House of Cards - Season 3

[Grooveriding]

It was still decent, but season 1 & 2 were better. Confident that season 4 is going to be the final season.

 

[cronos]

Season 3 is not terrible, but most of the times it doesn't 'feel' like it's HoC. In fact, in the middle I kept thinking to myself that this is like watching West Wing season 7. There are too many similarities in the story line it feels like deja vu at times.

Classic 'Frank Underwood style' didn't really come out except for very few times, and the season ended in what felt more like a commercial break than a season finale cliffhanger. The 'book' story line is interesting, but boring and feels like a filler at times, especially the way they left it at the end. They better follow this up next season or I would be really disappointed.

I do like the up and down journey of Doug Stamper, and I think it's one of the best parts of season 3.

 

[drbrock]

I see your point as one mans treasure is another man's trash. If you are into the west wing and love that type of show then it worked out well.

I personally tune into watch Frank and Claire Underwood be bad asses in the political scene. The only time I saw that out of them is when Frank grabbed a persons face and told them off and when he looks at the camera and says "what are you looking at"

It was like watching "Taken" with Liam being emotional and crying every time he killed someone.

 

[Zeze]

Am I the only one who enjoyed S3 as much as previous ones?

 

[Zeze]

it was boring cause frank underwood never had any real threat or arch nemesis this season.

No way.

Frank was constantly under intense stress due to Petrov, Dunbar, and the entire cabinet against him.

It kept eating away at him and eroded his relationship with his wife. I thought season 3 was awesome with 'real' threats rather than cartoony arch villains.

 

[Zeze]

I see your point as one mans treasure is another man's trash. If you are into the west wing and love that type of show then it worked out well.

I personally tune into watch Frank and Claire Underwood be bad asses in the political scene. The only time I saw that out of them is when Frank grabbed a persons face and told them off and when he looks at the camera and says "what are you looking at"

It was like watching "Taken" with Liam being emotional and crying every time he killed someone.

Or the part he grabbed Claire's face. Holy sheet that was intense.

"You want me to take leadership? You are going to get on that fvcking plane and join me on the fvcking campaign, whether you like it or not."

 

[BeeBoop]

it was boring cause frank underwood never had any real threat or arch nemesis this season.

Agreed. Some will argue Petrov and Dunbar but they are not dramatic enough because all he loses is his presidency. Frank needs to face the death penalty, treason, conspiracy, or jail time to capture my attention.

 

[Zeze]

Agreed. Some will argue Petrov and Dunbar but they are not dramatic enough because all he loses is his presidency. Frank needs to face the death penalty, treason, conspiracy, or jail time to capture my attention.

The only link left to murders of Russo, that journalist chick, & the whore is Stamper.

We safely assume the series will end with the fall of Underwood. That means sooner or later, Stamper will turn against him.

The question is when- season 4? 8? 10?

 

[bigi]

Worst season ever - very confined with crappy plots and nothing really interesting.

Stamper, Rachel, "Putin". Wow!

 

[OutHouse]

watched last episode last night. not my favorite season and not well written.

Spoiler

Doug just needs to die, i hate his character his role and the way he talks. he is dark and shadowy and not CoS material.
Remy, remind me again how he got chief of staff to the POTUS? his character did not match that position.
Frank chasing after Petrov to the Jordan Valley was such bullshit and totally not believable.
that debate between dunbar, underwood and sharp turned into a foxnews gues panel bitch fest like i knew it was going to do.

too much cross over with RL events like Obamacare>AmericaWorks, Petrov > Putin.

 

[ultimatebob]

I wonder when Frank is going to kill Claire in Season 4... or vice versa

 

[Exophase]

Am I the only one who enjoyed S3 as much as previous ones?

Nope, I liked it a lot. Although I'd have liked if it moved a little further than it did.

Spoiler

A lot of people, myself included, were expecting this to be the final season. Frank on top of the world and all-powerful, only for Rachel and Gavin to finally expose him somehow and take him down. It was more or less the exact opposite of that. But then again, a lot of people were frustrated that season 2 resulted in Zoe being killed, Frank's other investigators being imprisoned or discredited, and pretty much everything working out as planned with Frank and Claire's gambits. I don't think anyone expected Doug to be alive this season, Rachel to show up only at the end to be slaughtered, or Gavin to spend the whole season being humiliated then brutalized.

