House of Cards: A Conflict Begins (Episodes 407-413)

How many more "new seasons" will there be?

"I'll read the words you wrote. "Hello fellow American. This you should vote me. I leave power. Good. Thank you. Thank you. If you vote me, I'm hot." What? "Taxes, they'll be lower. Sun. The Democratic vote for me is right thing to do Philadelphia. So do." This doesn't make any sense!" - Dennis Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, S02E08




The Governor of NY and Republican Nominee
As of Friday, House of Cards, Netflix's ridiculous yet fun political drama returned. Over the last thirty six or so hours, I have watched every episode of the new season. However, for length purposes and due to the structure of the season, I'm splitting my review into two. This one will cover the back half of the season (episodes seven through thirteen) while yesterday's post covered the front half (episodes one through six.)

The second half of House of Cards season four stepped up it's game, creating far more compelling plot than the first, involving the general election, a terrorist crisis, and the contrast between Frank and Claire and their republican opponents, Will and Hannah Conway.

In many ways, this was almost two entirely different mini-seasons, almost the way that The Walking Dead structures itself with two eight episode long sub-seasons. After Frank wakes up from his coma and re-unites with Claire, everything having to due with Frank v Claire is replaced with Frank and Claire v The World. After the gunshot, apparently, they both saw the light of day when it comes to working together instead of apart. That, or the writers realized that two political figures publicly going at each other's throats, when they're married, would be career suicide for both of them. Either way, all of the plot built up over the course of season three is thrown away and, although it's a bit of a waste of a buildup for the "ultimate foil to Frank," there were so many problems with the first half of season four, that it's for the best. Once again, we have our two pro/antagonists working together and now, their enemies are numerous.

We begin with the introduction of Will and Hannah Conway, the republicans. Will is a young republican governor of New York played by The Killing's Joel Kinnamen, while Hannah is his gorgeous young wife (and mother) played by Hell on Wheels's Dominique McElligott. The badass Seattle detective and the "fair haired maiden of the West" take on Washington together, coming in direct conflict with Frank and Claire, now the old guard of the democrats. This conflict is one of the major upsides of the season. Unlike most side characters and antagonists to the Underwoods, the Conways are actually capable and smart, taking an enormous amount of screentime for themselves and thus, getting pretty developed, as well as being shown to be somewhat worthy adversaries. Much like the 2008 election between Obama and McCane or the directly referenced 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy, the general becomes a battle between old and young. The Underwoods have the experience and the steady hands to make sure the government runs smoothly, while the Conways have the good looks and charm to goad America into voting for them based on likability.

Cue the high pitched Mickey Doyle laugh
On another thread, Tom Hammerschmidt, played by the great Boris McGiver, is now on the case of trying to write a story to bring down Frank. While he is the best actor for the job and the most interesting reporter the show still has, it also felt like a bit of a case of the show not having anyone else. Lucas and Zoe are both dead, and Tom is a familiar face, even if we haven't seen him in a while. In addition, it's a plot we've already seen. How many hours did we spend in season two with Lucas trying to bring down Frank? Regardless, it's a narrative that needs to happen if Frank is ever to meet his downfall, and we see familiar faces from President Walker to Remy and Jackie show up over the course of the season to give testimonials. It's nothing ingenious, but it works well enough for the space it's allotted.

Meanwhile, in by far the weakest step of the show, Tom Yates, played by Paul Sparks returns to the show in episode seven, now working as a speechwriter for the Underwoods, along with becoming Claire's lover. Now, regularly, I would blame the dull character on an under performing actor, but I know that is not the case with Paul Sparks. Watch one episode of Boardwalk Empire and we know that's not the case. As Mickey Doyle, Sparks was hilarious and stole most of the scenes he was in! In House of Cards though, it's as if he's been told to act like he's on a sedative. The man is the most boring, unnecessary character who has loads of screentime and plotting. While it's interesting to explore the partnership aspect of the Underwoods rather than the sexual nature of their relationship, Tom is perhaps the worst possible tool to carry this out with.

Conway (on the right) vs Underwood (on the left)
Speaking of the Underwoods partnership, let's address the elephant in the room: the vice presidency. In episode ten of the season, Claire wins the Vice Presidency at an open convention. No matter how the show tried to justify this, it just couldn't. It's absolutely ludicrous to believe a savvy politician like Frank (or Claire for that matter,) would ever allow his wife who has almost zero political experience actually in office, would even regard this ridiculous idea for more than a second. How the hell do they think the audience will take this scenario at all seriously? I see what the show is getting at, but there's only so much a viewer can suspend disbelief!

We end the season with Frank and Claire declaring war on ICO, the show's version of ISIS, only to distract voters away from Tom H's devastating article. We don't see the results of the general election and we don't see exactly where anything is headed going into the Beau Willimon-less season five of House of Cards. And, while the finale was a solid episode and an enjoyable piece of plotting, all of this political ridiculousness and open-plot direction leads me to one question: when the hell is this show going to end?

The fundamental problem that House of Cards runs into is that there is no clear narrative path for the saga of Frank and Claire other than for them to meet their downfall. We know that has to be the ending beat of the story, but the question is, when? While the first two seasons charted their rise, the third and fourth just seem like meandering nonsense as the show waits around to be given a curtain call. It's not to say that there aren't great aspects of the show or individual characters who are worth paying attention to, but for the most part, Cards feels like it's spinning it's wheels in the mud until it's time to actually come to a finale. Are the Conways a real threat? Not really - we know Frank and Claire will win the election or else we don't have a show anymore. Will Frank and Claire actually go against each other ever, as they are each other's ultimate foils? If they didn't in this season, I think that thread is snipped.

All in all, it's time for House of Cards to angle toward the endgame. There's only so much manipulation the White House can take before the Underwood era ends, and with every passing season, it seems like we need to get to that point. Do I enjoy seeing Kevin Spacey outsmart a confederacy of dunces? Sure. But is it anything to come close to television giants like Breaking Bad, The Wire, Deadwood, The Sopranos, etc? Not at all.

And, seriously, when Veep is a more accurate look at politics than you, perhaps there's a problem in the writer's room.

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