Image Source: Google Images
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the blog. This is the second part review of the Political Drama TV show House of Cards. If you have not read the First one be sure to check that out (Click Here).
In the first blog, I covered up the initial 2 seasons of the series just to give you a glimpse of the storyline.In this blog, I will majorly focus on the later seasons of the series and how the story unfolded from season 2 onwards. Here is a Quick recap before we proceed.
House of Cards is the story of Congressman Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a Democrat from South Carolina's 5th congressional district and House Majority Whip. After being passed over for appointment as Secretary of State, he initiates an elaborate plan to get himself into a position of greater power, aided by his wife, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright). The series deals primarily with themes of ruthless pragmatism, manipulation, and power.
Information Source: Wikipedia.com
PLOT OF THE SERIES (Post Season 2)
House of Cards Season 3 Official Trailer- Video Source: Youtube.com
SEASON 3 (2015)
Claire Underwood: What if you lose?
Francis Underwood: I will not be a placeholder president, Claire. I will win. And I will leave a legacy.
Claire Underwood: You mean, "we" will.
Dialogue Promo 'House of Cards'
The season begins from where it left off in Season 2, after six months. Frank Underwood is the current President of the United States and is vouching on his new program for the government "America Works". In spite of several deliberations and opposing attitude of his counterparts to his new Policy Program, Frank is persistent to get this actioned into full swing and informs his legislative assembly that he would like to keep the Program running so that it acts as an election campaign to his 2016 Presidential Run where he faces off against Heather Dunbar (played by Elizabeth Marvel ). Most of the Assembly workers are neither in favor of the Program nor in favor of the fact that Frank should run for President in the next elections.
Image Source: IMDb.com
On the Other Hand, Doug Stamper (who was severely injured by Racheal Posner in the end SEASON 2) wakes up from Coma in the hospital after 6 months. He watches on television that Frank becomes president and goes on to visit him where he comes to know that his duties are taken over collectively by Press secretary Seth Grayson (played by Derek Cecil) and Communications Director Remy Danton (played by Mahershala Ali ). Feeling distraught Doug starts to work for the opposition, Heather Dunbar and simultaneously keep on tracking Racheal who left him wounded to die in the forest.He struggles with alcoholism and depression and holds Racheal responsible for all of this. With help of Gavin, he is successfully able to track her down and without a second thought sedate her first and then kill her later to bury somewhere in an abandoned desert. He returns to work for Frank as his Chief of Staff after Remy Danton resigns.
Image Source: IMDb.com
Meanwhile, Clair Underwood is named the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She immediately comes under the line of fire as the Russian President Viktor Petrov (played by Lars Mikkelsen) has an American gay rights activist arrested in Russia.Their troops completely invade the Jordan Valley Region holding several other Americans as captives. Both Frank and Claire go to Russia to persuade the Russian President to free the activist & remove the troops from valley only to benefit themselves out of the complete episode.The activist decides to hang himself rather than being imprisoned for the rest of his life.Petrov convinces Frank to remove Claire as ambassador to the UN in exchange for the removal of Russian troops from the Valley. Before Frank could say anything to Claire, she resigns from her post from UN and their relation starts to strain.
This is the First time in the series that we got to see tensions rise between Frank and Claire. The finale is a real story opener as Claire decides to leave Frank and end their 25 years of Marriage.
You would be shocked to know the reason.Well, I will not reveal that.... be sure to catch up Season 3.
SEASON 4 (2016)
Francis Underwood: [to the camera] Do you know the main thing that separates a politician from the rest of the species? A politician is the one who would drown a litter of kittens for ten minutes of prime time.
Dialogue Promo 'House of Cards'
Immediately after the events of Season 3, Claire leaves their House for her own home in Dallas, intending to run for elections as a separate candidate. She offers Federal funding to another veteran Congress women in lieu that she steps down from her post in upcoming elections.Frank who is desperate to get Claire on her side changes the decision of the congress women at the last minute resulting in Claire having no seat at the senate in the upcoming elections. On the other hand, Claire becomes who wants to seek revenge on Frank, decides to leak information to her Counterpart Dunbart with help of Remy Denton and Frank's Current Chief Secretary and Remi's love interest Jacqueline "Jackie" Sharp (played by ) Frank discovers Claire antics and confronts her where she reveals that she wants to run for Vice president to which Frank says no.
