House of Cards Season 3 review
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What the fuck, Netflix. What. The. Fuck.
So the first two seasons established a certain tone, one perhaps described by the phrase "power corrupts." Like the anime Deathnote and the BBC miniseries also named House of Cards, we enjoyed an immorality play where we rooted for our evil but brilliant villains as they lied, cheated and murdered through their (often nearly as brilliant) opposition. Good times. Season 3 isn't like that. If it had a phrase to describe it, it might be "the pursuit of power corrupts, but the actual acquisition of it turns you into a babbling crazy person." Well, that actually wouldn't be that bad - one could establish power as some form of secular Cthulu which wreaks mental havoc on those who actually experience it. That would have been kind of awesome. But no. Instead it's more accurate to say that once our antihero Frank Underwood finally attains true power, the entire world becomes babbling crazy people. For no discernable reason. We discover that Underwood's machinations to this point were means to an end, and that end is... a plan for the nation so crazy that I believe the writers of the show may owe Deceptionist royalties. Sharp, introduced in Season 2 as a competent operator, is set up as a puppet candidate - the exact same role as Russo, a self-destructive addict, except manipulated less often and more crudely, completely disrespecting that intelligence as well as the entire plot of Season 1. Claire goes from sinister Ryuk-style boredom-fighter to bleeding heart liberal. It seems like Doug, Gavin (aka Heronymous), a person with Alzheimer's, and a suicidal prisoner are the only characters who aren't touched in the head, which is a 75% irony rate. Oh, and we have Vladimir Putin as a new character. Different name, but we know it is him. This character, along with mentions to Minecraft and a dozen other contemporary culture references, now feel like forced script lines, disrupting the natural flow. Since most of the character development is more like character reversal, these episodes feel like filler... Most likely because they are. The season ends not wrapped in a bow but with a cliffhanger which feels courtesy of the writers of The Walking Dead. Maybe the plan is that they wanted to end the series at the end of this particular storyline, so they pulled a Harry Potter and the Deathly Mockingjay Part 1 and split it into two parts. Explains the filler, explains the lame cliffhanger. But doesn't justify them. It seems like a clear case of selling out, of putting out subpar product for job security. So yeah, House of Cards. Congrats on the Emmies. You deserved them then, and you're using them to coast now. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted. Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Feb 28, 2015, 10:01:34 PM
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I mean, maybe, but it's an American political drama, that's a rip off of a British political drama, which is based on a book. So to start with they tried to shove things that just kinda don't work in American politics into it, but even in the British version Francis Urquhart goes pretty nuts in the final season. Netflix didn't write the overall plot they're just copying it, and trying to force it into American politics.
Last edited by j33bus on Mar 2, 2015, 12:31:10 AM
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They did a much better job adapting in the past.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
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True, but the entire third part is meant to be the guy going nuts with power anyway.
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Still doesn't explain everyone else losing their minds.
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
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that show sucks. there's classier ways to waste an hour a week.
Don't forget to drink your milk 👌
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Bitter? :3
When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted.
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No Belieber
Don't forget to drink your milk 👌
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