This season we see Frank as president but it feels like he's actually less powerful than he was in season 2 or even season 1. He no longer has the ability to gather support in congress who are now opposing him at every opportunity, even from his own party. He has been manipulated into a corner by the Russian president and other foreign countries whom he wields little influence over. His approval rating is terrible. He's being beaten in the primaries by someone with no experience as an elected official (or at least was until Iowa, and if he wins it'll be by a hair), which is humiliating for a sitting president. Members of his cabinet have either been useless or outright opposing him. His closest aide has been out of action and now is behaving erratically and came painfully close to destroying everything for him. In his anger, frustration, and desperation he's doubled down on demanding unconditional loyalty from the few that stood by his side, foolishly believing that they'll provide themselves in complete subservience if it increases their position even a little, and suffer abject humiliation and fear in the process. Because of this his VP ticket (and only real connection in congress) betrayed him, his secretary of state bailed, and now even his wife - the saving grace for his public image - is leaving him. He has not a single person on his side except for Doug who is even more of a psychopath than he is, who already lost Frank's trust. He's run out of people to manipulate and has little ability to do anything in the shadows anymore.

So yeah maybe he's president in name, but none of his plans will mean anything if he doesn't win a second term, and he'll go down as nothing but a useless placeholder. He said himself that he's only been given the illusion of power. Whole thing definitely turned the dynamic of the show on its side. At times you almost feel like rooting for him as an underdog.

It looks like it's ultimately going to be Claire that brings him down. Frank is desperate and knows that if she leaves it'll destroy his political ambitions. Who knows what he'll do to try to control her into staying, there's plenty he can do to blackmail her. Meanwhile she also has the most power of anyone to implicate him if that's what she needs to do to get out from underneath him, and potentially in a way that removes suspicion from herself.

The only link left to murders of Russo, that journalist chick, & the whore is Stamper.

We safely assume the series will end with the fall of Underwood. That means sooner or later, Stamper will turn against him.

The question is when- season 4? 8? 10?

The thing is, once something real happens there it's hard to see them dragging it out dramatically. All they can do is keep teasing out the people who might be leading him before they can actually make any meaningful headway, something they've done a lot of already. There's only so much they can have someone get on his trail only to be killed off or otherwise removed as a threat. When he's finally exposed he's going to go down fast and he's going to go down hard. Could make for an exciting last couple of episodes, but a whole season?

Spoiler

Anyway, Stamper's not the only one who could hurt him. Who knows what was in Rachel's papers back in her apartment. Gavin could also be a potential threat. Although it was looking that way last season and he ended up being nothing but a pawn this season, back then he was only interested in getting his freedom and maybe freeing his friends. Now he feels guilty for what he did to Lisa, may well feel guilty for leading to Rachel's death, and is probably very angry and humiliated over a handicapped man beating him half to death. So he can motivated by both guilt and revenge, not to mention a feeling that there's nowhere in the world where he'll be safe so he'd may as well strike back.

My current bet is on five seasons.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I understand the reason for the UN stuff (to make Claire realize how terrible their relationship is), but I think I would have preferred if they skipped it and instead had this season end with Frank winning the nomination. I think it was a little too narrow in scope.

 

[ultimatebob]

My current bet is on five seasons.

I can't see it going longer than four at this point.

Spoiler

Without Claire, Frank stands no chance of getting the nomination, let alone winning the general election.

That's assuming that Stamper doesn't do something stupid and gets him impeached before then.

 

[jhansman]

I think they're just killing time until Frank is made to face the music. They have him waltzing around like it's all good, just get the jobs program off the ground blah blah, when we all know he has much bigger problems lurking. Can anyone who's watched this series not predict the ending? Just a question of when the writers decide to bring that on.

 

[Exophase]

I can't see it going longer than four at this point.

Spoiler

Without Claire, Frank stands no chance of getting the nomination, let alone winning the general election.

That's assuming that Stamper doesn't do something stupid and gets him impeached before then.

Spoiler

You have a point, but this is assuming that Frank doesn't manage to keep Claire on a leash for a while longer. There's quite a bit of blackmail and manipulation he could pull to control her. While the same is true for her, Frank may be in more of a position to risk everything for this.

 

[BoomerD]

This season just doesn't seem...finished...more like it's a mid-season break than the end of the season.

 

[ultimatebob]

Spoiler

You have a point, but this is assuming that Frank doesn't manage to keep Claire on a leash for a while longer. There's quite a bit of blackmail and manipulation he could pull to control her. While the same is true for her, Frank may be in more of a position to risk everything for this.

Spoiler

There are some rumors out there that Stamper will take care of Frank's Claire "problem" next season.

There are some rumors that Frank will die of Lung Cancer caused by his cigarette smoking, but I'm hoping that one isn't true. Breaking Bad already did this one to death.