Image Source: IMDB.com
Lucas Goodwin who was sent to prison in Season 2 on account of Cyber crime tries to get in touch with Dunbar after being released. He approaches Dunbar at a campaign event and tells her his complete story only to seek revenge against Frank (Goodwin hold Frank responsible for his girlfriend Zoey's death), but she turns him away. With his sole purpose to seek Vendetta against Frank, he tries to publically assassinate him by shooting him in broad daylight during one of his public appearances. In a cross fire, Frank gets shot by Goodwin and Edward Meechum (played by Nathan Darrow) Franks Bodyguard ends up shooting Goodwin but is unable to save himself. Frank narrowly escapes death and is saved by a liver transplant surgery that Dough forces the Doctors to initiate immediately in spite of Frank being at second number in the donor's list. While Frank Battles for his life Donald Blythe (played by ) is sworn in as the acting president who is very indecisive.He seeks Claire help in every White House decision. Claire uses this situation to her advantage and manipulates Blythe to change Foreign Policy and single handly maneuvers Russian President Petrov to sign a peace treaty with China. Dunbar, on the other hand, decides to end her campaign only to come clean in the public eye and tells the media that Goodwin did actually approach her, but she was never convinced. Meanwhile, Frank recovers fully and resumes his duties in the White house and also agrees to put Claire on the ticket for the upcoming election.
Image Source: IMDb.com
Will Conway (played by Joel Kinnaman) emerges as a new Republican candidate to run for President against Frank. His family man image on social media and a US military background helps him garner a mass public attention.Meanwhile, Tom Hammerschmidt (played by Boris McGiver) who was working as a senior journalist in the newspaper where Goodwin and Zoey worked decides to digs deeper into Lucas's claims of Frank's misdeeds. He approaches Remy Denton and former President Garret Walker (played by Michel Gill) and starts to starts to piece together Frank's corruption. A hostage crisis involving an American family and a radical Islamic group called ICO makes national headlines where kidnappers agree only to negotiate with Conway. Kidnappers demand the release of their deposed leader of ICO, Yusuf al Ahmadi (played by Farshad Farahat) to which Underwood agrees but conditioning they release the mother and daughter in the family. Claire goes down to speak to the ICO leader trying to persuade him to change his henchmen's decision and sighting the consequences if not done so.Instead, Al Ahmadi urges his followers to kill one of the hostages and broadcast the killing to the public. At the same time, Hammerschmidt publishes his story against Frank sighting of him being a corrupt leader.
Image Source: IMDb.com
The season finale is very intense and we get to see Claire finally breaking the Fourth Wall Character along with her Husband Frank exhibitting the audience a glimpse of their ruthlessness and undeniable power TOGETHER..
SEASON 5 (2017)
House of Cards Season 5 Official Trailer- Video Source: Youtube.com
The first episode of the season starts exactly from where the last season ended. Frank with his manipulative antics was successful in embodying a fear of terror in the publics eye.He imposes a martial law and also launches a cyber attack on the NSA use his underground back channels.O the day of election when the results seems almost in favor of Conway, Frank issues a state of emergency in on of the states where his counterpart is the clear favorite only to make it look like a move to counter terrorist/cyber attack. He contacts the Governors of Ohio and Tennessee and convinces them to close the electoral poll early. As a result of voting being not allowed in a number of states, the election results are undecided.
Image Source: IMDb.com
Nine weeks after this episode Twelfth Amendment is invoked. Both contenders try to win the majority whip however in spite of Frank convincing the Congress Party and a small number of Democrats in his favor he is only able to secure 50% of the votes with resulting in a tie with Conway. This leads to Claire become the acting President as per the Amendment and also after she manages to convince the Senate to vote on her side. Once she is sworn in as a temporary president Jane Davis (played by Patricia Clarkson) begin to work closely with her as her Chief of Staff. Claire then declares the re election to take place in the Ohio, Tennessee and other states where it did not happen earlier. Meanwhile, Conway starts to feel cheated that lets to his mental breakdown and several episodes of public outburst which lowers his image. His campaign manager Mark Usher (played by Campbell Scott) decides to switch sides and joins hands with the Underwoods and after the final results of reelection, Frank is again sworn as the President of United states.
Image Source: IMDb.com
Tom Hammerschmidt along with his new team continue to investigate Zoey's death. Tom is contacted by an unknown caller to inform him about a leak being present in the White House and also helping him with all the documents relating to the information about the leak. This brings Frank into question and results in an impeachment hearing against him. Tom receives another call from the unknown person revealing Doug to be the killer of Zoey. Frank convinces Doug to take the fall for him and later admits to Claire that he himself is the Unknown caller and that all of this was part of his master plan.He has realized that the True Power is not in the White House but in Private Sector.
