House of Cards Season 5

First and foremost, Kevin Spacey is a creep.

It should be stated that regardless of if I enjoyed Spacey's performance and contribution to this season and the previous seasons before it, it doesn't negate the fact that he's not a great human being and should pay his proper punishment for the things he's done. At the end of the day, I'm commenting on a performance not a person, and even that has its own asterisk  to it because I was watching a performance knowing what I know now.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about season 5 of House of Cards. Spoilers ahead.

Now it had been a hot second since I had watched Season 4 so I'll be honest, it took an episode or two and some recapping to remember every plot point and boy is there a lot to remember.

Francis and Claire are in the middle of an election where they are both sides of the ticket. They have started down a road of conflated fear mongering with an ISIS-like terrorist organization on American soil and there are investigations swirling around them in an attempt to undermine their administration.

The season is broken into two halves. In my opinion, these two halves make the season feel a little bit uneven at times and feel like they could've been condensed into the latter half of the 4th season or the beginning half of the 5th/6th season. The first half focused on the last few weeks before the general election where Frank is going toe to toe with William Conway, his Republican electoral rival. Overall, I found the election really interesting but a little dragged out by the end of it because of what I mentioned before, it could have been more condensed.

I do want to talk about the Conways because similarly to Season 4, they were really entertaining. I like Joel Kinnaman and Dominique McElligott. I think I just wanted a little more fight out of their camp. At the end of season 4, you got the feeling that this was a somewhat even match and maybe the Underwoods were in danger (as long as you were like me and tried to forget that Season 5 had it wouldn't make sense to have the Underwoods lose).

But in the fifth season you just see this team circling the drain and going crazy due to the Underwood's better navigation of the dirty political system. I also get a weird feeling that they only had Joel Kinnaman for a certain number of episodes and tried to diminish his role and impact, especially near the end of the election story line. Again, there's a lot I liked, but at the same time there was a lot I didn't like and it felt a little scattered overall.

I think a really great theme throughout the season was the struggle between something new and unorthodox and the status quo. It was apparent with the Conways and their struggle with the Underwoods, it was prevalent in the up and coming progressive Congressman Alex Romero (played by James Martinez), who I realize now if they had been able to wait a few more years, definitely would have been played by an actress resembling Alexandria Occasio Cortez and it would have been hilarious. But it was also really apparent in the internal working of the Underwood White House.

They've really been alluding to some kind of reckoning with Doug Stamper, one way or another, especially with the inclusion of Mark Usher (played by Campbell Scott) and I absolutely love Michael Kelly and everything he does. But the weird thing was that even characters who felt relatively new felt in danger to new up and coming people of power. Neve Campbell's character even after a season started to feel like she was on the verge of replacement, especially when they introduced Patricia Clarkson's character. Seth Grayson gets booted out by the end of the season.

It is worth noting that there were some parts and characters in the season overall that didn't do everything they could for me. Part of it was some random relationships. The forced "romance" between Doug and Leeann was random, the return of the civil war actor for an odd relationship with Francis was a little random and didn't go anywhere I thought it was gonna go.

But a larger strange part was how this season both felt like it was the precursor to a 6th season Spacey made unable to fully actualize, but how it also felt like this could have been the final season. Tom Hammerschmidt at the end of the 4th season seemed like he was on the cusp of bringing Underwood down in this season and yet he didn't add a whole lot to the fifth season.

The same thing happened with the Conways, Tom Yates, different characters throughout the show, it all seemed like the end was nigh. And yet there was a whole other season still laying in wait, it could be argued that they jumped the shark too early for an ultimate conclusion in season 6.

Everyone seems expendable in this season and I thought that was a really interesting angle to go with this show, especially with the characters who have survived this long around.

Even Frank has a sense unintentional mortality, which made this season very interesting to watch having known that they kill him off in the 6th season. I wish that was some kind of spoiler but especially with how this season ended, I think it was a necessary choice and it actually makes me really excited for season 6.

