abuse scandals.f

I've watched the first two so far -- and it's not bad, even if not on top of the heap. It's hard to rewrite a show, especially one built around the fundamental fall of a character who rose to the top but where the actor then got fired. How does the storyline absorb that loss? Frances might be dead, but his ghost still seems to linger over the story, include mysteries about his end.

If there's a reason to watch, it's mainly to see Robin Wright and a few of the other acting cast who just do decent work regardless of storyline. In episode 2, there's some great lines about Claire and it's all true. One character says, "With Francis, you always knew where you stood [for good or bad]. With Claire, you never do." It's very true. Francis could wield power directly and always was happy to let people know where they fell on the pecking order. Claire is more the asp that might curl up next to you as well as simply bite you to death... and was the curling up just a ploy to start with? She's impossible to read. But then again, in some ways, she's had to be since she had to manage Francis + her own political image.

(The other comment was how a character had trouble deciding whether she was human or an alien pretending to be human... or something to that effect. Again, there's some truth to it. Claire wears a costume 24/7. Who knows what's really inside or whether her sympathies rest with humanity? There's just something very cold and calculating about her even when she exudes polite warmth.)

Robin Wright in any case is still fascinating to watch, trying to figure out what's going on in her head and where her ultimate goals and loyalties lie, but the space behind her eyes is frustratingly murky.

There are both new threats as well as old ones. Doug Stamper, bless his soul, is STILL around and in a position to wreak damage against Claire in defense of his old master Francis. Diane Lane, Campbell Scott, Greg Kinnear (who is just kind of creepy/slimy) are all in the cast.

It might or might not pan out, and it's disappointing that the original series concept cannot be pursued fully due to Spacey's problems, but it's a short season and at least would put the cap on things.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, I am now done with this.

I think they needed to take more time to work out where the season was going, because it seems like they had absolutely no freaking idea. It was all sound and crazy, signifying nothing. I guess a lot of crew got paid for work, so that's a plus; but it's honestly the biggest benefit of the season.

I have no issues with the performances, they were all quite decent. Directing was fine. It was the writing. The writers had no clue what they wanted to say or where this show was going. There is no coherence / coordination with the show's original concept either. And by the final episodes, some of the characters were behaving in ways that made no real sense, without real dramatic justification.

So when the final curtain falls, not only does it feel shockingly abrupt but there is no emotional resonance. Frankly, I just didn't care. I enjoyed watch the performances but there was no real emotional or dramatic arc to care about. Very disappointing. It's one of those seasons that you just mentally "retcon" out of the anthology, kind of like Terminator 3 or Alien 4. "Nope. Never happened. Fan fic."

 

[cascadeco]

Okay, I am now done with this.

I think they needed to take more time to work out where the season was going, because it seems like they had absolutely no freaking idea. It was all sound and crazy, signifying nothing. I guess a lot of crew got paid for work, so that's a plus; but it's honestly the biggest benefit of the season.

I have no issues with the performances, they were all quite decent. Directing was fine. It was the writing. The writers had no clue what they wanted to say or where this show was going. There is no coherence / coordination with the show's original concept either. And by the final episodes, some of the characters were behaving in ways that made no real sense, without real dramatic justification.

So when the final curtain falls, not only does it feel shockingly abrupt but there is no emotional resonance. Frankly, I just didn't care. I enjoyed watch the performances but there was no real emotional or dramatic arc to care about. Very disappointing. It's one of those seasons that you just mentally "retcon" out of the anthology, kind of like Terminator 3 or Alien 4. "Nope. Never happened. Fan fic."

I'll be finishing this tonight; I just started episode 7.

I will say, I thought season 6 started out decently, and seemed promising. But episode 6 just began to spin into all sorts of crazy directions, noticeably in my mind (particularly the ball drop at the very end of the episode). Whereas to me, before episode 6, things were still decent, even if it seemed all stops were being pulled. I had justified it in my head since they likely had to do a full 180 with the abrupt departure of Spacey, which hadn't been planned for in the overall storyline.

The acting really is a pleasure to watch, though.

 

[Totenkindly]

yeah, I thought the Season 6 premiere had potential....

I wish they had just really figured out what they wanted to say with the season, focused on the remaining characters rather than spinning wheels on ghosts of the past. There were some flashback moments for Claire, for example... but I never really understood what they were trying to say by them. Or her relationship with Annie... What did Claire want to accomplish? What did she want? Why was she persisting? Why did things take the turns they did especially in the latter half of the season? What was being said?

It was like a whole bunch of plot points, without much story, I guess....

 

[cascadeco]

yeah, I thought the Season 6 premiere had potential....

I wish they had just really figured out what they wanted to say with the season, focused on the remaining characters rather than spinning wheels on ghosts of the past. There were some flashback moments for Claire, for example... but I never really understood what they were trying to say by them. Or her relationship with Annie... What did Claire want to accomplish? What did she want? Why was she persisting? Why did things take the turns they did especially in the latter half of the season? What was being said?

It was like a whole bunch of plot points, without much story, I guess....

Yeah... the flashbacks were kind of a moot point imo -- I mean, had they started the whole show out with flashbacks now and then, that's one thing, but to suddenly incorporate them into a final season that ended up being incredibly crammed and rushed/incomplete seemed odd. Another thing that seemed odd to me in some of the final episodes especially were more drawn-out 2-4 minute conversations regarding a total side story / relatively unimportant part of the overall story, but then to have a whirlwind 1 or 2 minutes where suddenly a nuke might be dropped and you're like.... what? Why is this suddenly happening?

There were just too many things that seemed unnecessary to incorporate in; it seemed like they were trying to put 3 seasons of material into a handful of episodes and you were left not really comprehending any of it.

I DO think how the show ended, with Doug, was pretty fitting; however due to the rushed nature of the entire season it ended up being kind of confusing/incomplete/kind of unbelievable at the same time. Also, with both Doug and Claire, I found the storyline of the final several episodes kind of silly, as I don't think either them would have behaved the way they did, had the show been 'properly' written out and had it had one more season (OR a much less crammed final 6th season). Claire especially seemed far too 'dramatic' in some of her behaviors.

My only other thought was that, while from the perspective of her having to take over the mess that she inherited from Frances, it was understandable there were too many people who knew too much and thus needed to be killed off, at the same time it just became a comical farce that everyone got killed off. So I didn't really like that. It just seemed really unrealistic.