However, the situation turns against Frank and series end with lots of open ended answers (You will have to watch the series for this..)
The 2-hour long season finale is one of the best episodes of the entire series AND YOU AS AN AUDIENCE ARE LEFT IN A SHOCK AND LOTS OF BIG BURING QUESTIONS...
**Spoliers Alert- "My turn."
CAST MEMBERS
Cast Members of House of Cards at SAG Awards Image Source: IMDB.com
The main cast members have already been described in the previous Blog. Click here to check that out. Below is the list of Characters who joined the series post Season 3.
Heather Dunbar played by Elizabeth Marvel - She is the Democratic Party candidate running for The Presidency against Frank in Season 3.
Remy Danton played by Mahershala Ali- A lawyer/lobbyist who initially worked for Raymond Tusk but later joins hands with Frank and represents him as his Communications Director.
Jacqueline "Jackie" Sharp played by Molly Parker - She is from Congress Party & Remy's love interest.
Seth Grayson played by Derek Cecil- He is Congress Press secretary
Will Conway played by Joel Kinnaman- A previous Army Major & now a Republican Governor who is running against Frank for Presidential elections.
Edward Meechum played by Nathan Darrow- Frank's bodyguard and driver.
Viktor Petrov played by Lars Mikkelsen Russian President.
Jane Davis played by Patricia Clarkson - She joins the Underwood as the Chief of Staff after Claire is sworn in as the president.
Mark Usher played by Campbell Scott- Conway's Campaign Manager
Tom Hammerschmidt played by Boris McGiver- Editor-in-chief in a leading newspaper. He believes that Zoey was killed by Frank and investigates him.
Yusuf al Ahmadi played by Farshad Farahat
Future Developments
The way SEASON 5 has ended on a very dramatic and Shocking note the possibility of Season 6 is definitely on the cards. The creators have left the Audience for wanting more. Also, the series is the First ever Netflix Orignal Production is most likely to return to answer all your question. Robin Wright (who plays the character of Claire in the Show and is also the executive Producer) said in an interview the return is very much on.
“The vein [and] the artery of the show is so set in stone. It lives on its own and we just try to enhance certain things and try not to recycle the same ideas. You’re always trying to come up with twists and turns with this kind of drama. And again [having] the key to not give the audience what they expect. Let’s shock and surprise them.”
Robin Wright Interview Expricts with THR- Information Source: Dragonfeed.net
FINAL VERDICT
Image Source: IMDb.com
When Netflix introduced their original TV Series in 2013 little did they knew that it would run into its 5 years (Sixth in the making!!). The time when it was released major aspects of what made "House of Cards" so good is the ability to watch all the episodes back-to-back with no commercials or programming schedules to get in the way (That was a Game changing idea that completely revolutionized the TV industry). The removal of Fourth wall between the viewer and main Protagonist was truly the thing that got me hooked on the series. I personally feel that The quality of writing, directing, and storytelling is as good as you will ever witness. Kevin Spacey portrayal of Frank Underwood is fascinating to watch. His goal to seek ultimate power through manipulation, blackmail, greed & determination makes you believe in his character and give you a glimpse of the real world politics.
The praises from the audience have improved with every season, however, critics have shared mixed reviews
** Robert Bianco, critic from USA Today praised the series, particularly Spacey's and Wright's lead performances, stating "If you think network executives are nervous, imagine the actors who have to go up against that pair in the Emmys."
** The Independent praised Spacey's portrayal as a more "menacing" character, "hiding his rage behind Southern charm and old-fashioned courtesy.
** Nick Gillespie of The Daily Beast who accused the writers of "descending into prosaic moralism" in season 3 and asserts that it deviates from the show's original intent.
** Ben Travers of IndieWire had a positive response to season four, calling it an upgrade from what he perceived as a "messy and unsatisfying melodramatic" third season, writing that "House of Cards is aiming at authenticity, and–for what feels like the first time–consistently finding it.
Information Source: Wikipedia.com
If you have never watched any Political Drama before and you are a fan of Game of Thrones, then do give this series a try and you will not be disappointed. (It is similar to GOT in storytelling...)
Well that was my take on the Famous Netflix Series. Hope you would have enjoyed the two part review.
Just like Frank Underwood Always wants to win What about you guys!! Here is a little survey for you courtesy Querlo Chat...
"What is the Most Important Political Issue in the US right now"
Till next time we meet Good Bye everyone...
