Spoilers for season three of House of Cards follow! You have been warned . . .
I feel like I should start with the positives for season three, and yes, there are certainly some positives. House of Cards might have really fallen of the tracks in terms of overall story quality this year, but that doesn't mean there weren't some really excellent moments throughout the season. Robin Wright, once again, gave a nuanced and complex performance. While Claire's motivations throughout the season were a bit muddled (she decides to leave Frank now, despite knowing that, from day one of the series, the goal was to promote him to the presidency? Oy.), Wright was able to hold my focus throughout the poor dialogue and confusing plots. That scene with Claire and the Russian ambassador in the bathroom? That was pretty amazing. My major hope for season four is that we get to truly see Claire Underwood on her own, without Frank in the wings supporting her in any way. Now, I doubt that will happen much, if at all, but man, that would be a heck of a show. I also have to give kudos to Michael Kelly for his work as Doug Stamper. Doug's storyline felt as if it was on fast forward this year while the rest of the show moved at a slower pace (from falling off the wagon to clean and sober all in the span of 13 episodes, with very little time spent really ruminating on the massive emotional toll this has taken on Doug), Kelly successfully made me like Doug for several moments this season. And that is quite a feat, as Doug is one of the most odious characters on the show (which is also saying quite a lot). I still don't really buy into Doug's infatuation with poor Rachel, but I was glad to see that the show opted to end that particular subplot once and for all. But taken as a whole, season three was just plain confusing. After last season's debacle with the Chinese and the Tusk fiasco, I was hoping for a more streamlined season from a story perspective. Making Claire the UN ambassador was all well and good, as was showing how over-matched she was, but allowing it to drag out for several episodes was sloppy. And then, after spending all that time hyping how crucial having an Underwood power player in the UN was to the situation in the Jordan Valley, there's zero mention of who replaces Claire as the ambassador? Or even what is happening with the Jordan Valley after the whole deal falls apart? Then there is the whole mess with Russia- we get it, Petrov is a nasty guy and his regime is not to be messed with. But with the amount of time we spent learning about him and seeing him best Frank, Petrov is suddenly dropped from the storyline once Frank jumps into the campaign? Isn't Russia still going to be throwing its weight around even when Frank hangs up the phone on Petrov in a huff? The series simply dropped all of these storylines with no warning. I completely understand that the presidential campaign has far more bearing on Frank's future than his spat with Russia, but doesn't his spat with Russia also have bearing on his campaign? Won't people want to understand what happened in the Jordan Valley? I guess I might be giving the voters in the House of Cards universe a bit too much credit, but one would think that Heather Dunbar might want to press him on these issues if she hopes to really have a shot at winning the election (which, really, I think we can all agree she does not, since she still have scruples and principles). The scattered plots of the season didn't even coalesce well in the final, where we finally saw tensions come to a head between Frank and Claire. Considering this was the only real twist in the entire season (strange for a series that prides itself on surprising its audience), it rang just as hollow as the rest of the season. Both Frank and Claire went into this journey knowing full well what it would take. Both have done some pretty awful things to get here. Claire knows who she married and Frank knows that Claire isn't the type of person to stay in the background forever. This separation was inevitable, but neither really has a leg to stand on in terms of moral high ground here. I've largely treated the first two seasons of House of Cards as fun over-the-top escapist television. It wasn't going to be making any top ten lists for me, but it was a fun way to spend a week in February. After watching this season, the show has officially become more tedious and fun (especially since we didn't even get multiple Cashew sightings- just the single scene- which might be the worst sin of all this year). Which is disappointing. I love to watch Kevin Spacey chew through the scenery as much as the next person. I just wish the show cared about presenting complete stories, rather than a smorgasbord of nothing.