House of Cards, Season 3

[Redfive]

I think that's about where my wife and I are as well.

It's not bad by any means, just not as riveting as the prior 2 seasons.

[$iljanus]

I'm about to start episode 11 tonight. That alone shows that this season hasn't really struck a chord with me.

Petrov is no Tusk.

Nope, he's Vladimir Putin on steroids. Or he's really... Vladimir Putin!

[hepcat]

I just preferred the Machiavellian machinations of Tusk over the rather blunt approach of Petrov.

[tgb]

Late to the party but just started S2 this morning. I also saw the big moment in the first episode coming but thought it would be a fakeout.

Anyway, has anyone read the source novels? Are they worth getting?

[tgb]

Season 5 is up, everybody.

[Zaxxon]

Must finish Bloodline first...

[Rumpy]

Season 4 was pretty bad. I hope Season 5 makes up for it. Ironically, I didn't find season 3 as bad as people had said. I still found it quite good, particularly the Russian president. But season 4 was stuck in an abyss, and the new dynamic between Frank and Claire didn't work.

[Moliere]

Binged Season 5 over the weekend. On par with past seasons. I don't see how Claire can separate herself from everything Frank did. She would be charged just as quickly instead of getting a free pass to the Presidency.

Amused by the Bohemian Grove reference.

[Zaxxon]

Please tell me that wasn't just an un-tagged S5 spoiler in a S3 thread...

[hepcat]

And I just started the season too.

[tgb]

Binged Season 5 over the weekend. On par with past seasons.

I've only watched half so far, but I'm not enjoying it as much as the others. It seems to be getting less and less plausible (even in the age of Drumpf).

[Rip]

Is it ironic that House of Cards turned out to be a house of cards?

[Isgrimnur]

Did you learn those drive-by posting skills in Chicago?

[DD*]

Is it ironic that House of Cards turned out to be a house of cards?

It's OK, Spacey is gay!

[Rumpy]

I've actually felt seasons 4 and 5 were pretty weak, 5 moreso. It's getting to the point where it's feeling like they're stretching things out in terms of evidence coming forward. I would have thought that by the end of season 5, there'd some clear-cut evidence to implicate him, but that storyline is moving along so slowly.

[tjg_marantz]

I've actually felt seasons 4 and 5 were pretty weak, 5 moreso. It's getting to the point where it's feeling like they're stretching things out in terms of evidence coming forward. I would have thought that by the end of season 5, there'd some clear-cut evidence to implicate him, but that storyline is moving along so slowly.

Biggest problem for me is they went way too fast to start the show. I could have seen him ascend to the presidency over 4 years at least. The chase was the hook. Hell, don't even make it about the presidency until season 4.

Still enjoy it though. Love the atmosphere and that intro theme gets me every time. So beautiful.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, the intro with the time-lapse of the city is great. That's one of my favourite things about it.

I don't know about the pacing, but I think it started out fine, about the same way as the British version. And if you've seen that version, then you can start to see similar plotting and structure. I know some point to season 3 as being the weakest of the first 3, but I disagree. I felt it was fairly good, and overall, those first 3 seasons were gripping television. By season 4 though, It started to feel like they were slowing down the pacing and stretching out the story to get more seasons out of it. It felt very thin on the actual story arc, and by season 5, I felt it was almost non-existent. Season 6 being their last, they're going to have to really ramp up on the events, some of which should have happened this season, and it's going to feel rushed as a result. It's kind of been frustrating to watch because, while the first 3 seasons set up some nice hooks, seasons 4 and 5 never really follow up on them, other than maybe touch on them once or twice, never to be heard from again.

[tjg_marantz]

Yeah, saw the British one. It was 12 episodes long and wrapped up. The American version, if it was 2 or 3 sessions would have been fine. But of course money so they keep tacking on seasons and it suffers. It is what it is.

[Isgrimnur]

Production on Season 6 just started, so they've got some time to work things to a conclusion. Wiki tells me that production on Season 5 lasted July - February.

[hepcat]

I barely made it through season 5. It needed to end anyway.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, saw the British one. It was 12 episodes long and wrapped up. The American version, if it was 2 or 3 sessions would have been fine. But of course money so they keep tacking on seasons and it suffers. It is what it is.

Yeah, it really does suffer. Seasons 4 and 5 should have moved along much more quickly than they have. Season 5 felt more like atmosphere than anything else.And frankly, I'm not sure Claire in the hotseat is really working for me. And I just heard that Netflix is thinking of a Claire-based spinoff. The fun thing about the British version was seeing just how far FU could go before things caught up with him, and this version seems to have lost focus on that. So, a Claire spinoff wouldn't really make much sense. In the British version, if I remember things correctly, the wife just wanted to wash her hands of everything he had done after having had enough of it.

[Isgrimnur]

The Verge

“MRC and Netflix have decided to suspend production on House of Cards season six, until further notice, to give us time to review the current situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew,” the companies said in a statement.

[hepcat]

Wow, that was quick!

[Isgrimnur]

Apparently the "final season 6" decision had been made well before the current kerfuffle.

[Rumpy]

One way they could solve this without totally derailing the premise:

Spoiler:

Would be for Claire to kill off Francis in the Season opener. This would be in keeping with the original British version. Then they wouldn't have to deal with Spacey for the rest of the season. Problem solved. Rest of the season could deal with all the loose ends crashing down on Claire while realizing she isn't in the clear.

[tjg_marantz]

Apparently the "final season 6" decision had been made well before the current kerfuffle.

Yeah but that shouldn't get in the way of good clickbait.

[pr0ner]

Spacey is an EP on House of Cards so it'll be interesting to see what they can really do to his character and how much control he really has over things.

[Isgrimnur]

Deadline

Netflix confirmed today that its popular political drama House of Cards will have a sixth and final season without its Oscar-winning star Kevin Spacey. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the show will enter production next year, with Robin Wright in the lead.

The eight-episode season will “bring closure of the show for fans” and bring back to work some 2,000 people in the Baltimore area whose livelihoods depend on the show, Sarandos said today at UBS’s Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. Previous HoC seasons consisted of 13 episodes each.
...
In light of the allegations, MRC had suspended Spacey. Meanwhile, Netflix stated that it will “not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey.”

So now they'll have a few more months of work before their livelihood is taken away.

[Rumpy]

The eight-episode season will “bring closure of the show for fans”

Something they should have been drawing to with 4-5. I largely felt this season was filler-TV.

[Moliere]

So now they'll have a few more months of work before their livelihood is taken away.

Isn't that the nature of their jobs? These shows can't be expected to go on forever.

[Isgrimnur]

It is. I’m just pointing out the absurdity of using that as a rah-rah talking point.

[Moliere]

Anyone watching Season 6? I trudged my way through the first episode before removing the season from My List. Either the formula was stale or I didn't care for the sans Kevin Spacey premise.

[Carpet_pissr]

I think I’m nearing the end of season 1 and this is just not hooking me like everyone told me it would. I might give it two more episodes before complete abandonment, but not looking good.

OTOH Princess Buttercup IS looking good.

79% RT seems about right, if a little high.

[tjg_marantz]

Anyone watching Season 6? I trudged my way through the first episode before removing the season from My List. Either the formula was stale or I didn't care for the sans Kevin Spacey premise.

Binged the whole season in 3 night shifts. Liked it as an ending. But it does feel like they tried too hard to avoid Spacey.

Will miss the title sequence though. Good piece of music that.