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House of Cards S5 |OT| What’s said in the family, stays in the family - Netflix 5/30

Sai-kun

Banned
what an asshole. this show is starting to feel like a less action packed version of game of thrones.

everybody looking out for just themselves, on a quest for power and basically wanting everyone to be devoted to them, and an evil motherfucker with the most power, sitting on an iron throne in an oval office.

Dude

The show literally exists because the president before Frank promised him a position and then reneged on the deal. Looking out for yourself at the cost of everyone around you has been a central theme of the show since day one!
 
Dude

The show literally exists because the president before Frank promised him a position and then reneged on the deal. Looking out for yourself at the cost of everyone around you has been a central theme of the show since day one!
which is why i fucking hate everybody!

heather dunbar didn't though. when she was under investigation, she told the truth.

just started episode 12.
why would cathy go back to the white house to meet with frank. did she not remember the ultimate, intimidating threat he gave her in a previous season?
come on, son.
 

Vic_Viper

Member
Finished it last night the last couple of episodes get REALLY sloppy to me.
Why did Frank fight so hard to get the presidency only to fuck it up with leaks and being a dick?
I understand he said he did it for Claire but that seems so out of character for him
Why did
Leann want to fuck Doug after how poorly he had treated her and why did Doug say he killed Zoe? Why would Frank leak that story and make Doug cop to it?
It just got really messy with
Claire becoming president
and it also made it really obvious that
Frank was a really shitty president with no accomplishments
by the end.

To me it felt like Frank knew the only way out of it was to have Claire as President Pardon him and Doug. Thats why it was such a big deal that she didnt end up doing it at the end. Yeah it felt rushed but somehow still felt natural imo, almost like how it would fell if it was happening in real life. I thought it was really clever though that the Birthday cards, Claire killing Tom, and getting rid of Leanne were all planned out way ahead of time without us knowing. It was such a relief when I learned what was happening lol.

But instead of letting the investigation and Impeachment happen on its own, Frank was able to have it on his own terms. He controlled the narrative and planned for everything, which was a great call back to how things happened in the first season. Plus while all this was going on he was still able to collect enough leverage on his wife.

Having Frank in the Private Sector is going to be a huge change to the show's formula and im not entirely sure how I fell about it lol. He worked so hard to become President only to have it taken from him within the first few weeks. His greatest threat now was his greatest ally. If next season is the last then its going to be a crazy ride!

What could Frank be doing in the
private sector
that has more power than the President of the United States?
 
I'm just not sure what they were thinking with the (episode 12 spoilers)
president pushing the Secretary of State down the stairs
. I think they played it for laughs to hide how hopelessly idiotic the writing was.
yeah it was getting really dumb. i mean honestly, this could have been the final season. they didn't need to show frank winning or trying. this motherfucker needs to be defeated.
Yeah, I swore it was going to be some sort of imaginative sequence and not real.
exactly what i was thinking and hoping too.

onto the finale now!
 

bud

Member
watching episode 12:
the first minute. what the fuck.

didn't care for this season until the election was over. what a chore to get through.
 
finished, a lot of dumb unnecessary shit happened this season and the pacing got bad too sometimes. the next season should be the last.
 
Finished the season this morning and thought it was bad, bordering on terrible.

Lots of poor writing/plot decisions (particularly the continued reliance on the Underwoods' opponents generally being incompetent or making convenient mistakes exactly when needed), the election was poorly handled, too much time spent on characters like Tom and Jeffries that don't really add much to the show and some of the "shocking twists" that used to be entertaining fell very flat or came across as really stupid(like when Frank
pushed Durant down the stairs.
. Laughable). Plus I don't like the sudden insertion of characters like Jane Davis who we're supposed to just accept as being this major power broker with no buildup or explanation.

At the moment I just kind of hope they end it next season with a decent season of the Underwoods getting their comeuppance.
 
Plus I don't like the sudden insertion of characters like Jane Davis who we're supposed to just accept as being this major power broker with no buildup or explanation.
The episode she was introduced in was the tensest episode of the entire season. One of the tensest episodes in the series. She was introduced perfectly.
 
The episode she was introduced in was the tensest episode of the entire season. One of the tensest episodes in the series. She was introduced perfectly.
yes but a character of her caliber just came without much context of an introduction. i think that's what he's saying
 

neshcom

Banned
It kind of doesn't make sense outside of that bunker episode why that the government/Underwoods can't actually pin down more info about Jane, especially since she starts working for them. It is baffling that that can happen.
 
yes but a character of her caliber just came without much context of an introduction. i think that's what he's saying

Pretty much.

