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DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
okay
done with the season
I was entertained throughout, I can give it that much. and Davis is a fun new character (Usher on the other hand is too dry)
However I do agree that I wished it ended earlier...

and also that Cathy Durant stairway scene was dumb as a big of bricks.. couldnt they have staged/shot that in any different way?

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SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


It really sucks that the entirety of Franks run as president was dealing with the election, then after the election he resigns and is done.

1-800-DOCTORB
Nov 6, 2009
The worst part of this season was that Freddy was not in it.

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


It was for sure the whitest season of House of Cards.

Retrowave Joe
Jul 20, 2001

Used to be that before every season started I'd get a pound of spare ribs from the local BBQ joint and dig in while binging. It's just not the same anymore without Freddy

counterfeitsaint
Feb 26, 2010

I'm a girl, and you're
gnomes, and it's like
what? Yikes.
At least Freddy had one hell of a mic drop. I'm a little side we never got it as a thread title:

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The TV IV > House of Cards: You a motha fucka Mister President!

Goons Are Gifts
Jan 1, 1970

1-800-DOCTORB posted:

The worst part of this season was that Freddy was not in it.

Glad he wasn't, next time he appears on screen Doug loving tries to poison him, too or Francis talking to a TV saying that he will murder him anyways. Given that we are now on the murder is completely normal and ok for a POTUS and First Lady rail either way.

mrbotus
Apr 7, 2009

Patron of the Pants
Is the creepy spy-master lady not obviously untrustworthy to Claire, or am I just missing something?

Senor Tron
May 26, 2006


I was surprised that Francis actually resigned. I thought it was going to be some scheme where he made it seem like he was going to resign selflessly for the good of the country to end uncertainty and then have Doug confess to all his crimes. With Doug shown to be the true bad guy and Francis cleared he would keep his presidency on stronger footing, the population now truly believing he had their best interests at heart.

Way too many murders this season. It fits the characters, but they are basically inconsequential because it is unlikely we will ever see justice for them.

When it was just Zoe (and to a lesser extent Russo) there was genuine drama and tension around the murders because we as the audience could see the clues that could lead authorities to the Underwood's. This season showed that the threat of Zoe's murder being uncovered is genuine and there are pieces just waiting to be put together.

All the murders this season don't have that. They're random events that have other characters mop up the mess. They don't explain the details of how the plans were executed and include lots of other characters in schemes which creates a layer of disconnection and a sense that there is a whole conspiracy machinery protecting the Underwood's.

Senor Tron fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Jun 14, 2017

King of Foolians
Mar 16, 2006
Long live the King!
One thing I think is also missing in the American version that the BBC did well was seeing how murdering Mattie (the BBC's Zoe-Charcter) messed with Francis mentally. Frank has pretty much zero remorse or guilt for her death and at this point adding it in would feel like it's shoehorned in. I thought they were going to start going in that direction when Frank was in the hospital after getting shot but nope.
My worry is that this show will keep going on season after season far past when it should end (it's pretty much there already). The whole point of House of Cards is that the ruthless drive for power is unsustainable and eventually it all comes crashing down.

Sulphagnist
Oct 10, 2006

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

King of Foolians posted:

One thing I think is also missing in the American version that the BBC did well was seeing how murdering Mattie (the BBC's Zoe-Charcter) messed with Francis mentally. Frank has pretty much zero remorse or guilt for her death and at this point adding it in would feel like it's shoehorned in. I thought they were going to start going in that direction when Frank was in the hospital after getting shot but nope.
My worry is that this show will keep going on season after season far past when it should end (it's pretty much there already). The whole point of House of Cards is that the ruthless drive for power is unsustainable and eventually it all comes crashing down.

