House Of Cards Season 6 WHAT A LOAD OF OLD SHIT (spoilers obvs!)

[PawneeParksDept]

Never have I been so disappointed in the end of a series EVER

Obviously they had to work around Kevin Spaceys firing but the lack of Frank isn't even the problem.

I mean it's not even that it's a "poor" series If is woefully, shockingly bad.

Doug Stampers whole storyline is ridiculous and makes zero contextual sense.

Literally who cares about The Shepherds an allegedly uber powerful, influential family who have NEVER been mentioned before and just pop up as this immense shadowy force overnight

There is no justice even of the poetic kind for Rachel, Kathy, Zoe, Tom Yates, Tom Hammerschmidt, Leanne, Garrett, Janine, Jackie, Remy or Lucas and even Doug.

Even if the message was that the Underwoods will out as it was the last season it should have had a fully rounded end. Instead it ends like THAT on a ridiculous cliffhanger and just cuts out

Truly 8 hours I'll never get back.

I’ve lost where the series has got to. Is this the next after the ‘fourth wall’ end of the last one (at least last one I saw) - when the Pres and First Lady speak to camera about control through a climate of fear etc?

How do they explain Spacey’s absence?

Who are the Shepherds and how are they written in?

So this is the series after Claire breaks the fourth wall at that point she had just been sworn in because Frank had already resigned voluntarily.

At the start of the series Frank is dead, having died in the night a few months previously. Official version is he died in Claire's bed but it's obviously a lie, the frankly unbelievable truth is revealed in the last episode.

The Shepherds are a brother/sister duo with an upstart young heir, who own lots of media outlets and tech and are able to influence voting. The sister knew Claire in college. It is made out that they were super close to Frank before the end and that he confided all his secrets to them. It is also made out that they are shadowy and powerful enough to have anyone killed. Quite why Frank failed to appeal to them for assistance in any previous series is a mystery unsolved

No that "rule by fear" is the end of Season 4, Frank wins the election he's just rigged but is threatened with impeachment. Claire becomes President at the end of Season 5.

Thanks. I’m one behind then. Don’t think I’ll bother with seasons 5 or 6 in that case.

I thought 4 was a bit crap really. It felt like a production that had run its course by the end of s4.

That does seem to me to be a feature of big budget Netflix, HBO type stuff: the production costs are so high, and the funding model so uncertain - unlike conventional TV ad funding - they have to wring every last drop from it.

Ok...so I can do spoilers, right?

As well as the Shepherds and I agree with Pawnee, where the hell did they come from if they've been so integral up to now? and the ridiculous Doug storyline, the ending.

All of that and Clare is pregnant? For starters her character is supposed to be 51. I know it's not impossible to be pregnant at 51 but we're left to assume it was an accidental pregnancy that must have happened in the week or so that Frank died. Eh?

And the all-female cabinet? Equality? Yes please, but if it was being vaguely realistic they must have dragged in every female politician from Nebraska to Florida and every corner of the states.

I desperately wanted Clare to have the same meaty storylines that Frank had but it was like the scriptwriters were asleep. How did it pass quality control?

At the end of episode 8 DH said 'is that it?' with incredulity. That's how I felt too.

Is Spacey's departure why the writing nose-dived? KS was able to persuade some top notch people to write for the show, they might even feel like it's tainted to write for it, now.

Thanks. Sounds terrible. Shame really because Clare could have been developed as such a great role.

my DH said is that it?

@PurpleNailVarnish

I literally rewound because an advert had come up for Daredevil and I refused to believe it had ended there.

RE Clare's pregnancy, fucking laughable

When she visited the fertility clinic to blackmail the woman who worked for her in Series 1 she was told any chance of natural conception was slim then, 8 years previously.

She's had 3 abortions and been shown as having gone through the menopause.

Also she and Francis were barely seeing each other, and were not living together at the time just before his death.

Tom Yates doesn't even qualify as a possible Dad because the timing is too out.

I REFUSE REFUSE point blank to accept that

a) Doug murdered Frank as Clare slept across the corridor

b) That having chosen to murder Frank he would then bend over backwards to secure a legacy for Frank against his own interests. Franks only legacy was corruption and failure

c) that he would back off and leave Clare alone if only, if only she called her little girl Frances, I mean what ?

And that's before you get to the fact that before Clare murders Doug she murders Jane, Cathy, and Tom H in quick succession.

Just ludicrous

And also ludicrous to have 3 Presidents in succession guilty of impeachable offences without some sort of mass civil unrest.

An absolute squandering of an opportunity to see a woman who could have been great come undone by the crimes of a man, which has happened since time immemorial, would have happened in this case and would certainly have lent both closure and credibility to the series.

What we got was an operatic farce.

And that's before you get to the fact that before Clare murders Doug she murders Jane, Cathy, and Tom H in quick succession.

