{"id":1749,"date":"2015-04-01T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T10:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2015-03-31T17:59:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T21:59:46","slug":"house-of-cards-collapses-partially-in-season-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/house-of-cards-collapses-partially-in-season-three\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Cards Collapses (Partially) in Season Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to another edition of Channel Chaser! Instead of my normal review of a new show that I haven\u2019t talked about this week, I\u2019ve decided to go back to an old subject that\u2019s just recently gotten its newest season. I\u2019m speaking, of course, about the Netflix-exclusive political drama House of Cards<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"CardsS3Header\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan and you haven\u2019t watched yet, I\u2019ll advise you now that many spoilers lie within. That would also beg the question of, seeing how hyped this whole thing was, where exactly you\u2019ve been for the past month or so.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as you may recall from the last time I did a review of House of Cards<\/em> (only the first two seasons were around at that point), I had a few criticisms about the storyline and the technical aspects of the show, but all in all I thought it was a pretty solid show that really does a great job of drawing viewers into the lives of its characters, just like its kindred spirit Game of Thrones<\/em>. But as pleased as I was with the first two seasons, I have to say that unfortunately, season three is a bit of a letdown by comparison.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s obviously a given that ambitious U.S. Senator and now President Frank Underwood isn\u2019t the greatest guy ever – and that\u2019s probably the understatement of the century – it\u2019s true that since the very beginning, he\u2019s been the underdog of the story. Not in the traditional sense of the haves versus the have-nots, because Frank and his wife Claire are shown to be pretty well off. It\u2019s more the fact that Frank was passed over in the pilot by the Democratic Party establishment and is somehow inexplicably underestimated by every single person he meets, to their eventual doom. As soon as you or any of the other characters think they\u2019ve figured him out, or how far he\u2019ll go to get what he wants, he\u2019ll turn around and surprise you again by either showing unexpected restraint or the cold-blooded, ruthless pragmatism that we\u2019ve all come to expect from our favorite villainous protagonist.<\/p>\n

So I have to say that I started to get worried as of the end of season two. The whole goal of the show up until this point is to show Frank\u2019s path to the top – to becoming the President, the most powerful person in the country. But then, now what? Where does the show go from here, plot-wise? And if Frank is no longer the underdog fighting to get what he thinks he deserves, will his morally questionable character still be able to capture my attention, and possibly sometimes my – if not sympathy – understanding?<\/p>\n

The answer, sadly, is no. From a story standpoint, the season was a bore from beginning to end. There were a few interesting parts on the campaign trail, including when Frank\u2019s presidential rival Heather Dunbar decides to get her hands dirty with Claire\u2019s diary, but other than that, I really wasn\u2019t feeling the urgency. I mean, Frank made it. He\u2019s president now. So who cares? I\u2019m almost hoping that he\u2019ll lose the election in the next season so that the show has somewhere to go again. As it was, the introduction of the Russians, including the creepy Putin-esque Petrov, was pretty mediocre and I just wasn\u2019t really feeling it. While the Russians did play games with Claire\u2019s head plenty, I was never caught thinking that Petrov was an adequate adversary for Frank, even when he apparently had him over a barrel in Moscow. The character just wasn\u2019t charismatic or interesting enough to grab my attention.<\/p>\n

\"CardsS3Petrov\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, sorry if I didn\u2019t fall out of my chair at the end of the season when Claire announces that she\u2019s leaving Frank. That\u2019s probably because I\u2019ve been waiting for it for, oh, three seasons now. You had to know that eventually they\u2019d split after everything that\u2019s happened. Claire already almost did it once with her photographer friend Adam Galloway… speaking of which, whatever happened to him? I guess no one really cares. I can\u2019t say that I do, either.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also easy to notice how Frank\u2019s monologues to the camera – Kevin Spacey\u2019s creative signature for the show so far – have been dialed down a lot in this season. They\u2019ve gone from long musings on the meaning of life and the circumstances surrounding him to simple, sentence-long, snarky observations. While I did criticize the overuse of this technique in the previous review, now that it\u2019s so diminished I actually find myself missing it a bit. While a bit cheesy, it certainly provides some much-needed insight and context for Frank\u2019s actions. I suppose in the end it\u2019s just a matter of personal taste.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve complained enough for one article. On the flip side of things, it was nice to see some of the more minor characters getting the attention that they\u2019ve been lacking in past seasons. Specifically, I\u2019d like to single out Doug Stamper, Frank\u2019s traditionally stoic and stony-faced henchman, whose recovery from a near-death beating at the end of last season and reconnection with his estranged family, as well as his quest to redeem himself in his boss\u2019s eyes, make him a much deeper and more interesting person – if not a better person. That\u2019s still sort of in doubt, given that he probably murdered Rachel (finally).<\/p>\n

Also, Remy Danton went from being just another corporate\/political scumbag to actually being a human being this season through his relationship with uncomfortable family woman Jackie Sharp, who is also developed quite a bit. He even quits politics! Now that\u2019s something I didn\u2019t see coming, although I wonder how long it\u2019s going to take before he gets dragged back into it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Rating: 2.5\/5<\/h3>\n

Despite some rather satisfying character development from some of the smaller-time players, the big picture remains pretty unsatisfyingly static over the course of the third season of House of Cards<\/em>: only now, there\u2019s no race to the top to justify the fact that Frank and Claire are truly terrible people. The show also lost a lot of its drive and urgency now that the two of them are living it large in the White House – well, at least Frank is, anyway. And who knows for how much longer? I just hope the next season, whenever it decides to become a thing, can recover the intriguing drama and magnetic personalities of the previous two years–something I think was lost over the course of this one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his\u00a0<\/span>website<\/a>. Check back every Wednesday\u00a0for new articles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to another edition of Channel Chaser! Instead of my normal review of a new show that I haven\u2019t talked about this week, I\u2019ve decided to go back to an old subject that\u2019s just recently gotten its newest season. I\u2019m speaking, of course, about the Netflix-exclusive political drama House of Cards. If you\u2019re a [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1751,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}