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Maybe that's an extension of the show coming to terms with the fact that, Kevin Spacey's ostentatious performance aside, Frank Underwood isn't nearly as interesting or compelling as its writers would like to think he is.
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Only that might not be the best question to ask, since Frank's direct address has, in recent seasons, become more an excuse to condense various plot points into a series of easily digestible bullet points and less an attempt to offer actual insight into the character's frame of mind. And so, given the series' continued interest in having its protagonist break the fourth wall for a little one-on-one convo with his audience, it would only seem natural that the viewer be afforded a chance to fire back, perhaps to ask the president: "What's it all about, Frank?" Season 4 has no desire to provide anything of the sort. It's one thing to end on a cliffhanger or hint at a continuation, but those things generally work when the audience has some idea of an endpoint on the horizon. That sense of indecision or ability to merge the two halves of its base self is made evident by the season's muffled finale.
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It's as though House of Cards is unsure how to reconcile its desire to see the Underwood's story play out on a national – if not global – stage, but also give it a "behind closed doors" level of confidence. In this world of the on-demand, bingeable television season Netflix is determined to make the norm, the action in a series like House of Cards can never stop rising, lest the audience have a reason to stop watching.Īlthough season 4 was a marked improvement over the less successful season 3 experiment of letting the characters steer the ship, the search for a middle ground between character intimacy and the surface-level formality of the show's depiction of politics makes for an uneven viewing experience.

There is no climax, no denouement there is only a series of small anti-climaxes followed by more rising action. Instead, those closing moments put all their energy into the build-up to more the question of what comes next firmly puts the notion of an ending in the backseat. These moments don't offer much in the way of lasting significance because that's not what the show's interested having them do it just wants these trifling problems or sordid instances to act as the vehicle that shuttles the viewer through one episode and on into the next.Ĭase in point: the final moments of season 4 are unconcerned with offering any sense of closure for the previous 13 hours of… stuff that happened. Most notably, the show has seemingly thrown the idea of a typical season-long storyline out the window in favor of a series of sort-of cohesive rapid-fire moments – bumps in the road that threaten to undo everything Frank has worked so for over the last few years – that fail to bring with them any real sense of consequence or closure. While the series has admirably shifted from puerile political thriller eager to convince the world of its prestige-worthiness to puerile political thriller that fully embraces its trashy cartoonishness, House of Cards has changed in other ways, too.
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Instead, Netflix's flagship series has largely concerned itself with being a model case for the supposed benefits of the streaming giant's preferred method of TV viewing – i.e., the binge-watch. More and more, it feels as though the job of House of Cards isn't to tell the story of Frank and Claire Underwood and the underhanded lengths they'll go to obtain and hang on to power.