What? Oh for heavens sake.

@Ruffina

It has to be seen to be believed the scene where she murders Doug IN THE FUCKING OVAL

The acting could not be more hammy if it was literally two pigs squealing

Presumably she's intending to get away with it by saying "Crazy Man Attacked Me" but it beggars all credulity

Whilst Cathy clearly had to go we saw her plotting revenge, then suddenly she's shot.
Cathy had relevance to previous series, her character had background and a story. She had the potential to be a strong threat to the Presidency.

It seemed as though the writers started off on that sort of path, then someone came back from lunch and said 'nah, we can't do that. We'll just have to shoot her'.

Then there's the evil Dr.
Just chucked in there as a pointless plot twist.

The memory stick on the dog collar...another potential storyline that went nowhere.

Tom's body was moved so often. Why wasn't it decomposing badly?

I kept waiting for the pregnancy twist - it was fake, she had planned a miscarriage for sympathy or something just as sick... but no, they really were trying to say that their 50+ yr old president was pregnant. With a child from her estranged husband. At least Netflix could have run with this as the main storyline - president becomes pregnant, America and the senate can't accept it so try to oust her. Weak, but at least relevant!

I'm getting cross just thinking about it again, I was such a fan of HoC, even through some of the weaker seasons.

One could almost weep at the level of greatness Season 1 and 2 are compared to the rest

@PawneeParksDept I love that you're as over invested in this as I am!! What else do you watch on Netflix? I'm looking for my next binge ;)

@dizzydaisies

So I've watched a lot of TV this year or so 😊

And the things that I haven't just thought were good but genuinely stood out were :

Dark - Netflix, German, the best single series of ANYTHING in years

Manhunt : Unabomber - Crime, Netflix, really well done and makes you think

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Comedy, Prime, perfect if you want some light escapism

Parks and Recreation Comedy, Prime, a shaky start gives way to 4 characters you really root for and some great comic moments.

The Crown Netflix, explanation unnecessary. Really great.

Power - Netflix, a drug dealer tries to become a legitimate businessman but they keep pulling him back in

Also rans (so very good but didn't make the cut)

Good Girls (Netflix)
Line Of Duty (Netflix)
The Looming Tower (Prime)
The Americans (Prime)
The End Of The Fucking World (Netflix)

Can I add Narcos to the list of brilliant shows?

Thank you for saving me the trouble of watching it! I felt pretty “meh” at the end is season 5 but was kind of intrigued by how they’d manage without KS. I won’t bother now.

Wasn’t it heavily implied that Claire was going through the menopause in season 1 or 2?
I also disliked how they’d introduce characters who were massively important but then who disappeared without a trace. Like the Conways, who were a really interesting portrayal with their social media lifestyle; they’re a huge threat to the Underwoods, and then Will has a PTSD “moment” on a plane and they vanish? Bah.

Your list is pretty much like mine!

Haven't tried Dark though, so will give that a go.
Good Girls was brilliant, really unusual, but I don't know anyone else that's been into it.

Some others I've like are The Sinner, Designated Survivor, Prison Break, Breaking Bad and Stranger Things.

A real random choice would be Ingobernable on Netflix. The dubbing is laughable but the plot was good and it's an easy watch.

And YES MrsFrumble, what happened to the Conway's? They wouldn't have just disappeared!

My advice for Dark @dizzydaisies is to watch it in the original language with subtitles - it will default to dubbing but you can turn it off

@PurpleNailVarnish I have tried Narcos like 3 times, and not got through one episode yet, I don't know why I can't take to it

That's interesting @PawneeParksDept, from this and previous threads our taste in tv seems similar.

I thought Narcos was excellent, I binge watched series 1 then watched it again and I'm very much looking forward to the next series.

I’m watching episode 1 of The First with Sean Penn, same stable as House Of Cards. And second episode on at 9 tonight...

I found you!

I hated this series two, it was like a parody of itself - Claire especially seemed to be a parody of herself.

I couldn’t even understand what her agenda WAS about halfway through - with Frank you always knew what he was aiming for, what his plans were and he would blindside you with something clever to bring it together. If he committed murders, for the most part he did them himself which was what made him so interesting, and it was always as a last resort. With Claire it’s like someone doesn’t do what she wants, she presses a button and has them killed.

And don’t even get me started on the pregnancy.
Not only is it completely
implausible but the one thing they could think of to do with a female president was make her pregnant?!

Yes it was always going to be hard without KS but there were so many better storylines out there. I would have preferred a return of the Conway’s to the Shepherds - I did not give an ever loving shit about any of their storylines.

Also it really made me hate Mark.

too* not two!

I've watched the first two episodes of 6 and unlike every other series where I kept binge watching because it was so good. I'm now not even sure I'm going to watch the rest of this series, it's just crap from the off.