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House of Cards Season 4 |OT| Anything for America. Netflix March 4th
- Thread starter GK86
- Start date
Up to episode 3. I'm really liking this season so far. I might watch episode 4 before going to sleep as I see people here saying is the best one.
Ep. 3:
Ep. 3:
That scene when Frank is telling Claire how he fighted to get everything they have and why he kept the KKK photo is one of the best scenes by Kevin Spacey on the show. And fuck Seth trying to ruin the campaign like that, don't mess with Meechum.
I'm glad you mentioned that. It's a great scene. One of the best on the show, and Spacey pulled it off beautifully.
Freyjadour
Member
Full season spoilers:
This is a bit beyond a murder, ending careers, ruining a life or two. We're not talking Walter White levels of evil here, we're talking full shark jumped comic book villain ridiculousness. They clearly don't know when to quit escalating their actions and the show suffers for it.
I finished this today, and I'm impressed with how they've turned it around after a truly awful third season. It doesn't come close to the first season, but it's the best after that for me. I wish we hadn't known that there would be a season five, but I'm glad now that it's already been ordered.
Freyjadour
Member
Also enough with Stamper's shit already. How many more seasons of this guy's personal issues do I need to endure?
Dougieflesh
Member
Just finished Season 4. Probably my 2nd favorite season behind season 1. Love the direction they're going.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Wilimon is leaving the show this season, and that kind of makes sense with how kind of "reborn" the show is going into s5. The cliffhanger was very much the same as Sorkin leaving West Wing.
Spikematic
Member
I disagree. That's the best/most fun part of the show for me.
And you can't really call it comic book villain ridiculousness when there have been many people throughout history who have/and would have done the same/even worse stuff just to stay in power. Just take a look at our colorful history for many examples.
Cipher Peon
Banned
I agree on that it's where the fun of the show comes from me.
At this point I'm just rooting for Frank to become emperor of the universe. Hope he stays at the top and keeps making new tops to climb them!
At this point I'm just rooting for Frank to become emperor of the universe. Hope he stays at the top and keeps making new tops to climb them!
Spikematic
Member
I agree, Petrov was amazing. Season 3 is definitely the weakest season but it was full of memorable and some very powerful scenes. In any case Season 4 is an excellent return to form and has a lot of the magic that made the first one so much fun to watch. So to anyone holding off on watching it I highly recommend you go for it.
greycolumbus
The success of others absolutely infuriates me.
This season was a lot better than the last but man it feels almost like two different seasons. The last few seconds are incredible though.
Eh, he WAS better off before this bullshit it seemed like, and so regardless of if it's frank's FAULT or not, he's certainly not acting very empathic towards his 'friend'
And beyond that, someone telling you they're leaving and your answer being "Hey why don't you cook me dinner!" is fucking ridiculous. For old times sake or not, that was his JOB at the time. It's like someone saying "Hey I'm gonna miss you, remember when you worked at Gamestop? why don't you ring me up for this Call of Duty and ask me if I want to sign up for a pro membership - for old times sake".
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Just finished the season. Absolutely insane final episode. Some spoiler free thoughts.
Conway actor was NOT charismatic. He's supposed to be Republican Barrack Obama and he wasnt even Marco Robato. Extremely poor casting in a show that nails every single senator and character they cast. it's bizarre.
IMO, they should've picked a well know tv or movie star to play opposite to kevin spacey. someone like Cillian Murphy who is fantastic in Peaky Blinders would've given us some riveting tv. the actor they chose got better as the show went on, but it's a missed opportunity. his wife though. omg. so fucking hot.
My biggest complaint with the series has been that all the loose ends tie up perfectly for Frank and he always gets what he wants. They raised the stakes this time around and did not shy away from beating up Frank and Claire a bit.
One last thing I will say is that everyone does extremely unethical things to keep their jobs in D.C. maybe i am naive, but i really dont think that's the case. it's too convenient for everyone to bend over for the Underwood's just because they care about themselves.
But I guess that's why its a tv show.
Conway actor was NOT charismatic. He's supposed to be Republican Barrack Obama and he wasnt even Marco Robato. Extremely poor casting in a show that nails every single senator and character they cast. it's bizarre.
IMO, they should've picked a well know tv or movie star to play opposite to kevin spacey. someone like Cillian Murphy who is fantastic in Peaky Blinders would've given us some riveting tv. the actor they chose got better as the show went on, but it's a missed opportunity. his wife though. omg. so fucking hot.
My biggest complaint with the series has been that all the loose ends tie up perfectly for Frank and he always gets what he wants. They raised the stakes this time around and did not shy away from beating up Frank and Claire a bit.
