Many of us are by now finished with the third season of House of Cards, Netflix’s thoroughly addictive political drama/thriller series that arrived online last Friday. Now that a lot of us are done, let’s have a chat about what we just watched. Early reviews even criticized the lack of twists that were presented in seasons one and two and felt that the characters of Francis and Claire deserved more to act on in terms of plot. In their ruthless rise to power, Frank and Claire battle threats past and present, and form new alliances while old ones succumb to betrayal. The third season of the American television drama series House of Cards was commissioned on February 4, 2014.
Episodes
A drama about a ruthless congressman and his equally ambitious wife who navigate the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. County administrator Oren Chase (Murphy Guyer), a Republican rival of Frank's who wants his congressional seat, urges the girl's parents to file a lawsuit against him. Don't read this post unless you've seen all of House of Cards, and I mean all 13 episodes. Don't flirt with danger if you've seen eight and think you can just scroll halfway through the post.
Cast & Crew
But mostly this season felt off-balance, owing to problems of Frank’s position and some storylines that never really led anywhere fruitful. There were stories throughout the season, ones featuring good actors doing good work, that felt curiously unnecessary, even detrimental. And I just don’t think this season got to the “wow” moments that made Seasons 1 and 2 sing, that thrilling “A-ha! ” when you see the full, interconnected scope of what the writers have been weaving all along. Season 3 was lacking a trick, a nifty bit of design that could give it some real pizzazz.
House of Cards Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Take Me to Church - Vulture
House of Cards Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Take Me to Church.
Posted: Sun, 01 Mar 2015 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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Netflix released the season in its entirety on February 27, 2015. The season was filmed from approximately June 12 through December 20, 2014. With Frank out of the picture, Claire Underwood steps fully into her own as the first woman president, but faces formidable threats to her legacy. With the stakes higher than ever, Frank and Claire work together to consolidate their power and win the White House by any means possible. President Underwood fights to secure his legacy.
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It’s possible that Frank’s murky, fluid sexuality is just an illustrative detail of his bigger, complicated self and will stay mostly unexplored. Though, why keep bringing this thing up if it’s not headed somewhere? I don’t think anything is going to be left unknown in the Pine Barrens when this show ends. This is a show that answers most of its questions, so I think we haven’t heard the last, and may be about to hear a lot more, about Frank’s sexuality. The central narrative this season was, instead of some murder-y plot, the tension in Frank and Claire’s relationship.
With the homoerotic memories of his days at The Sentinel, the Meechum threesome, and now that charged scene with Thomas Yates, you have to wonder if House of Cards is trying to tell us something about who Frank is. Plus there was all that stuff this season about Claire not seeming satisfied in the relationship. I know a lot of that had to do with other things, ambitions and dreams and whatnot, but there were definite sexual overtones to it too, no? Especially that bedroom scene with Claire demanding that Frank take her by force. I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too much into things, or asking too much of the show, but it does kind of seem like the series might be headed toward something a little less latent and a little more overt.
Where to Watch
Does the president really deal with that few people? Sure he had his cabinet meetings, but mostly he was only interacting with a very small handful of people. He seemed to only have one or two Secret Service guys, even.
Claire and Michael switch gears for a bit, digging into marriage. I’m sort of amazed that Michael would be so bold with the First Lady of the United States (and I am quite skeptical that he would know, just by looking at her for the past few hours, that she and Frank aren’t having sex). Claire, who has been married more than half her life, repeats her go-to line, that “I love Francis, now more than ever.” But Michael doesn’t believe her. He’s cheated on his husband and wishes they could split up, but the face of the fight for marriage equality can’t exactly run out and get a divorce. “Bad for business,” he says, just like it would be for Claire. It’s interesting that Claire doesn’t refute Michael’s allegation that she and Frank aren’t sleeping together; maybe she thinks it doesn’t merit a response.
Call Me Francis
This was definitely an uneven season of House of Cards. It still featured some great performances, with Spacey just skirting the line of overdoing it, and lots of striking composition. The finale episode, with Doug’s cold-blooded dispatching of Rachel and Frank and Claire’s implosion, did get the pulse racing.
Now that he’s realigned with Frank, or at least appears to be, I’m excited to see Doug maneuver the back corridors and darkened parking garages of power again. Doug, with that final brutal act, was the closest this show came to being the House of Cards of the first two seasons, when the show was less about emotional and psychological turmoil and more about good old fashioned plotting. Since it looks like he’s definitely sticking around, hopefully Doug can help get Frank back on track next year. Maybe there’s a concrete reason for all that marital misery.
When he turned that van around to get Rachel, a scene that was masterfully shot and staged, I was shocked. I know that sounds terrible, and in an ideal world Rachel, excuse me, Cassie, would have walked off into the New Mexico sunset unharmed. But this isn’t an ideal world, it’s the soapy moral morass that is House of Cards, and in that morass it was strangely nice to see Doug and the show back to their old ruthlessness.
House of Cards should still primarily focus on Frank and Claire (and Doug) next season, because that’s how the show’s framework is set up, but the supporting cast has lost some of its depth. So I hope they replenish the roster in Season 4. And I hope that we’ve not seen the last of Remy, or poor, clueless, forever thwarted Jackie. I think their plotlines sorta wrapped up at the end of this season, but Mahershala Ali and Molly Parker are such good, engaging actors that it’d be a shame not to see more of them. As the return of Doug proved, we should never count anyone out on this show unless they’re for sure dead, so maybe there’s hope that we’ll see those two star-crossed lovers again. Petrov arrested him and has been holding him prisoner; he is the match flickering above the tinder box that is Frank and Petrov's relationship.
This post is for people who have seen all of House of Cards, season 3—in other words, all of House of Cards to date, down to the credits. Season three introduces intriguing new political and personal elements to Frank Underwood's character, even if it feels like more of the same for some. The season was recognized with numerous award nominations. Discussions get heated with Underwood asking them if they want him to resign. He ends up on good terms with them, announcing a Furman University scholarship in their daughter's honor.
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