SAMANTHA LUND
News Editor
Netflix launched season three of “House of Cards” in its entirety last Friday and it housed a shift from the scheming world of politics to a character-driven drama.
“House of Cards” and other Netflix originals never cease to shock and disturb audiences. In a good way.
This season opened with the ever-ballsy Francis “Frank” Underwood (Kevin Spacey) talking directly into the camera as President of the United States.
After two years of scheming, conniving and lying, Underwood is the leader of the free world. With Underwood in office, the season focuses on two main issues: his plan to create American jobs and his hopes to get re-elected.
Articles have been going up on the internet criticizing the show about its unrealistic approach to a jobs package or Underwood’s bad southern accent. Let’s be real for a second: this show is great and if that is all you can find to pick at, you can sit and watch C-SPAN if you need realistic political television.
Underwood is a characterization of every American’s power-hungry-get-what-you-want alter-ego. This season showed less of evil Underwood and more of his “soft side,” if you can even call it that. Throughout the season, Underwood tackles issues with his family, his marriage and his love and concern for (very few) people. More than anything, we saw the struggle in the Underwood marriage between Francis and Claire (Robin Wright). As much as we all want love stories and heart-breaking stories, “House of Cards” isn’t the place for this.
I watched the entire show in a three-day binge fest and I was thrilled from the first episode. Underwood was in full force bringing in new bills and peeing on graves with his power-wife by his side. The “Classic Underwood” style slowly gets lost throughout the season to what becomes a normal TV drama.
The season gets slow in the middle but the finale is a classic Underwood thriller. Everything fell so perfectly around him that the viewer is left wanting more. So much more.
I’m still left wanting Netflix to bring back classic Underwood. I want him pushing girls in front of trains, back-stabbing and manipulating.
“House of Cards” still stands above most. It kicks the average drama into the dirt and spits in its face.