One last thing I will say is that everyone does extremely unethical things to keep their jobs in D.C. maybe i am naive, but i really dont think that's the case. it's too convenient for everyone to bend over for the Underwood's just because they care about themselves.
But I guess that's why its a tv show.
DistortionOfReality
Member
Fantastic season, and agree with everyone saying it is a return to form after S3 (though I still loved that too)
BUT (season end spoiler)
BUT (season end spoiler)
I think they went a bit too far having the Underwoods provoke a war in attempt to stay in office. It streches credulity to believe even they would go that far for personal gains. Having said that, the delivery of it, them backed into this corner, and the final lines as they both look at the camera, were chilling. Can't wait to see where they take it next.
APZonerunner
Member
Part of it, to be fair, is that they ran out of material from the original British show (and books) to adapt into a US setting. They're presumably holding back the ending, or will go a different path, but a lot of what you're talking about is all new to the Francis story, not from the original sources.
Milly Osworth
Member
Are there any series that went for story over money? I think this show should have ended with Frank sitting at the presidential desk with an evil "I made it" look on his face. Which would be after 1 or 2 seasons.
Taking a break at episode 7 and I hop on to YT and watched this video
Who is Frank Underwood is Talking to?
Probably posted somewhere, but dear lord did I holler out in laughter.
Who is Frank Underwood is Talking to?
Probably posted somewhere, but dear lord did I holler out in laughter.
Harry Stewart
Member
UK shows do it all the time, mostly because they tend to be run by creative people and there's less network interference. It also may be the European vs. American work ethic. I remember Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny (currently on season 11) saying on Marc Maron's podcast that he finds it crazy that many UK shows he like ended after a season or two because the creators didn't feel like continuing anymore or felt like they had said everything they wanted to say.
On US TV, Breaking Bad. Its ratings increase towards the end was absurd and I'm sure if Vince Gilligan had told AMC that he had another season planned after 5p2, they would have thrown all the money at him. Channeling that into getting Better Call Saul made was brilliant. Lost also decided to end at S6 despite being able to continue for at least a few more seasons, but with hindsight I'd never dare say it was "for the story".
I'm disappointed with Netflix becoming the new Showtime in terms of dragging shows out. When HoC started, I thought they'd be better than that. Despite liking season 4, but I can imagine David Fincher watching seasons 3 and 4 and wondering what the fuck happened. The opening title sequence now almost feels out of tune tone-wise with the slightly more cartoonish thing the show has become.
I think it can be argued it's not unprecendented in history
to go at war to gain good will or to drown something if the political climate was already suitable to this to begin with. Here in France we sometimes argue Sarkozy joined the Libya war (although he hadn't started it) to focus attention elsewhere (and possibly silence Kadhafi about his "supposed" campaign financing but that's another matter).
Arjen
Member
It's a well known tactic. If you're interested in this stuff, read The schokcdoctrince by Naomi Klein
Ultimadrago
Member
*Season 4, Episode 9* Hmm,
Conway ho-hum admitting to having played it a little and responding that he's playing with players around the world is too common hat. The incorporated parallel to the political ratrace is apparent and would have added more to the scene if Frank would have just made a look rather than say "Hm, sounds a little like running for President."
Pyroclastic
Banned
I think there should have been less episodes for sure. Maybe 10 or so a season? The first half of the season was really boring, and the
dream/hallucination sequences were really naff compared to how they've done in other shows.
But I disagree that the show should have ended when frank got the presidency. why call it house of cards if you don't get to see them fall down?
I would say Fringe falls in that category. It never had great ratings but Fox stuck with it and told the story.
Regarding this season.
I liked it. I didn't even recognize Kinnaman until his pier speech. I liked him.
Freddy calling frank a mother fucker was hilarious and made me cheer out.
Watching this show is like watching a slow motion car crash, I watch every new buckle and break with fascination.
I want the Underwoods to fail, but it's amazing to watch them scratch and claw to stay afloat
Also, Conway is in a great position to call out Frank as the person who allowed the ICO situation to escalate and that he and the General are much better equipped to deal with this new threat
Freddy calling frank a mother fucker was hilarious and made me cheer out.
Watching this show is like watching a slow motion car crash, I watch every new buckle and break with fascination.
I want the Underwoods to fail, but it's amazing to watch them scratch and claw to stay afloat
Also, Conway is in a great position to call out Frank as the person who allowed the ICO situation to escalate and that he and the General are much better equipped to deal with this new threat
Why did we invade Iraq? Fiction might be closer than the "reality" we were fed there.
Yeah I don't understand why so many people want their fictional villain (that's what frank is) to have limits since some real human beings crossed them multiple times in history.
Just finished it. I thought it was a solid season. Definitely better than 3. And we got more
Petrov! Such a great character and actor.
