(3.5 / 5)
A Congressman works with his equally conniving wife to exact revenge on the people who betrayed him.
When I started this season one question lingered on my mind: “Where do you go when your main actor was the voice and soul of this show?” Luckily, the “House of Cards” showrunners maneuvered themselves into a space with some wiggle room over the last couple of seasons so questioning the show’s next plot didn’t feel as farfetched. Unfortunately, the entirety of the season is spent with Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood clawing her way out from under Spacey’s shadow. For such an intricate show, it maintains its aesthetic while struggling to enliven the story and maintain its relevancy post-Spacey.
Robin Wright is amazing. First and foremost, I confess her Claire Hale Underwood always captured my attention. Equal parts cold, calculating, and caring, Robin Wright’s talent definitely vanished while Spacey was around. With Spacey gone, she gets more and more of the stage as things go on. From the beginning, everyone around her highlights just how cunning Claire is, and she doesn’t disappoint.
My biggest struggle was catching up. This is not a show known for its simplicity. Kinda like ”Game of Thrones,” the first couple of seasons taught me more about our politics than any of my social studies classes. Things like Speaker of the House, Majority Whip, or even Secretary of State meant little to me until I started watching this show. I imagined myself fairly accomplished in navigating the intricate web of lies and murder. So I started season six and finished the first three episodes with giant exclamations of “I have no idea what’s going on.” I had to watch recap videos to remember. Once I caught up though, the show really took off.
Robin Wright in House of Cards (2018).
I love the framing and camerawork of this show. Always perfectly balanced, every single frame feels incredibly well-proportioned. The natural and unnatural light sources fill each shot with sterile greys or muted yellows. Its very visual aesthetic crawls under our skin with near perfect images. I’ve always enjoyed the craft of the show and this season maintains that consistently high quality.
“House of Cards” delivers on all the things we’ve come to expect from them: wild twists, shocking reveals, unexpected betrayals and I’d come to expect this season to be the last. As of this writing, there is no expected season seven. The season announced early in March that this is the ending. Operating under that assumption then it’s hard to accept the season’s finale. I don’t want to give away too much so I’ll refrain from saying more. Suffice to say: despite the closure we’re offered there are still loose ends, narratively.
The last thing I want to talk about is “House of Cards”’ unnerving talent for weaving in modern day politics into its narrative without ever feeling on-the-nose or preachy. This season features a federal investigation into collusion with Russian intelligence agencies, a Tomi Lahren-esque talking head panel, a war in Syria, and that Putin-stand in. For a show about politics, it cares deeply about Our Politics. In this slightly askew other-Earth, we see the connotations of ‘Clinton-esque’ character brustling against the patriarchal system that is our government. In many ways, it endears her more to me as she justifies her actions with a feminist agenda. In this season we’re granted a window into an alternate America where a woman is President and her actions constantly get dragged through the lens of ‘Frank’s Widow.’ I enjoyed the drama in the center but the beginning and ending lost me.
Now available to stream on Netflix