I don't know. (UK version) Urquhart ruled with an iron fist for something crazy like twelve years (his life ambition was to rule longer than Thatcher), he removed a King and replaced him with a puppet child, and he died a martyr/hero to an assassin's bullet. He's the defining man of British post-war history, the greatest Briton since Churchill. I'd say Urquhart got almost everything he wanted.

logikv9
Mar 5, 2009


Ham Wrangler
chiming in to say that like everyone else i'm glad yates is dead
the satan opening episode was extremely weird and was awful. please stop
every character on this show has some weird hobby / thing they do and it's very weird
i didn't understand why there needed to be the francis / cosplayer relationship it came and went and nothing happened
the whole thing felt like season 3-lite in the constant frank to claire bullying and the underwood vs underwood dynamic
and it really needs to end next season

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Finished the season, thought it started strong, meandered in the middle and then had a somewhat interesting resolution dampened a bit by what I assume is going to be Usher and Davis trying to basically run everything with Claire as a figurehead, leading to at least a temporary Frank/Claire team-up to take them out. I do have to say I think they botched their handling of the election, it was interesting but went way too long. It was almost comedic in that I binged through some episodes thinking,"I'll just watch till they resolve this plot", finally gave up and then 10 seconds into episode 9 they just go,"Welp, Frank won" and that was it..

Season 4 was a nice return to form I thought after the poor season 3, but it hasn't come close to the highs of season 1 and 2 and this season was a step down again.

I did like Frank doing a piece to camera at one point though going (paraphrased),"You know, all I wanted was to be Secretary of State. I was PROMISED Secretary of State. If they'd just kept their word..... but now here we are."

LogisticEarth
Mar 28, 2004

Someone once told me, "Time is a flat circle".

logikv9 posted:


i didn't understand why there needed to be the francis / cosplayer relationship it came and went and nothing happened


I think this is one of my biggest pet peeves from this season. Like, ok when the dude was first introduced back in Season 1 or 2, he was just a one-off character that created some surreal instance that seemed to throw Frank for a bit of a loop. Then they bring him back for...some reason this season, they fart around a bit with some non-plotline, and then oops Frank and him are lovers for a brief moment and then... he's dead. Which might have had some impact if the body count for this season wasn't already absurdly high.

They need to call it quits, and focus on wrapping this up sussinctly and compellingly next season.

LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jun 15, 2017

King of Foolians
Mar 16, 2006
Long live the King!
This show goes really off-course anytime it focuses on Frank or Claire having lovers on the side.
Except for the Secret Service guy. I liked him.

doctorfrog
Mar 14, 2007

Great.

meechum was great, and so was Francis sitting at the painting they used to look at this season.

But it was great because it was a relationship that actually developed and didn't take over half the show and didn't make me bored to poo poo like Tom Yates.

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



King of Foolians posted:

One thing I think is also missing in the American version that the BBC did well was seeing how murdering Mattie (the BBC's Zoe-Charcter) messed with Francis mentally. Frank has pretty much zero remorse or guilt for her death and at this point adding it in would feel like it's shoehorned in. I thought they were going to start going in that direction when Frank was in the hospital after getting shot but nope.
My worry is that this show will keep going on season after season far past when it should end (it's pretty much there already). The whole point of House of Cards is that the ruthless drive for power is unsustainable and eventually it all comes crashing down.

I think they're shifting Francis Urquhart's remorse and guilt over to Claire. Claire seems to be legitimately shook by the depths of Frank's unending lust for more power. It feels like, to me, that she's come to realize that Frank's lust for power will never be fulfilled and he's reason she was forced to kill one of the few people she actually loved. I'm not opposed to an actual destructive collapse due to Claire and Frank fighting. Season 3 didn't go far enough with that and was terrible because of it.

logikv9
Mar 5, 2009


Ham Wrangler

LogisticEarth posted:

I think this is one of my biggest pet peeves from this season. Like, ok when the dude was first introduced back in Season 1 or 2, he was just a one-off character that created some surreal instance that seemed to throw Frank for a bit of a loop. Then they bring him back for...some reason this season, they fart around a bit with some non-plotline, and then oops Frank and him are lovers for a brief moment and then... he's dead. Which might have had some impact if the body count for this season wasn't already absurdly high.

They need to call it quits, and focus on wrapping this up sussinctly and compellingly next season.

holy poo poo i had to look it up and i didn't even realize it was him who jumped the fence. i maybe thought it was him but then i thought "why the gently caress would he be doing this"

what a mess

logikv9
Mar 5, 2009


Ham Wrangler
one of the most annoying things out of everything is that frank decides to pursue the loving private sector with his wife at the presidency. yes, i understand that it gives more freedom to do poo poo, it's more power presumably, etc. but this series has always been him seeking first the presidency, and then keeping it. it's a sudden 180 to go "well actually, we can double up" because gently caress

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



logikv9 posted:

one of the most annoying things out of everything is that frank decides to pursue the loving private sector with his wife at the presidency. yes, i understand that it gives more freedom to do poo poo, it's more power presumably, etc. but this series has always been him seeking first the presidency, and then keeping it. it's a sudden 180 to go "well actually, we can double up" because gently caress

Not really. Frank knew that the private sector held power seeing as how he's dealt with Tusk and Feng in seasons past but the combination of going to Elysian Fields, dealing with Davis and ultimately bringing in Usher made him see how much political capital these outside actors truly have. The presidency is powerful but the lobbyists and special interest groups that rule Washington DC are completely unfettered and basically answer to no one.