The ending scene was pretty damn good I thought. Though I do have some issues with the setting they wanted to end with. Are we to expect this war against ICO is going to make them so popular that people will forget the herald article? And then there's the whole NSA thing which certainly isn't going a way. I guess we have to wait a year to find out. That'll certainly be the last season, right? Right??!
I'm a couple of episodes away from the end of the season but so far I'm loving it.
Also, is it just me or does this entire season make Season 3 feel like filler? Very few important points seemed to happen in that series compared to this one and the ones which did were rehashed in this season to give them more weight
Even most of the new characters from 3 were largely sidelined, instead opting to bring a lot of season 1 and 2 characters back into the spotlight. Not to mention the complete backtracking of the character assassination of Claire from season 3.
Also, is it just me or does this entire season make Season 3 feel like filler? Very few important points seemed to happen in that series compared to this one and the ones which did were rehashed in this season to give them more weight
the Russia stuff.
it really isn't beyond murder. As others have said it's much more believable than a congressman throwing a reporter under a train.
It's also because a) British shows tend to have shorter runs, and therefore b) there's often not a writers room, but a single writer or two. If you have a writers room then one or two bailing to do other things does not collapse the show.
There's also a historical trend of writers getting retain more editorial rights over the product than they do in the US, which is partially because of that greater sense of authorship when it's a single person's work.
pel1300
Member
????? What? Frank has been super empathetic, trying to help Freddy in any way he can. It's just that Freddy was too prideful to accept Frank's help. Frank could have saved Freddy from having to give up the bbq joint, but Freddy didn't want to take the "guilt money".
This all happened because Fredddy tried to capitalize on his association with Frank, having an article written about it without Frank's consult....I mean seriously, Freddy tried to use Frank to use advantage and it backfired. Don't blame Frank for that. Don't blame Frank that you have a shady past and that your stupid ass son pulled a gun on reportersl..
Frank was more kind to Freddy than he needed to be. No matter what happened, Frank's intentions were only to help Freddy, and the fact that Freddy's strategy backfired on him is only a reflection of Freddy's poor judgment, not Frank;s.
Also, Frank helped get Freddy back on his feet by geting him a job in the white house. Where is the fkn grattitude?
and the whole "why don't you cook some ribs" was for old time;s sake! He thought an old friend would be happy to do something like that. Even still, Freddy's response was an extreme overreaction to a guy who was clearly sad to see one of his few freinds leave. It was one of the few moments where Frank looked sincere and sympathetic when telling Freddy that there aren't many peole he feels comfortable with.
Seriously, people like to just jump on the "Everyone must hate Frank" train too quickly. Yes he is a ruthless villain, but he isn't a 2 dimensional villain. His compassion for Freddy is genuine, and anyone who can't see it hasn't been paying attention.
ginger ninja
Banned
Conway is like John Sena but without the charisma or facial expressions.
pel1300
Member
oh ant in season 3...Freddy telling his grandson that Frank "lied" to him by saying he could become president one day was bullshit.
He said "you ain't never gonna be president" and made an analogy that NBA players wouldn't be where they are if they weren't 7 ft tall..
What a terrible grandfather...sure very few people will become president, but it's not a bigoted statement for Frank to say "if you study hard one day that could be you in that chair".
To quote Will Smith to his son in the Pursuit of Happiness..."Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something...not even me".
And yes, Frank considered Freddy to be a true friend...only him and Doug. It's sad that Freddy is too thick to see that.
He said "you ain't never gonna be president" and made an analogy that NBA players wouldn't be where they are if they weren't 7 ft tall..
What a terrible grandfather...sure very few people will become president, but it's not a bigoted statement for Frank to say "if you study hard one day that could be you in that chair".
To quote Will Smith to his son in the Pursuit of Happiness..."Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something...not even me".
And yes, Frank considered Freddy to be a true friend...only him and Doug. It's sad that Freddy is too thick to see that.
Harry Stewart
Member
Late season discussion regarding Freddy. Should have spoiler tagged, sorry for the late edit.
Freddy seemed depressed and unhappy in his life and was taking it out on Frank. It's kind of ironic, the one person who doesn't really have a legit reason for hating him does, while plenty of other people who do have one are either blinded or too scared to react the way he did.
Pyroclastic
Banned
in that universe there's been no black president. the 2012 equivalent of our real one is another boring ass white guy.
it's not such a shitty thing to say in the context of the show.
it's not such a shitty thing to say in the context of the show.
DistortionOfReality
Member
Hmm yeh I guess this is pretty correct actually I hadn't thought about it like that. I think the problem for me was
where they were sat there talking about how fucked THEY were, then all of a sudden it dawns on them to use war to dig their way out of problems of their own making. But then I imagine like you said, it has been done many times before so is really just a valid plot!
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