Obviously there's more to her than being the Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade or whatever her exact title is, fine. There's some intrigue there, even though I feel like there's not much they can do to explain all her connections without her being former/current CIA or something like that.

But it's a bit silly that she has all these foreign/shady connections, is "old friends" with established characters like Cathy Durant (and is connected to Usher, the other new power broker tied to almost everyone) and is suddenly among the most powerful people in Washington/the show. And other than being questioned (briefly) by Claire, everyone's totally cool with her
becoming a major player in the administration and isn't really bothered by the fact that she's blatantly operating on behalf of her own agenda with some sort of network of contacts/colleagues they don't know.
. You'd think people would be a little wary of her, but instead she quickly becomes part of the inner circle.

It feels less like meaningful characterization/plotting and more like "well we want to introduce yet a powerful character to fill a role (both on a macro level and with particular episodes/stories) and can't be bothered to do so organically or develop it". Especially when her contacts are included as justifications to include her in the plot (i.e.
her Middle Eastern contacts with Syria/ICO and the Chinese with the Russian vessel/American
).
 

Arttemis

Member
Finished it last night the last couple of episodes get REALLY sloppy to me.
Why did Frank fight so hard to get the presidency only to fuck it up with leaks and being a dick?
I understand he said he did it for Claire but that seems so out of character for him
Why did
Leann want to fuck Doug after how poorly he had treated her and why did Doug say he killed Zoe? Why would Frank leak that story and make Doug cop to it?
It just got really messy with
Claire becoming president
and it also made it really obvious that
Frank was a really shitty president with no accomplishments
by the end.
Why did Frank do that? He said as much:
he wanted to be like the Illuminati "no Presidents allowed" club. He knew he was on the way out,
so he controlled the leaks and let the reporters where he wanted them to look, showing enough to create conspiracy theories but covered up enough so that no one believes them.
 
Pretty much.

Obviously there's more to her than being the Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade or whatever her exact title is, fine. There's some intrigue there, even though I feel like there's not much they can do to explain all her connections without her being former/current CIA or something like that.

But it's a bit silly that she has all these foreign/shady connections, is "old friends" with established characters like Cathy Durant (and is connected to Usher, the other new power broker tied to almost everyone) and is suddenly among the most powerful people in Washington/the show. And other than being questioned (briefly) by Claire, everyone's totally cool with her
becoming a major player in the administration and isn't really bothered by the fact that she's blatantly operating on behalf of her own agenda with some sort of network of contacts/colleagues they don't know.
. You'd think people would be a little wary of her, but instead she quickly becomes part of the inner circle.

It feels less like meaningful characterization/plotting and more like "well we want to introduce yet a powerful character to fill a role (both on a macro level and with particular episodes/stories) and can't be bothered to do so organically or develop it". Especially when her contacts are included as justifications to include her in the plot (i.e.
her Middle Eastern contacts with Syria/ICO and the Chinese with the Russian vessel/American
).
agreed. if they weren't going to show how she got to where she was in her introduction, i expected to learn more about it as the season went on, but her motives became more and more hard to read as time went on.

along with that, as soon as she said she
had done deals or knew people who did deals with the muslim terrorists
i was like...wtf! how did claire not freak out?! if you work with people like that or know people who work with people like that, how can you still associate yourself?!
 

MaKTaiL

Member
Be careful guys. No matter how good a show is Netflix might cancel it now at any time it seems.

#ForeverSense8
 

MaKTaiL

Member
i just heard about that, wtf happened?
We have no idea. Netflix doesn't release ratings but the show has only been out for a month. Lots of people take their time to watch a season instead of binging it because they might not have much free time available. They didn't allow at least two months to get a full picture of the show's popularity before canceling it. I'm pretty pissed. First Marco Polo, then The Get Down and now Sense8. I don't trust Netflix anymore.
 
We have no idea. Netflix doesn't release ratings but the show has only been out for a month. Lots of people take their time to watch a season instead of binging it because they might not have much free time available. They didn't allow at least two months to get a full picture of the show's popularity before canceling it. I'm pretty pissed. First Marco Polo, then The Get Down and now Sense8. I don't trust Netflix anymore.
i just hope we still get stranger things.

and no fucking way will they cancel the defenders
 

jonnyp

Member
First season was great but it's been steadily been declining in quality each season and this last one was just terrible.
 
