Last year, I began watching House of Cards because I had the day off, it had just come out, and I was curious. Quickly, I found myself hooked enough that I finished watching it by that Sunday. While not a perfect show, it kept me needing more. There was a cleverness to it that was engaging and it was so much fun seeing how Francis Underwood's plan came into fruition. In addition to Kevin Spacey, the show was filled with engaging performances both large (Robin Wright, Corey Stoll, Kate Mara) and small (Kristen Connolly, Constance Zimmer). Certainly, when the season ended with Stoll's Rep. Peter Russo dead, Underwood as Vice President, and Mara's Zoe Barnes (and her merry band of reporters) determined to take him down, I was excited to see what came next.
This year, I didn't have the day off when the second season came out but I was still curious. Given how I blasted through the last season, I decided to let that wash over me, set aside some time, and finished it within 36 hours of it being released. In a word, I was disappointed. That would be a lazy assessment though so I will use the next few paragraphs to work through my initial impressions of the season. (WARNING: this is where I'll let spoilers fly)
The season got of to an abrupt start with the death of Zoe Barnes. That bummed me out for more reasons than being deprived of the occasional carefully shot shower scene. It's probably true that she had played out her usefulness. My issue is with how she died, how quickly people forgot about it, and how cleanly it neutralized that threat. There is no way I believe Frank could've pulled off killing her that perfectly. He's not Superman. You're telling me the cameras wouldn't've caught anything and more than her boyfriend would investigate it deeper. In fact, within an episode, her boyfriend is the only one who seems to even remember about her. The end of last season set Zoe and the other reporters as a major wildcard opposition to Underwood and in one fell swoop, Zoe is dead, Janine Skorsky is gone to Ithica, and the boyfried (can you tell that I forgot his name yet?) is going down a deep rabbit hole involving doing every ilegal thing imaginable.
I like Reg E. Cook as Frank's favorite BBQ cook, Freddy so I was glad he got some more screen time. In general, HoC did a good job expanding the world this season. I found Freddy's back story engaging and the way things played out with him was tragic. Pardon my denseness though, but what was the point of it? Did we really need another example of how Frank ruins lives? I think we've seen that enough. As far as I can tell, there was no payoff for all the time spend with him.
The same goes for Frank's Chief of Staff, Doug, and his former prostiture obsession, Rachel. This is where I'll admit that in the year since I watched it, I've almost entirely forgetten why she mattered at all (most of the details I'm confusing with seasons of Damages, I'm pretty sure). As far as I can tell, the whole point of that was to show how Doug was distracted by her, allowing a lot of mistakes that Frank had to clean up. Does she even serve a purpose beyond being a distraction? Now that she's killed Doug, what is her connection to anything. Tangentally, did we need any of that about her finding god and entering a lesbian relationship (I'll admit, an enjoyably ironic pair of developments)? Is she going to disappear now like Claire's pregnant assistant.
In general, I don't remember the plot being this involved last year. There was so much talk of retirement age litigation, building bridges, incorporation of Native American tribes, campaign contributions, and so many other things that I constantly found myself confused and resinging myself to just go with the flow. While I don't think I understood every detail of the plan to become Vice President in season 1, I at least followed it enough to appreciate the mechanics at work to get there. The level of detail this time around was nearly exclusionary to anyone not already well-versed in political policy (which isn't a large audience).
Frank's master plan was not nearly as clever this time. In fact, it was very haphazzard and telegraphed from the moment the season began. There's no way after getting to V.P. last year that the writers could hide that this season was leading to him taking the president's chair. The least they could do is not rely on a plan that is so reliant on people acting unreasonably like the President not using the incriminating letter against Frank or Raymond Tusk only selling out the President at the hearing. Most of the plan worked because the writers needed it to, not because Frank orchestrated it.
At any point, did it seem like Frank had a worthy advesary? At any moment, he had enemies such as the President or Jacqueline Sharp or Remy Danton or the Indian chief or esepcially Tusk. None of them ever had him on the ropes for more than a couple scenes and even that required multiple people to team up against him. No one wants to watch Lebron James play in a YMCA league for very long, if you know what I mean. To the show's credit, I think they have set Jacqueline up to be a worthy opponent down the road, you know, unless she gets the Zoe Barnes treatment.
I was struck by how many plots just went away. Freddy's BBQ stand. Kristin Connoly disappeared completely after being built up so well last year. Zoe's reporter boyfriend dropped off the map shortly after being arrested. Frank and Claire's first assistant was presented interestingly at the beginning then went away without a wimper. Claire's pregnant former employee (seriously, I'm not looking some of these names up if the show isn't going to use them enough) literally shows up long enough to cut the ties from last season.
That's a lot of negative and I'm ok with going after all that becuase this is a show that presents itself as prestige. If this was Scandal, I'd let a lot of it go. It's clear that the makers of House of Cards want this to be at the level of the AMC or HBO dramas, forgetting that smart words don't always make smart dialogue and complex stories does not gaurantee engaging storytelling. The biggest thing the show has going for it is that it hasn't written itself into any corners yet. It tends to sweep things under the rug rather than concoct implausible fixes it could return for season 3 and be fantastic. Despite the flaws, there's a lot to build on. Kevin Spacey brings a gravitas that most shows can only dream of and has found a way to blend hammy and engaging which steers the show. Robin Wright is almost as cold and calculating as Spacey and this season built on them as a power couple much better than season 1. In fact, the depiction is their marriage was probably my favorite part/development of season 2. The groundwork has been laid for any number of enemies to challenge Frank who does nothing but make enemies and force alliances under duress. The first two years have been about the climb to the top. That completely changes the dynamic of what comes next. After all, the rise always preceeds the fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment