HOUSE OF CARDS – Season 2 Review: We’ve Been Played

Okay, Okay, I know I am late to the game on this one. To be honest, Season 2 provided so many mixed emotions I wasn’t sure how to procede.

This post isn’t so much of a review as it is my overall impression, which was not good.
Truthfully after watching all of the Second Season my feeling was one of sadness and grime. I needed a bath as if I was somehow contaminated by the pervasive corruption of the series.

You have to hand it to these guys, House of Cards has an incredible cast, Kevin Spacy in particular was brilliant. However, the bloom wilted as quickly as his character threw Zoe (Kate Mara) in front of the oncoming train. From the first episode we were off and running.

Frank once again broke the fourth wall and addressed the audience directly with this small sermon:

“Did you think I’d forgotten you? Perhaps you hoped I had. Don’t waste a breath mourning Miss Barnes. Every kitten grows up to be a cat. They seem so harmless at first—small, quiet, lapping up their saucer of milk. But once their claws get long enough, they draw blood. Sometimes from the hand that feeds them. For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one rule: hunt or be hunted. Welcome back.”

Welcome back indeed. I had this strange feeling that the audience itself was only there for Francis’ exploitation and amusement. It was unsettling, which was, I suppose, the point.

I feel it is fair to say that killing Zoe was quite a shock and removing her so early on left us with without a believable threat to Frank. For a time Raymond Tusk, played by Gerald McRaney, seemed to be presented as the newest thorn, unfortunately, Tusk was more of a nuisance rather than a serious foe.

After his appointment as Vice President, Mr. Underwood begins to surgically remove any whiff of threat leaving a wake of destruction in the lives of those surrounding him.

• Lucas Goodwin ( Sebastian Arcelus) Zoe’s boyfriend reporter is quickly ensnared and winds up rotting in jail. The way he is entrapped by computer hacker, Gavin Orsay ( Jimmi Simpson) is both laughable and terrifying at the same time mostly because it leaves you with the feeling it could happen to any one of us somehow leaving us powerless to prevent the devastation.

• Frank’s supposed friend, Freddy (Reg E. Cathey)  and Claire’s former lover Adam Gallaway (Ben Daniels) inevitably are ruined in the wake of the Underwood Political Machine.

• Even Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Francis’ right hand man is not immune and we see his life spiral slowly out of control, leading to his eventual death.

Claire (Robin Wright) oscillates between compassion and complete evil to such a degree that I am most afraid of her. It is very apparent her only loyalty is to her husband for some unfathomable reason, everyone else, even her very soul, must be sacrificed at the altar of Francis’ design.

In the end the Underwood’s have successfully undermined the President with relative ease and we see Frank slither into the Oval Office. I was hoping for a miracle and a sniper would somehow blow his head off.

Observations:
• The threesome between Claire, Francis and the Secret Service agent was nauseating simply because it served no point other than to freak everyone out.
• Doug requiring his charge to read the Bible aloud seemed only to elicit revulsion as well.
• When Gavin’s guinea pig Cashew was threatened literally underfoot, I was livid.

When it is all said and done I felt completely played and frankly abused.
I don’t think there will be a Season Three for me. I like my rose colored glasses too much.