House of Cards: Season 3
A show that has been about the obtaining of power in the first two seasons, has becoming something completely different. Before this season got started, I was wondering where the story could go. Francis Underwood is already President of the United States, so he’s hit a bit of a ceiling. What else was there? The answer is to stop climbing and start looking down the later. Instead of gaining power, the goals are now securing and utilizing power.
Frank is worried he will not be able to keep his power and starts off this season with pretty much everyone against him. He’s even having a lot of difficulty with Claire.
That being said, even within his struggle, he’s definitely feeling the power. The season opens with him visiting and urinating on his father’s grave. That’s just a taste of how extreme Frank gets. He still retains his logic and craftiness, but he soon starts to get in his own way.
He wants to stay in power and he wants everyone to respect him, but it is soon discovered everyone sees him a placeholder. His Russian counterpart, President Petrov, even blatantly disrespects him by kissing Claire on the mouth in the middle of a party. It’s the beginning of a strong external conflict that demonstrates Frank’s leadership abilities (or lack thereof) for the entirety of the season. Even the leadership of his own party have little to no faith in him or his “America Works” plan.
He becomes so intent on garnering respect that he goes completely power mad and pushes everyone close to him away. His condescension and demands for fealty push away everyone short of Doug and Seth. His office and his power are the most important things to him, until the very last scene. You can clearly see on his face that he knows he has gone too far. He even hires a person to write a book about him and when that person finally gets into it, he completely changes his mind, resorting to threats when the author, who is a great addition to the cast by the way, becomes more insistent.
I really liked the direction this season has gone in. They had to change course, as there was no higher Francis could go. Dealing with his personal life and his difficulties with holding office were perfect. I had gotten so used to seeing Frank win that seeing him lose seemed an impossibility. I was wrong, he lost almost constantly this time. It took him to remember his humility and how much he needed people to get him back on track. Which is something I also liked. Instead of him just magically winning once he learned his lesson, he simply began to take steps in the right direction.
It’s more realistic to me when a character rebuilds or learns over time instead of having all of his problems solved in a single episode or in this case, season. The immense contrast between Frank’s position at the close of seasons two and three is refreshing. There was a little heavy-handedness here and there (like him spitting on the image of Jesus in church), but it gets the point of across. This show definitely knows how to survive and build interest in the next season. I might have to officially call this the best of all of the Netflix Originals and I don’t generally like political dramas. As long as it took me to start this show when it first came out, I’m very glad I did.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