 

[Black Octagon]

Despite its shortcomings, I found Season 3 the most addictive yet. Shame about the finale though

 

[Xonim]

Spoiler

There are some rumors that Frank will die of Lung Cancer caused by his cigarette smoking, but I'm hoping that one isn't true. Breaking Bad already did this one to death.

Spoiler

Especially since he only smokes once like once a week or something, if that.

It would be stupid.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I thought it was a big stepdown and got downright tedious. I watched the first two seasons before this and it's a noticeable step down in my opinion. The writing even was noticeably worse. I get that they can't match the $100million they spent on the first season, but man this is just...it's all the political BS with almost none of the spectacle (which to me is the only reason to watch the show).

I actually was hoping they were just planning on 3 seasons and going out with a big bang, instead season 3 sputtered along and looks like they're going to string this out as long as they can, and for a show like this, definitely not for me.

All of the seasons have had stuff that kinda made me go, really? Like they're name-dropping and doing stuff to seem hip, but where I could overlook it mostly on those, season 3 basically took that stuff made it a major plot point and also managed to make it boring and uninteresting. Plus I really hate the awkward product placement BS they do on this show.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I can't see it going longer than four at this point.

Spoiler

Without Claire, Frank stands no chance of getting the nomination, let alone winning the general election.

That's assuming that Stamper doesn't do something stupid and gets him impeached before then.

I hope so, and really hope they go big for the final season. This show will get downright terrible if they try to pad it out as long as they can.

Er,

Spoiler

didn't he already win the nomination in this season? Maybe your point is that it'll instigate a full on mutiny of his party against him?

I don't see Stamper being the weak point other than they'll probably tie it to the hacker or something like that. Actually I straight up hated Stamper this season. Hated how much they focused on him throughout and especially early on. Thought just about everything related to him was not very well done in general.

I think they're just killing time until Frank is made to face the music. They have him waltzing around like it's all good, just get the jobs program off the ground blah blah, when we all know he has much bigger problems lurking. Can anyone who's watched this series not predict the ending? Just a question of when the writers decide to bring that on.

And that seems really evident this season. This was a filler season. Season 2 had quite a bit of filler as well but it was all clearly building up to something. Season 3 there was just very little actual progress and it came off like, I don't know, it was just pointless.

The biggest thing I think and that could point to a potential big bombshell:

Spoiler

the faux Putin kissing Claire, I could see them having a thing where she starts having an affair with him.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Worst season ever - very confined with crappy plots and nothing really interesting.

Stamper, Rachel, "Putin". Wow!

Yep. Way too much side plot. The only really interesting thing that happened the entire season was the growing tension between Frank and Claire and that was mostly a tiny throw-away bit of each episode. They could have thrown out the biography book and the Stamper/Rachel arcs entirely, cut the season down to 5 episodes and it would have been stronger that way.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yep. Way too much side plot. The only really interesting thing that happened the entire season was the growing tension between Frank and Claire and that was mostly a tiny throw-away bit of each episode. They could have thrown out the biography book and the Stamper/Rachel arcs entirely, cut the season down to 5 episodes and it would have been stronger that way.

Yeah definitely agree. That was really the entire point of the season too to setup the rift between them, but it was just awkward and bad, not fitting at all for the characters.

I was expecting a lot bigger bombshell too

Spoiler

like it almost seemed like they were building Claire to be a candidate herself to run against Frank, but then I think they might've realized that would be senseless as they had basically shown her incompetent to even be a UN Ambassador.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Yeah definitely agree. That was really the entire point of the season too to setup the rift between them, but it was just awkward and bad, not fitting at all for the characters.

I was expecting a lot bigger bombshell too

Spoiler

like it almost seemed like they were building Claire to be a candidate herself to run against Frank, but then I think they might've realized that would be senseless as they had basically shown her incompetent to even be a UN Ambassador.

Yeah, she can't possibly be a candidate. She has to either blackmail Frank into getting something she wants to stay by his side or to work for Dunbar to get something from her and that's even crazier than running herself. So while I liked the tension of the rift I don't really see the point of it. In the end she almost has to stand by Frank because it's her only way to get the power she craves. She can't sell herself out to the opponent and she can't walk away just to screw Frank. Her threatening to walk out seems like an obvious ploy, a way to get concessions to play the loyal wife and help him win. The question is what does she want? It's not like she can wrangle herself into the vice-presidency or a seat in congress. Even a Cabinet post needs Senate confirmation and that doesn't seem likely.