House of Cards
Season 4 Review – SPOILERS (but we know you wanna read it so who cares)
I must say I was impressed with this fourth season of House of Cards. It’s probably my
favorite one since the first season. As always the show is ridiculous and campy
as hell, but god damn if it isn’t a perfect binge. With all the success and
glut of online streaming shows it’s not hard to forget that House of Cards
started this whole trend. Now it seems to be buried in a crowded lineup, I mean
I didn’t realize the 4th season was coming out last Friday until
last Thursday. Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention as there was a huge Frank
Underwood video right next to MSG. Oh well. Now on to my feelings on the show.
Kevin Spacey still plays the hammiest President in the world
and I love it and can’t help but root for that evil, evil man. My favorite
scenes this season were when he would go head to head with those who would dare
stand in his way (and of course his tree chopping story-sublime). His freak out
with Kathy Durant was as menacing as it was both silly and hilarious (yes that
was the President of the United States threatening to kill his own Secretary of
State). The same goes for the scenes with Underwood and Will Conway. Watching
an old pro talk down to this young brash gun was a delight. They’re ICO
bullshit discussion was my favorite part in the season as we finally got
somebody to successfully ham it up with old Underwood. Here’s to a thrilling
election next season.
Robin Wright still plays Claire like she’s made of steel and
ice and that’s the way I like it. There’s no better side to Claire than when
she’s playing Lady Macbeth, or simply Macbeth in the early parts of the season.
As much as I enjoyed seeing her screw over Francis with that KKK flap, there’s the
old softie in me that loves seeing them work together to scheme their way to
the top. It seems like such a waste to have America’s best power couple
fighting each other when they could be destroying the lives of all those who
dare look at them funny. That last shot of the season was simply haunting. I
can’t wait to see their fear campaign go head to head against the white
Republican Obama.
Will Conway is what Republicans wish Marco Rubio was. He’s charismatic,
a veteran, social media savvy, white, and has an adorable little family. I don’t
understand why he would pick an old white male as his running mate as he already
has the veteran angle down. He should have added some diversity to that ticket,
but then again as his wife said, you don’t want to piss off the base.
Is every lead data scientist going to have a scene where
they play heavy metal music into headphones while they gyrate like a moron?
Will this become a quick way to identify which characters are great at going
through data?
Putting Claire on the ticket still makes no sense. Kathy
Durant would have been such a better choice in every way possible. Claire is
supposed to be the brains behind the organization and her insistence on taking
up the VP slot seemed so dumb. But House
of Cards has never been fond of the waiting game so why not! Also, the
Underwoods are supposed to be master politicians (with Tom Yates, yes the Tom
Yates, as their main speechwriter/fuck buddy) but their speeches are ho-hum and
I’m pretty sure the temperature drops 20 degrees every time they enter a room.
It’s a wonder that it took them this long to considering playing the fear card.
I enjoyed how they brought back every character from every
season. Garrett Walker is forever the dumbest politician in the world. Freddy
had his annual “go fuck yourself Frank” speech. Tom got to play both Woodward
and Bernstein, so he’ll be dead next season for sure. Lucas got to both jerk
off an Armenian gang member and shoot the President. Busy season for the press!
Doug Stamper will forever be the creepiest guy you’d ever
want on your side. It’s not a Doug Stamper storyline unless he gets weird with
a woman. If he doesn’t marry that donor’s widow he’ll be disgracing the memory
of Rachel.
I wish Neve Campbell’s character became Claire Underwood’s
Doug, but it never happened. Her role for half the year was wearing hokey
disguises while meeting not Christian Bale’s character from the Big Short in shitty jazz clubs. I guess,
in the spirit of jazz, I was supposed to focus on the scenes she wasn’t in.
Breaking down the season into little subplots was
interesting to watch. The Conway election and Hostage stuff was my favorite as
they ratcheted up some good tension. The Frank in a coma part was boring
because I watch this show for Kevin Spacey. I’m not looking for a Donald Blythe
presidency. I crave those 4th wall speeches in that luscious accent.
In short, Kevin Spacey is a good actor and I have to leave now.
No more Meechum threesomes. That was a difficult thing to
grasp after he died. Tom Yates just couldn’t do it for me. How they work around
the death of Meechum for Season 5 will be a wonder. Teardrop.
Season 4 of House of
Cards is in the books and I’m pretty sure they wish they knew about Donald
Trump before they started writing. Seems like a missed opportunity in light of
the insanity occurring this election season. I still have no idea why Frank or
Claire craves the Presidency other than perhaps his mini-rant to Tom in the
finale. I guess he wants to help people, sort of? Again, thinking deep about
this show defeats the purpose. You binge, enjoy, and then don’t think about
things like how in the world Heather Dunbar would think it was a good idea to
trash the recently shot President of the United States. That shit was just
dumb.