We have no idea. Netflix doesn't release ratings but the show has only been out for a month. Lots of people take their time to watch a season instead of binging it because they might not have much free time available. They didn't allow at least two months to get a full picture of the show's popularity before canceling it. I'm pretty pissed. First Marco Polo, then The Get Down and now Sense8. I don't trust Netflix anymore.

well Marco Polo was hugely expensive and only barely watchable, the get down was maybe the best piece of music-history-television i've ever seen [but apparently was INSANELY expensive and got poor ratings?], and sense8 was hugely expensive and was just never very good [outside some scattered moments of success].

really bummed about the get down though, my favourite show in recent years.

on episode 8 so far with this season, feels a little lackluster so far, not even sure what the thrust of the season's conflict is yet... feels weird man.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
just started last night, got through 2 episodes then had to go to bed. I wish i had the time to watch this all straight. But so far so good.
 
For the people that finished it.

Does Claire also break the 4th wall this season? Really hope so.

yes. but very sparingly...i'd say 3 or 4 times total in the whole season

also, frank's style of breaking the 4th wall is often different this season. he freezes the scenes he's in and walks around in them when he talks to you. in previous seasons he just takes a moment, out of the moment to talk to you and other characters can hear him too. this time it's different.
 

Socivol

Member
Why did Frank do that? He said as much:
he wanted to be like the Illuminati "no Presidents allowed" club. He knew he was on the way out,
so he controlled the leaks and let the reporters where he wanted them to look, showing enough to create conspiracy theories but covered up enough so that no one believes them.

He wouldn't have been on the way out if he wasn't an asshole to the Hispanic Congressman and didn't leak all that information.
It really just doesn't make sense for someone that has had this as their end goal to just give it up so easily.
 

Sunster

Member
Frank not giving Romero what he wanted in the inauguration was one of the most short sighted annoying events in the show. I'm glad he got removed. he was a shitty dictator because all he does is needlessly make enemies. then fight to hold on while they removed him from power.
 

Bladenic

Member
We have no idea. Netflix doesn't release ratings but the show has only been out for a month. Lots of people take their time to watch a season instead of binging it because they might not have much free time available. They didn't allow at least two months to get a full picture of the show's popularity before canceling it. I'm pretty pissed. First Marco Polo, then The Get Down and now Sense8. I don't trust Netflix anymore.

It was its second season. And one month is plenty of time to gauge viewership for someone like Netflix.

Also all the shows that have been cancelled? Insanely expensive. And far less buzz than other shows (Sense8 actually had the most from those 3). And have you noticed just how many Netflix originals have come out just this year (whether new shows or new seasons)? Yeah.

And ain't no way or no how HoC is getting canceled. It might *end* next season, but it won't be cancelled. Although didn't they renew until S7? Yeah it'll definitely get that far at least.
 

Protome

Member
He wouldn't have been on the way out if he wasn't an asshole to the Hispanic Congressman and didn't leak all that information.
It really just doesn't make sense for someone that has had this as their end goal to just give it up so easily.

Being president was never his end goal, power was. This whole season in particular revolved around people outside the White House deciding how the White House had to operate. Frank would never have been re-elected without the aid he received from private interests. Conway would never have gotten as far as he would have without private interests. Claire would never have been in a position to take over from his without private interests. The whole season was pointing to the Presidency not being the be all end all of power. Frank shooting for the sun and realising he'd actually have more power without the Presidency was pointed at the whole season.

It's not the worst idea for a plotline ever and probably would have worked a lot better in Jane Davis's character wasn't absolutely awful in every single way.
 

hydruxo

Member
i just hope we still get stranger things.

and no fucking way will they cancel the defenders

Stranger Things is safe, it's a pop culture phenomenon at this point. Probably their biggest non-Marvel show.

On-topic, this season has been pretty good so far. I've been taking it slow and I'm on ep 7. Conway bothers me, I don't know if I just don't buy Kinnaman in this role or what but the character never felt quite right to me.
 

neshcom

Banned
Being president was never his end goal, power was. This whole season in particular revolved around people outside the White House deciding how the White House had to operate. Frank would never have been re-elected without the aid he received from private interests. Conway would never have gotten as far as he would have without private interests. Claire would never have been in a position to take over from his without private interests. The whole season was pointing to the Presidency not being the be all end all of power. Frank shooting for the sun and realising he'd actually have more power without the Presidency was pointed at the whole season.