But there's also Claire realizing that Frank's ambition and goals are untenable. He wanted to be Secretary of State but got snubbed, so he made a bid for a more powerful position and killed for it. He became VP and wasn't happy until he pushed Walker out of the picture by linking Feng to Raymond Tusk. The presidency is powerful but Frank wants an actual dictatorship; something that would allow him to bypass ways and means and he found it. Frank will never be satisfied and that's likely the catalyst that will cause everything to implode.

ultramiraculous
Nov 12, 2003

"No..."
Grimey Drawer

SLICK GOKU BABY posted:

It really sucks that the entirety of Trump's run as president was dealing with the election, then after the election he resigns and is done.

ultramiraculous
Nov 12, 2003

"No..."
Grimey Drawer
I feel like the show this season was good overall, but still hit the "this was written for a different 2017" pitfall when Frank pulled the "you'll be the president, and I'll rule the private sector" plan.

If you know Clinton "dynasty" conspiracy theories it seems like it works better than whatever is happening now.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


Was this posted?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyi_9Nx66-I

Because :lol: I love Michael Kelly.

(And what they're copying)

King of Foolians
Mar 16, 2006
Long live the King!

This is amazing but it super bothers me that he is wearing a watch in in the bath.

nooneofconsequence
Oct 30, 2012

she had tiny Italian boobs.
Well that's my story.

logikv9 posted:

holy poo poo i had to look it up and i didn't even realize it was him who jumped the fence. i maybe thought it was him but then i thought "why the gently caress would he be doing this"

what a mess


Haha I totally missed that. I guess that shows how much I cared by that point.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

I'd be totally behind the 'oh wait, being in the private sector would help me MORE!' if his complaint about 'always having to put up with detractors and attempts to delegitimize me' made sense.

It doesn't make sense because he was the one leaking the poo poo to the press to begin with!

:psyduck:

If it had been someone else, fine... Frank gets tired of the bullshit, and finds a better way, and then goes for it. But... Frank has caused a lot of the bullshit himself, he admitted to it, so what the hell?!

nooneofconsequence
Oct 30, 2012

she had tiny Italian boobs.
Well that's my story.

Yeah, it seemed like a lot of his problems were surmountable. Even Romero, who ended up being his biggest thorn, was willing to play ball. Was he already planning to resign when he needlessly pissed him off? Because that's what restarted the hearings. :thunk:

Goons Are Gifts
Jan 1, 1970

He could have simply not piss off Romero out of pride, do some deal with him like he's been doing since season 1 regardless of any ego, law or moral questions and not have the commitee - that by the way does not do what it's meant to be (starting the war on ISIS) which for some reason no one cares about - restarted.
Afterwards he'd even be in the position to antagonize Walker for personality boost without a problem, or simply resign in general. With a new president and an invasion of Syria going on, most people would probably not have cared anymore about him and when Romero was kept in line - for example with that dirty secret of his in the end - the investigation could have been halted.

If all else failed at that point, Claire could pardon him before anything major comes up, thus not do the Nixon legacy all over again and go nuts in the private sector.

If this crap worked for a weak mind with no real political capital like Walker, why not for them?
It seems like Francis made this needlessly painful just to prove that "you can control the way you come down".

QuoProQuid
Jan 12, 2012

Tr*ckin' and F*ckin' all the way to tha
T O P

ultramiraculous posted:

I feel like the show this season was good overall, but still hit the "this was written for a different 2017" pitfall when Frank pulled the "you'll be the president, and I'll rule the private sector" plan.

If you know Clinton "dynasty" conspiracy theories it seems like it works better than whatever is happening now.

