[WARNING--> SPOILERS AND THE LIKE]
(I don't actually know how spoilery I should get with this thing, so mainly gonna talk about my feelz. There are so many.)
Of House of Card's existing three seasons, this was my second favorite so far. Season Two's plot I found increasingly unbelievable and overwrought, but regardless of my qualms, Season Three picked up where Two concluded, so here we are. Frank is president. How he got there is no longer relevant, because it's a new day, a new election cycle, and the POTUS has his eye on 2016.
Season Three was a good one for many reasons, but chief among them was the new President Underwood. Why? Because for the first time we got to see him truly vulnerable. Seasons One and Two were all about Frank's plan. It was must-see TV, watching him maneuver his enemies as if they were pieces on his own personal Stratego table, but that time is now past. The presidency was the endgame. Frank is now a man without a plan, and it doesn't suit him one bit.
More than anything, what impresses me about this show is how the writers time and again manipulate us into empathizing with such a deplorable human being (so deplorable, in fact, the resemblance to another TV "bad" guy is often uncanny). But how does one redeem the un-redeemable character? Simple--hit him where it hurts. Frank has zero commendable qualities, save for his unshakable resolve, and so for the show to continue working it must assault Frank with ever-surmounting and impossible tasks, especially here in Season Three, when his power (ostensibly) has never been greater. This used to be just fine by Mr. Underwood--his road map to the White House had detours for its detours--but now he's followed that winding route to the end of the yellow brick road and found there... a treadmill. He'll have to keep walking just to stay where he's at, and worse, this tread mill's set to intervals. Also, the incline's on high. *sigh*
Time and again we saw Frank almost succumb to the pressure, almost fold his hand and get bounced from the table, defeated. To see a man who'd thought himself almighty bent under these burdens was more addicting than the hand-rolled cigarillos Frank kept in his desk in the Oval Office, and it's what ultimately drove the season, even if the conclusion saw Frank survive against improbable odds once again.
But to survive and to thrive are two different things, and this season finally revealed the cracks in the foundation of House Underwood. Already the structure has begun to crumble down around him, and for Mr. President, there can be no scarier prospect. "For this House," Frank snarls when Claire asks him what it's all for. Too bad, then, that the people who helped him raise the walls and pour the concrete are now moving out, one by one. Frank's going to have to work fast to find someone to sub-lease, or Season Four will see an accelerated collapse of everything he's built.
Oh, but wait--he still has Doug. The Jack of Spades dug his way out of an enormous hole this season (and even dug himself into one as well), but I can't help feeling the show would have been just fine if its Chief of Staff had stayed put. Frank needs a friend/accomplice now more than ever, though, and who better than Gimpy McSober? He is, after all, the only person still willing to subscribe to Frank's truly unconditional expectations for loyalty. A man's got to have a code, I suppose.
House of Cards Season Three may not have been as compelling as the stellar Season One, but it did do one thing exceeding well, and that's introduce consequences to a man who'd previously regarded himself as invincible. For the first time, Frank's season-ending victory felt hollow, as does the house-turned-bachelor pad in which he now finds himself. Looking forward to Season Four, the question that must be answered is, does Frank decide to patch the cracks and brace the house to keep it standing, or does he burn it to the ground?
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