House Of Cards TV Series

Handling Spacey's disappearance as basically an "I have to go now, my planet needs me" kludge was really hamfisted. "oh yeah he died btw".

What the world needs now is robin Wright looking dramatic like I need a hole in my head

The big disconnect for me after five episodes is the sudden reemergence of Rachel Posner. Wasn't that all settled two or three seasons ago? Or is Doug Stamper still on the hook for her? I liked Claire throwing the door open to her new cabinet. They really got fouled up by Trump winning--the show was so clearly aiming towards running concurrently with a Clinton presidency. (When they do try to shoehorn Trump in--the 25th amendment, secret meetings with Russians--it's awkwardly transparent.)

W G A S
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You're giving me clues about Rachel's centrality to everything...No you're not--you're asking me why I care. I don't really; I'm watching, trying to figure everything out, posting. That's what we do here.

"Barzini's dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia...Moe Greene...Strachi...Cuneo...Today I settled all family business"--when all else fails, turn to The Godfather.

Loved the end of episode 7. They've gone totally Grand Guignol at this point--along with that previous Godfather flourish, they've now made the Rosemary's Baby connection explicit, and they've even thrown some Night of the Hunter in there too. I think that's all they could have done; I'm glad they didn't get earnest and explanatory (we'll see what the final episode brings).

As much as I liked all the things I singled out above, the finale was quite silly. There's a lot of funny lines in this:

http://www.vulture.com/2018/11/house-of-cards-recap-season-6-episode-8-finale.html

I liked the reappearance of Walter Doyle. Even he couldn't get a handle on what the hell going on.

One thing that was ultimately pointless, I thought, were all those flashbacks to Claire's youth. I expected them to lead up to some crucial revelation--circumstantial, or about her personality--but I'm not sure they added much of anything.

foregrounding rosemary's baby with lysistrata to frame flashback claire and president claire's lone convo was a nice final note on that arc in ways i can't get into without being spoilery and same deal with her final convo with 'douglas'. spotty final season though for sure! spacey may be a creep (and the game they play in the last episode with his voice maybe tasteless?) but it's hard not to hear that southern H sometimes ~ "wHy claire" ~ in the silence where it seems his part's been written out

avocado abortion lmao

Didn't attach any significance to it last time I watched a couple of years ago--other than it typified how progressively crazy the show got the last two or three seasons--but it's very tempting right now to see the Underwoods' attempts to overturn/meddle with the 2016 election through the prism of Trump the last couple of months. Not similar in specifics, but in broad strokes--create as much chaos as you can if you're sure to lose, and hold fast to the premise that the office belongs to you--not all that different. James Poniewozik's Audience of One argues that everything Trump does can somehow be traced to all the TV he has absorbed through his life, going all the way back to childhood. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's familiar with House of Cards, and that S4 is buried somewhere in his feverish insanity as of late.

(Season 5, I should say.)

I alluded to this exchange a couple of years ago, but I've got quote the whole thing--really enjoying the Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? aspects of the Claire-Annette dynamic this time around.

Claire: "I don't think your brother is gonna let up, Annette. Until he gets his ring kissed directly, I think."

Annette: "Reminds me of someone you were married to."

Claire: "Oh, no. Bill and Francis are very different people."

Anette: "Agreed. You know I slept with him once."

Claire: "Your brother?"

Almost three years--I've got to revisit this every so often.

I bet I asked this above somewhere, but: in S1, Peter Russo's self-implosion sets in motion the events that lead to Frank becoming VP, everything orchestrated by Frank himself. But that all starts with the watershed bill being defeated, and Frank seems genuinely enraged about that (and about Claire's betrayal on the bill). If the bill had passed, though, how does he then become VP? The plan that seems so carefully worked out after the bill goes down, did Frank just improvise everything on the spot?