I think Frank and Claire have always been written as the Clintons if every conspiracy theory and piece of gossip about them was true, but, yeah, this season felt like it was written for a different administration.

Preston Waters
May 21, 2010

by VideoGames
Holy mother of god. This show is dead. Everything after Frank's speech at the Jefferson memorial was a nose-dive into awfulness.

I could get over the whole season 4 crap where Claire became VP, even though that was loving insane and way beyond suspension of disbelief. This was just too much. I guess Trump winning the election really hosed with the writing staff. They should have just carried on telling whatever story they had thought up.

I hope this doesn't get renewed. I have zero faith in the new leadership among the writers.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



It took 3 seasons to wrap up a single election... the good writers left a long time ago.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

BarronsArtGallery posted:

They should have just carried on telling whatever story they had thought up.

I'm not saying your points aren't valid, but I thought they had completed writing way before Trump was elected?

Preston Waters
May 21, 2010

by VideoGames

DaveKap posted:

It took 3 seasons to wrap up a single election... the good writers left a long time ago.

Elections last pretty much 2.5 years in real life in the US so I didn't mind this much.

Kawabata
Apr 20, 2014

You plebians just don't know what epic literature is. You should try reading Stephanie Meyer, E.L. James, Dan Brown, or Ayn Rand.

DaveKap posted:

It took 3 seasons to wrap up a single election... the good writers left a long time ago.

First episodes of season 5 seemed ok, then it just gets ridiculous. Oh and the amount of people close to Frank and Claire either dying, disappearing or getting hurt is now ridiculous. It's just stupid.

When did the good writers actually leave? Because last season was ok, but I don't know what the gently caress happened here.

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



Kawabata posted:

First episodes of season 5 seemed ok, then it just gets ridiculous. Oh and the amount of people close to Frank and Claire either dying, disappearing or getting hurt is now ridiculous. It's just stupid.

When did the good writers actually leave? Because last season was ok, but I don't know what the gently caress happened here.

The original show runner left last season to do other projects.

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


The good writers were actually just stealing the UK house of cards script. Once they went completely on their own, its been downhill with a few upticks.

Also having a single election run for 3 out of 5 seasons, and then having Frank resign at the end, what the gently caress were they even thinking?

Caros
May 14, 2008

Kawabata posted:

First episodes of season 5 seemed ok, then it just gets ridiculous. Oh and the amount of people close to Frank and Claire either dying, disappearing or getting hurt is now ridiculous. It's just stupid.

When did the good writers actually leave? Because last season was ok, but I don't know what the gently caress happened here.

The secretary has fallen!

Seriously, it was like seven feet. Three years ago my friend took a header down two flights of stairs onto concrete and walked it off. What exactly was Frank's plan if she didn't go into a coma from a fall barely farther than my front steps? I don't expect master schemes from this lovely show at this point, but I just assumed it was a dream sequence at first because the show couldn't be that loving stupid.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Kawabata posted:

Because last season was ok, but I don't know what the gently caress happened here.
Yeah the last half of Season 4 was getting the plot back on track and why I held out hope that Season 5 would be a proper return to form. Then Frank yelled at Claire and they didn't hash it out before the episode ended and I knew it wasn't gonna end well. God I really can't get over how much of a rookie move it is to turn a show about a power couple into a "he yelled at her" bullshit contest.

Preston Waters
May 21, 2010

by VideoGames

Niwrad posted:

What was Frank's strategy if that 3 foot fall just ended up breaking her wrist? Wouldn't there also be cameras throughout the White House?

fyi he shoved her with some force and if she got whiplash from that initial push and her face hit the wall directly ahead, it would break her neck no problem

Also it clearly showed that they moved into a corner with no camera coverage right beforehand. I honestly don't have a problem with this, as it isn't a significant suspension of disbelief.

What is a suspension of disbelief; however, is that no one started freaking out about it since she was due to testify the next day. Writers were poo poo this season.

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Khablam
Mar 29, 2012
RIGHT OR WRONG, I CAN’T HELP BUT EXPRESS MYSELF LIKE A BRATTY CHILD. DON’T LISTEN TO ME.
So the premise of Frank's resignation is "they'd get me anyway, best to control the fall" -- but then its revealed each element working to bring him down has only gotten any traction based on his own hand.
So why did he resign?

It makes absolutely no sense, even before you think critically about it.

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