Season three house of cards9/18/2023 ![]() Despite having no secrets between her and Frank and a willingness to participate in three-ways with their security detail, Claire has always been her own woman. ![]() Yet one of the largest misconceptions about the show has always been conflating Claire Underwood as a Lady MacBeth stand-in, quietly moving her husband’s agenda forward no matter what the cost, the real power behind the throne, etc. ![]() She pulls of some clever backroom deals here and there (and her flawless delivery of the line “Hand me a towel, would you?” practically makes the season), but it doesn’t prove to be enough, and despite her personal popularity being at an all-time high with the public, she tarnishes the Underwood brand politically, her forced resignation from her post being one of the terms that the Putin-esque President of the Russian Federation Viktor Petrov (a remarkable Lars Mikkelsen) demands before moving forward with a conditional agreement with Frank after a mysterious military operation kills Russian soldiers. ![]() Frank appoints her anyway, and before long she runs into numerous instances of her being disrespected or marginalized due to her lack of experience. Early on, she guns to be the Ambassador at the U.N., but despite some rather intense whipping of votes in what is arguably one of the best sequences in the entire season, she still comes up short. This season is all about Claire trying to find her place in the world, and Robin Wright carries off Clarie’s struggle with aplomb. Let’s not sugarcoat things though: despite the focal point, this season isn’t about Frank Underwood doing his best to consolidate his power. His gradual recovery becomes a focal point for the first half of the season, and his own life interweaves in interesting ways, his dedication to the Underwood’s being one of the show’s most relentless driving actions even as the storyline involving his former hacker buddy Gavin Orsay (Jimmi Simpson) remains the season’s weakest aspect. House of Cards‘ Third Season doesn’t waste much time setting things up, jumping six months into the Underwood administration where his own stock and popularity are at all-time lows, with even Stephen Colbert grilling Underwood and bringing out a venom we have rarely seen in him since his real-life interview with Julian Assange back in 2010.Ī majority of the first episode is actually seen from the perspective of Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Frank’s former Chief of Staff whose obsession with former sex worker Rachel (Rachel Broshnahan) lead to him being left for dead at the close of Season Two. While viewers have marveled at Francis’ gradual rise from Majority Whip to the Commander in Chief, our interest doesn’t so much lie in what Frank accomplishes so much as how he gets there, maneuvering and taking punches and somehow still coming out on top. ![]() He is the President of the United States, and slowly, his empire of power is unraveling all around him. “What are you looking at?” Frank Underwood sneers at us, the viewers, at the end of “Chapter 32”, the sixth episode in House of Cards third season. ![]()
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