It's not the worst idea for a plotline ever and probably would have worked a lot better in Jane Davis's character wasn't absolutely awful in every single way.
That's cool, but that pivot isn't earned at all. We're either watching a mystery-thriller where the clues are in front of us and shock us later, or it's a tactical-drama and we at least get some whiff of shocking events to come. This whole "I devised it at the retreat and didn't tell anyone" just feels lazy. Same thing for the surprise that they found the kidnapper way early.
 

Dabanton

Member
I'm doing 2 episodes a night for this. Burning through them in binge watch mode would probably not be a good idea. I want to be able to actually think about what I just watched some more.

Enjoying it so far. Just love the way Frank and Claire talk to each other.
 

Tater Tot

"My God... it's full of Starch!"
we sopranos now

Isn't it obvious to everybody that something bad happens to people as soon as they leave the cabinet?

killing people, throwing people down the stairs, poisoning people as soon as they decide to leave the cabinet won't arouse suspicion?

This show got really stupid in my opinion, not really feeling this season
 

Protome

Member
That's cool, but that pivot isn't earned at all. We're either watching a mystery-thriller where the clues are in front of us and shock us later, or it's a tactical-drama and we at least get some whiff of shocking events to come. This whole "I devised it at the retreat and didn't tell anyone" just feels lazy. Same thing for the surprise that they found the kidnapper way early.

Yeah, I don't disagree. It was poorly handled, like a lot of things this season.
I still really enjoyed it though.

And if next season is finally Frank and Claire going head to head
then that's a good setup to finally change the format a bit. These last three seasons have been way too similar, although it felt needed last season because of how weak season 3 was and how essential it was to correct the mistakes of it...
 
End of season spoilers:
who says Frank can't be president? He can just become vice president again and wait for Claire to step down right
?
 

Socivol

Member
That's cool, but that pivot isn't earned at all. We're either watching a mystery-thriller where the clues are in front of us and shock us later, or it's a tactical-drama and we at least get some whiff of shocking events to come. This whole "I devised it at the retreat and didn't tell anyone" just feels lazy. Same thing for the surprise that they found the kidnapper way early.

Agreed it was so sloppy at the end. My issue is that it made the beginning of the season completely pointless.
Frank could've ended up where he was regardless of how the election turned out. If he didn't see the cracks in his partnership with Claire when she was acting president he is even more of an idiot. It was pretty obvious that Claire relished in having that power and at points completely went against what Frank wanted.
 
So was I just not paying attention or how did and why did
Claire just randomly become president? Like why did Francis have to step down? That episode just randomly opened with her swearing in.
(Ep 5-6 ish spoiler)
 

Sai-kun

Banned
So was I just not paying attention or how did and why did
Claire just randomly become president? Like why did Francis have to step down? That episode just randomly opened with her swearing in.
(Ep 5-6 ish spoiler)
the house and senate vote independently for the vice president and president, respectively. because the senate failed to reach a vote (they deadlocked), the vice president was still elected, and in the case of having no president, the vice president become the acting president.
 

george_us

Member
For the people that finished it.

Does Claire also break the 4th wall this season? Really hope so.
Yeah twice.

Just finished was and was thoroughly entertained personally. Not sure if it's more or less ridiculous than real life.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Finished it. It was alright I guess. Starting to lose interest in this show though, stuff drags out for too long, and honestly it's getting a bit difficult to remember who some of these characters are. I don't think the reality of Trump being president really affected me much, as I felt similarly about Season 4. I'm just glad Claire has more shit to do.
Also love that she got to break the 4th wall, they need to go all in next season.

But yea, Kevin Spacey is awesome, and each season always ends in a way that makes you want to see what happens next, so I'll be back I guess.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
End of season spoilers:
who says Frank can't be president? He can just become vice president again and wait for Claire to step down right
?

He'd just get impeached since even the Dems didn't want him there anymore. By the end he lost support from the Reps, Dems and even the nation. Also, I'm not too sure he'd even want to be President anymore, everything he did would be looked at so he had a lot less freedom than he once had. Now that he is in the private sector, and Claire is the President, he feels he can control more things from behind the scenes but it seems Claire isn't gonna let him do that.
 

ryan299

Member
I enjoyed a good portion of the season until the end. Just kinda fell off a cliff for me at the end. DIdn't like the choices they made.

Agree with people calling most of the characters in this show idiots. They are.
 
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