House of Cards

Can we talk about the final season of House of Cards?

I know, I’m slow off the mark. It’s been on Netflix for a number of months, but Hubster and I are just now getting around to watching it. Mainly due to Hubster’s great annoyance that a) it had deviated ridiculously from the BBC original version, and b) Kevin Spacey’s absence from the season and the circumstances under which that came to be.

We are up to um, maybe episode five (?) and call me naive, but I find it difficult to believe that there is so much plotting to murder among those in the echelons of leadership of a nation. Sure, I can understand that it might happen. Assassinations and all that. But all these deaths! And, from what I have sneaked a peek at, there’s more to come. No spoilers, please.

I am a feminist. I believe that women are capable of doing everything a man can do. In some circumstances better than a man can do it. But last night when we watched the episode where Claire Underwood hides herself in the residence wing of the White House, supposedly in grief due to the death of Cathy Durant, I nearly blew my stack. Of course, according to Claire, it was all for a greater plan, but I’m pretty certain that, given she’s supposedly the first female president, hysterical tears and lying about in a state of grief would only place the feminist movement back to, say, the 1800s. Smelling salts, anyone? A woman as ballsy as Claire would certainly have found another way to lay out her plan. And that moment when she opened the door to reveal a new Cabinet of ALL WOMEN, I rolled my eyes. As if.

And another thing. As a president, she’s done nothing. OK, I’m not American and, add to that, I have no interest in politics from any country, including my own. But in my mind I imagine it to be a crazy-busy kind of job, one where there is more to be done that lumber—albeit very elegantly and in killer heels—around bitching and moaning about adversaries, having witty repartee with the Russian president and your own vice president, staring at dead bodies in the back of a truck, and making phone calls to dodgy psychiatrists. Could be wrong, of course. Happy to be corrected.

Oh, and brother and sister Shepherd! What the crazy shit is that? Are we going to see some Game of Thrones similarities?

So, disappointed I am. But we’ll continue to the end, keeping in the forefront of our minds that it has been turned into a high-quality soap opera. And has been for the last two or three seasons. It’s not just due to the writing out of Spacey’s character.

I just hope that the season brings closure to the murders of Zoe and Rachel. Fingers crossed!

Image sourced: https://www.netflix.com/au/title/70178217