Just finished S5. I found this season substantially harder to follow than the previous seasons and there's quite a bit that I'm unsure about... Probably my least favourite season thus far.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:56 pm
by smurphy
Yeah this season was pretty poor.
It started out good, but as soon the election was over it just went batshit. What they were going for was cool, but it was like the show was suddenly written by the people behind 24. Mark Usher and that woman out of nowhere suddenly having ultimate power, totally inexplicable decisions from Frank, plot threads vanishing to thin air. The structure and pacing of the episodes was really odd, too.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:41 am
by Moggy
The trouble is we never really got to see Frank with ultimate power. He blagged his way to the presidency and then he was constantly firefighting or campaigning. I wanted to see him with absolute power, instead I got what felt like 2 seasons of an election campaign that was spinning out of his control.
And him deciding "meh, strawberry float it I'll work in the public sector" was just out of character compared to the rest of the season/series.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:05 am
by Rex Kramer
I'm currently just into series 4 and they're starting to focus on Conway. Does Kinnaman get any better because at the moment he's not really selling hot-shot presidential candidate.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:35 am
by Drumstick
I don't remember S4 Conway too well but he is at least somewhat interesting in S5.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:50 am
by Rex Kramer
S4 Ep 11.
Freddy
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 3:51 pm
by gaminglegend
Got to say S5 just wasn't as good, batshit crazy is the word.
There was some interesting character developments, (I called Doug getting down and dirty with Neeve Campbell a year ago ).
Ultimately Frank had to be removed from power for the show's arc to be interesting, (i.e. not send him to jail eventually) but it's almost like it's gone back to the start. I have no interest in seeing Claire as President. It feels almost like half a season.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:09 pm
by Moggy
gaminglegend wrote:Got to say S5 just wasn't as good, batshit crazy is the word.
There was some interesting character developments, (I called Doug getting down and dirty with Neeve Campbell a year ago ).
Ultimately Frank had to be removed from power for the show's arc to be interesting, (i.e. not send him to jail eventually) but it's almost like it's gone back to the start. I have no interest in seeing Claire as President. It feels almost like half a season.
I think that eventually he would have to be removed from power, but to me it felt like a hell of a lot of build up for very little payoff.
Frank blagged his way into the Presidency, then he seemed to jump straight into the primary campaign before getting into the Presidential campaign and then quits.
I wanted at least a season of him being an outright evil bastard with almost unlimited power. As it is, it just feels flat.
In the original British version, Francis gained power in a similar way and then ruthlessly hung onto it for a decade. He would never have let the power slip away from him (even getting involved in a war to cling on!). When he realised that the game was up and he was going to be arrested, he arranged for his own assassination to cement his legacy, rather than fade away or have the public embarrassment of being deposed or put on trial. I am not saying the American version should follow that, but it’s a lot more interesting than “Frank goes to work for a bank – that’s true power!”.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 6:23 pm
by smurphy
gaminglegend wrote:
Ultimately Frank had to be removed from power for the show's arc to be interesting, (i.e. not send him to jail eventually) but it's almost like it's gone back to the start. I have no interest in seeing Claire as President. It feels almost like half a season.
I audibly groaned when Claire looked at the camera and said "My turn".
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:58 pm
by gaminglegend
smurphy wrote:
gaminglegend wrote:
Ultimately Frank had to be removed from power for the show's arc to be interesting, (i.e. not send him to jail eventually) but it's almost like it's gone back to the start. I have no interest in seeing Claire as President. It feels almost like half a season.
I audibly groaned when Claire looked at the camera and said "My turn".
Same, she's lost my interest as a character and I never really understand her motives for office, in Season One she was driven by her charity, and Frank's success, now it's unbelievable she's in the position she's in.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:12 pm
by Knoyleo
Only just finished watching Season 5.
It wasn't as bad as neutered Frank in season 3, but it was still pretty bad.
I couldn't stand the Tom Yates story line. It felt so forced, and unnatural, and just went absolutely nowhere. It didn't even serve a purpose, as we already know that the Underwoods consider even those close to them to be expendable. A point that was better served by throwing Doug under the train bus. I guess the writers felt they needed to have Claire do a murder for parity.
Even more laughable was the civil war reenactor who just reappears after 2 series as Frank's personal trainer, and obviously they have a thing, too.
The whole series was a bit of a drag, and didn't know where it was heading. Will Conway may as well have disappeared off the face of the Earth, the whole election rigging was so ridiculous I don't think even Easy D could have gotten away with it, and Frank turning all unreliable narrator right at the end, going "hahah, this is just what I'd planned to happen!" was the worst turn I think I've seen in the whole show.
First season was good but it went rapidly downhill after that.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 6:49 pm
by Squinty
Moggy wrote:
Squinty wrote:It was shite anyway.
First season was good but it went rapidly downhill after that.
There was a few good episodes in that season. But I felt like they were few and far between. The pacing of the show was just too slow and it had no real payoff a lot of the time. And the random as strawberry float moments like Frank having a breakdown and his wife riding him.
It was such a weird show to watch.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:55 pm
by Garth
Man Comes Forward to Describe an Alleged Extended Sexual Relationship He Had at Age 14 With Kevin Spacey
Earlier this week, the actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when he was 14 years old. After Rapp’s allegation, Spacey released a statement in which he claimed not to remember the incident in question and also came out as a gay man. Since then, others have come forward with further allegations against Spacey, including the filmmaker Tony Montana, who said that Spacey groped him in public in 2003, and the actor Roberto Cavazos, who said he witnessed Spacey court and inappropriately touch younger male actors at the Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was the artistic director from 2004 to 2015.
After Rapp’s public statement, a man who was friendly with a member of the New York staff approached the magazine to talk about Spacey. At the age of 14, he says, he began a sexual relationship with the actor, who was then 24, that ended with what he describes as an attempted rape.
Yeah Spacey is done. His career has collapsed like a line of dominoes.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 10:08 pm
by smurphy
Checkmate.
Probably for the best (House of Cards ending early, not sexual assault stuff). I don't think I could handle the embarrassment of Claire Underwood talking to the camera and acting hard all the time.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:17 am
by Squinty
I hated those scenes with Frank. It's about the only thing I hated about the filming of it.
On the whole, it's one of the slickest looking shows I've ever watched. Some of the shots are well executed, I loved the lighting. But there's not much behind the window dressing.
Re: House of Cards [Netflix] S5 Coming Soon
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:24 am
by Meep
I was kind of in denial at first because Spacey is one of my favourite actors, thinking maybe it was a one off instant when he was really drunk and young, but then all the other allegations started creeping out like his reputation at the theatre.
