...and so is House of Cards!
I loved season 1 and 2 but I hated season 3; It was slow, confusing, and all over the place. As the last season unfolded, it felt like characters journeys were constantly changing course, one moment I was meant to feel sympathy towards the characters, the next that feeling was taken away. It was also heading in a direction that I liked and then it steered completely away from it which to me ,as a viewer, was frustrating. I'm no screenwriter but damn there were some missed directions in season 3.
Well season 4 was released worldwide on Netflix ,on March 4th, and I can say, after watching the whole thing, that it was pretty good. There were aspects of it that I didn't like but overall I felt that the show was good enough, to finish it, which is saying something. I love watching television but I'm not a huge fan of just consuming it. I attempt to pick the shows I watch carefully and if their characters begin to suck, their plots become muddled, and everything starts to fall in on itself, I stop watching. I actually stopped watching season 3 until a friend of mine, who recently finished it, told me to continue watching. This season is worth watching and if you haven't seen the trailer for it, check it out below.
I felt that the main problems the show had before this season was the misrepresentation of people of color and the female characters. Season 4 attempts to solve both of these problems. We are made to believe that Claire Underwood, (played by Robin Wright), is Frank's equal, but she was rarely treated as such. That was my huge issue with season 3; I felt that two different Claire's were battling it out, the submissive one and the dominant one. Which, in any other show, would be interesting, but not in this show. Right from the beginning, the audience is told, again not shown, that Claire is as ruthless and power hungry as Frank, (played by Kevin Spacey), and that they were a team. Despite this, Frank often makes decisions on his own and just fills Claire in. They lie to each other, cheat on each other, and engage in fairly trivial relationship problems which is something I'm not interested in watching, in a show like this. In season 4, Claire has more of a role, she is involved much more, and actually gets more screen time. Robin Wright also directed some of the episodes which I think is fantastic and allows the audience to see this show through a different gaze. This season also includes, Catherine Durant, played by Jayne Atkinson, and Heather Dunbar, played by Elizabeth Marvel, both fantastic characters who engage in the political game sometimes for and against Frank.
The show introduces a formidable mother daughter team this season; Doris Jones, played by Cicely Tyson, and Celia Jones, played by LisaGay Hamilton . These two feisty females, lock horns with Frank and Claire. Which makes sense as Frank is a Southern Democrat and ordinarily would interact with the African American community much more then what he did in seasons 1,2, and 3. A Southern Democrat would not be able to get to Congress without the African American vote, as displayed in recent US elections. This show usually only has a few people of color with Remy Danton, played by Mahershala Ali, Freddy Hayes played by Reg E. Cathy, Linda Vazquez played by Sakina Jaffrey. Linda only features in season 1 and 2, whilst Freddy and Remy are in all 4 seasons, albeit with very limited screen time in the latest season. This show benefited from the presence of the Jones characters and I think it would be immensely improved further by diversifying the cast and including more people of color and more women too .
My only other grumble about the past season is that Doug Stamper (played by Michael Kelly) was featured way too much. His story line this season was atrocious and nonsensical. I won't spoil it but it appeared as though they wanted the audience to see that he had a conscience when we know he clearly does not. It was weird and often made me want to fast forward right through it
But that's it. All in all, I liked it. What were your thoughts about it? Comment below and let me know!
Written by cwm on Mar 23, 2016
When I thought about Francis Urquhart of the original House of Cards series, I could not help but imagine Kevin Spacey in a way that was similar but a role of his own making. Spacey's role of Francis Underwood, in Netflix's original series, is nothing short of a tour de force. The convenience of being able to watch the whole season right away is also something to mention as a new, fresh and exciting method of television excellence. No longer do we have to wait and be fed slowly the episodes as we wonder what might happen and find ourselves somewhat disappointed -- now we can be swept away. And that's exactly what will happen to you when you sit down to watch this.
in europe (austria and germany) we are not able to watch FU's stories on netflix, because they made a deal with Sky a few years ago. So we either can wait for S4 or pay for Sky an watch it on their network - that sucks