One fascinating thing watching season 5 was trying to predict how this show would have gone if Spacey hadn't been a creep. Its also interesting putting myself in the shoes of the writers and asking how I would continue after the Spacey news came out and how I would stick the landing.

I haven't watched the 6th season so I don't know if they stick the landing, but I can kind of see where the show was headed and what their strategy could be moving into season 6. Oddly enough, with the limited knowledge I have, there are elements about season 5 that almost foreshadow Frank Underwood dying and the power going all to Claire and how that would look. I think they set up Claire's rise to power really great and I don't think they were left totally unprepared for a need to change plans. However, there was an element that felt a little out of place.

Near the end, Frank is talking about resigning and going into the private sector where he can buy influence to run the country, especially with Claire running the White House. He states that this was the plan all along and that they'd still have their power dynamic, just not in a way that Claire originally thought they would, and I took exception to this notion that this was all planned, because I don't think all of it was.

That's why the last two episodes were kind of difficult for me to swallow. I have a hard time believing that Frank's plan from the beginning was to sneak his way into office, only to hand over the reigns to Claire just as he's reaching the height of his power.

What's more probable and what I thought they were going for was to underline the fact that Frank falls victim to the very system he thought he knew so well. Again, I think I get where the show was going and how it would have concluded if Spacey wasn't a creep, but there's also a scenario where I could have seen this season be the final season. This season could have easily ended with Frank Underwood being drug off to jail as Claire takes the reigns and maps her own destiny. That's what so interesting about this show is that I could see multiple ways in which it could have ended and continued, and then ended again because at the end of the day, it's a really interesting show.

It is crazy to think that it's been already 6 years since the start of House of Cards. It doesn't feel that long, especially when you're watching it because the show feels like a long movie. Kate Mara hasn't been on the show for 5 years but Zoe Barnes is still a presence in this show. It's also been fascinating how this show is at the forefront of how political television is being produced these days.

Gone are the Aaron Sorkin days where politics is hopeful and makes you excited about the world we live in. Gone are the days where you can watch a show like Scandal and not look at it through a different lens because it's a Hollywood version of Michael Cohen's day to day. I think political story telling in TV and movies is getting more pessimistic because of the environment that we find ourselves in today. I read an article when season 5 came out that argued that in today's political climate, House of Cards isn't fun anymore. The show has a weird way of forecasting a lot of political crises before they even happened and it's eerie. Voter suppression, Congressional investigations, leaks, or a chaotic White House, it's weird to think that this show isn't a mirrored representation of our political system today.

HOWEVER, I do want to throw a huge bucket of cold water on that pessimistic viewpoint because the fact is, it's wrong. House of Cards is built off the idea that our political system is flawed and there are ways to take advantage of it, but the world being portrayed is a dystopian universe that, as someone with a little bit of faith in humanity, I refuse to believe that there is no humanity whatsoever at the highest levels of our government.

I think in the same way the bleeding red white and blue show 24 prospered in the George W Bush era and the nuanced intrigue show Homeland prospered in the Obama era, I think House of Cards will be a forefront to a pessimistic view of politics in the Trump era. Look at political shows like Madam Secretary, the Newsroom, or Scandal that started in the Obama era, they are quite different than House of Cards. I have to applaud the writers of the show for creating something a little bit a head of its time. Now you look at a show like VEEP that is able to have a satirical look at how dysfunctional the political process can be. I think there is more to come and I think that would have been done with or without Kevin Spacey at the helm of this show.

Kevin Spacey has a long filmography to back up the claim that he's a good actor. But that clearly doesn't make him a good person or worthy of this show. And I think the show is bigger than him. I've heard mixed reviews of season 6, but I've avoided in depth reviews because I want to judge it for myself. However, while Frank Underwood is an entertaining part of the show, something I found myself enjoying a lot more because I was aware of the situation was the ancillary parts. Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, Michael Kelly, Neve Campbell, Patricia Clarkson, Jayne Atkinson, the list goes on. Honestly, this might be the first time I go directly from one season of House of Cards to the next because I am excited to see where this goes.

Stay tuned.

But those are my thoughts on House of Cards Season 5. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter, @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading.