One nation... Underwood.
This is a non-spoilery review for all 13 new episodes of House of Cards: Season 5, which is now available on Netflix. In a separate piece, I'll talk about story specifics and the ending to the season as a whole, but here you won't have to worry about big spoilers.
As part of Netflix's giant month without chill -- May -- which saw the return of Bloodline, Sense8, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Ranch, and F is for Family, House of Cards' fifth season was squeezed in under the wire, on Tuesday the 30th, so that it could be make the Emmy cut-off date for nominations. Had it just waited one more week and dropped on Friday, June 2nd, there would have been no hope for Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, or any of the other performers on this once-buzzed about Netflix Original to possibly get recognized for their work on the show.
That's important, because the performances here, five years in, are still formidable and ferocious, representing a combination of both fury and repression, resentment and ambition. If you're a fan of the Underwoods and their ever-evolving, revolving, political circus of pain then you obviously recognize the work the stars are putting in when it comes to crafting these characters and creating this particular alternative dimension of malaise and malice.
Everyone's somehow working themselves to death, double-dealing, back-stabbing, playing all sides, and looking out for numero uno simultaneously. It's a show that can dive into the grinding minutia of politics power plays and then, out of nowhere, become histrionic and Shakespearean.
The trick here, as always with House of Cards, is balancing those tones. This is a series that's prominently featured flat out murder in the name of grubby political power grabs and then spent handfuls of episodes featuring its key players playing by the "rules" while trying to scramble to get votes, win support, convince people to change loyalties in order scratch and claw their way out of various dilemmas of their own doing. And it's all played, more or less, on the same level. Basically, taking someone's life is almost as routine of a measure as campaigning, lobbying, making secret deals, approving covert missions, etcetera. It's an issue that House of Cards hasn't been able to fully fix.
In Season 2, the murder of Zoe Barns shot the series into tumultuous territory. Sure, Frank had murdered back in Season 1, but the fact that Zoe's death came at the very end of the Season 2 premiere, coupled with the "shock" surrounding her being one of the show's main characters, created a story gateway that felt grating and overly-sensational. Since then however, save for Doug murdering Rachel, the show mostly buried itself back into politics and Frank Underwood's constant struggle to exist in a world where his innumerable sins threaten to take him down at every turn.
Now, one more thing to bring up regarding Season 5: It's impossible to watch House of Cards this season in a vacuum. This is a show that stakes its claim as a morbidly exaggerated version of American politics. The narcissism and vulgarity that Veep plays for laughs, House of Cards displays proudly as a tramp stamp. But where do Frank, Claire, Doug, Seth, and the rest now stand given the actual state of our current political system, news cycle, and methods of discourse? Other sites have written about the Trump effect regarding House of Cards so I won't attempt to carry that load.
There's most definitely a Putin surrogate on the series in Lars Mikkelsen's Petrov, but there's no Trump. Some have said that Jayne Atkinson's Catherine Durant is a Hilary stand-in of sorts, but other than that House of Cards isn't out to mirror anything. It's challenge, this year, is to discover whether or not many of us still want to be distracted by a den of vipers that feel rather tame in comparison to the news that breaks in this country on a daily basis.
Normally, the current events of the real world and one's strong feelings about them, one way or the other, don't bleed over into a series you're watching. Not to this extent. But House of Cards, while not succeeding in all avenues, triumphs a bit here because the series, like Frank Underwood himself, has a long memory. Season 5 capitalizes off of the first four seasons in ways that helps you through the muck and mire, when the middle of the season gets bogged down in details and dreariness and almost every line of dialogue concerns keeping a man in power who barely has a second alone to himself to enjoy that power because he's beset on all sides by enemies from all walks of life.
Zoe's death, Rachel's death, and the entire sordid deal to manipulate Frank into the Oval Office, at the expense of former President Walker, all return in a great way that helps tether the series to itself while also relaying the viewer that no one, not even Frank, can skirt true cosmic consequences. Even as headlines of the past year and a half start popping up, in a myriad of ways -- terms like leaks, hacks, voter suppression, election tampering, foreign influence, the idea that voters want to vote for a strong "doer" even if they don't like what he does -- the series is ready to remind you of the fact that at the core of this is murder. And what helps this season survive, despite the show being about a circle of sordid, selfish characters, is what once made the show feel too outrageous to acknowledge.
Season 5 picks things up right where we left off - with Frank running a neck-and-neck campaign against Joel Kinnaman's Will Conway, Claire at his side as his running mate. The Underwoods are looking to turn the presidency into a family dynasty, with Frank winning and then Claire eventually succeeding him, locking up the next two decades. This being the show that it is though, both new problems arise and old issues resurface (Boris McGiver's Herald editor, Tom Hammerschmidt, plays a key role in excavating sins of the past), and it isn't long before Frank and Claire begin to narrow their eyes at everyone around them, as well as each other.
It's a familiar dance, the scratching and clawing to stay afloat. The desperate struggle for every victory and the abject desire to double down on cruelty instead of ever considering losing as an option. It's a harsh world to lock yourself up inside of. I'm not just talking about those on the show who willingly enter this brutal bubble of betrayal and blindsiding. The viewer is locked in as well and Netflix's binge model makes the experience even more bleak and, at times, unnerving. All of it part of Frank's fail-safe style follies of being willing to burn everything down around him if it means his enemies won't gain any ground.
Taking an even lager role this season is Neve Campbell's LeAnn Harvey and her drama with data scientist Aiden Macallan (Damian Young). Likewise, Campbell Scott's cold and calculating advisor to the Conway campaign, Mark Usher, adds a much needed wild card element to the season. But really spicing things up in Season 5 is Patricia Clarkson's Jane Davis - an international mover and shaker who seems to be better at manipulating the game, and those around her, than the Underwoods. Davis is the Queen of double-speak, appearing as both genuine and duplicitous in her attempts to lend a hand.
By the back half of the season, the Underwoods find themselves targeted, almost daily, by investigations and takedown attempts to the point where they have no idea what to think about the people in their employ. Everyone seems to be playing all the angles at once and Frank and Claire can't depend on the loyalty they once took for granted. There's a big focus this year on the presidency, despite the grandeur that title brings, not being the apex of true power - and it's this realization that starts to unspool the Underwoods' plans for political dominance.
The Verdict
Tonally, House of Cards will always have trouble equating "politics as usual" scheming and sordid dealings with actual hands-on murder, but Season 5 does a good job of disrupting Frank Underwood's best laid plans by utilizing ghosts of the past. That, plus new blood in the form of Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson, helps Season 5 rise up above some of the chewy middle chapters that all blend together in a haze of repetitive power plays and petulant posturing. Adding to Season 5's assorted woes is the "stranger than fiction" aspect of 2017 politics, but the series, like Underwood, endures. Even if it can't compete.
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