Is This What Action Movies Are Now? Baby Driver Is More Style Than Substance.

The Good: Good performances, Decent direction
The Bad: Lousy characters, Dull plot
The Basics: Baby Driver is a stylish and entertaining movie, but it fails to rise above entertainment as the characters, plot and themes never develop into anything more than a clever cinematic exercise.


Once upon a time, there was an actor who broke out in a little indie film called The Usual Suspects (reviewed here!) before getting top-billed in major motion pictures and getting recognition for his performance in American Beauty (reviewed here!). After that, he had the choice of virtually any role he wanted and after a string of gambling movies and box office flops, he ended up regaining his notoriety through his television work. The actor, of course, is Kevin Spacey and after years of playing President Francis Underwood, Spacey is returning to major film works. Spacey is participating this year in Summer Blockbuster season with Baby Driver.  Perhaps the weirdest aspect of Baby Driver is that Kevin Spacey is relegated for the first time in so very long to a supporting role and a comparatively minor one at that.

Baby Driver is a stylish film that works more as an academic exercise than it does as a story populated by realistic characters in a permutation of the real world. Most of Baby Driver plays out like an extended music video where a young Han Solo drives a getaway car and dances through the streets. Yeah, writer and director Edgar Wright clearly wanted his lead, Ansel Elgort, to be the young Han Solo as he outfits him in a vest last seen in A New Hope (or, to be fair, being worn by Lando in the last shots of The Empire Strikes Back) and then gives Baby a virtually identical sense of moral ambiguity and angst.

While three bank robbers rob the First Bank Of Atlanta, Baby sits in his bright red getaway car, listening to "Bellbottoms" on his headphones and rocking out. When the heist goes violent, Baby has to drive the thieves out of the area in a high speed chase that allows them to effectively elude the Atlanta police. Bringing coffee to the lair, Baby's boss, Doc cuts Baby in, though privately - after everyone has departed - Doc takes most of the money back against a debt Baby owes him. Promising Baby one more job until they are square, Doc gives his driver a pair of driving gloves as a gift. Baby returns to his apartment where he cooks for his foster father, produces some music and has a flashback to how his mother died.

Doc calls Baby up for a new job with a new crew. Doc explains to Bats exactly why Baby is a part of his crew and when Bats believes Baby is not paying attention, Baby is able to relay the entire plan for the new heist without any issues. The heist the next day goes very badly and Bats and Doc have one of the crew executed for his incompetence. Doc, however, proves good to his word and lets Baby go free after the job is done. Baby returns to the diner where he is smitten with the waitress, Debora, and they talk about music. While the two start to date, Baby becomes a pizza delivery driver. When Baby and Debora are out on a date, Baby encounters Doc again and he extorts Baby back into his life of crime. Doc has Baby scope out a Post Office and he has a plan to rob the money orders there. Of course, Baby's life soon spirals out of control as Doc exerts his influence and Baby and Debora's lives are put in jeopardy.

Baby Driver might completely marginalize Kevin Spacey, but it allows Ansel Elgort and Lily James to truly shine. I've never been a fan of car racing movies and when Baby Driver is not mired in featuring big car chase sequences, the film allows Elgort's Baby and James's Debora to shine and explore some decent on-screen chemistry. The relationship between Debora and Baby may be completely contrived (waitresses in big cities get hit on all the time; it's far less charming in reality than it is as a conceit in a film) and Lily James seems to be channeling Madchen Amick's Twin Peaks character for much of her performance, but when the pair shares the screen Baby Driver hits its high notes.

Sadly, most of Baby Driver is just an extended music video. Wright is preoccupied with song-selection, stylish choreography and capturing movement. Baby is a tough character to empathize with - Baby Driver fails to satisfactorily explain why Baby doesn't move his father and Deborah away after his last job for Doc before he can ever be brought back into a life of crime. The criminals in the movie are able to bond with Baby over music and Baby Driver at least makes a passing effort to flesh out the characters before devolving into gunplay and car chases.

While Ansel Elgort gets high marks for playing Baby as a generally cool, emotionless driver, Baby Driver affords John Hamm the opportunity to shine in one of his most subtle roles to date. While Jamie Foxx plays his criminal role with constant menace, John Hamm plays Buddy as quiet for most of Baby Driver in a way that he does not usually. Hamm's Buddy is surprisingly likable without playing toward most of Hamm's sparkling-eyed moments of innate charisma. Hamm is fun to watc as Buddy, at least until the over-the-top climax of the film. Spacey, sadly, mostly scowls his way through Baby Driver.

Ultimately, Baby Driver is a movie that looks and sounds good, but ultimately features characters in situations that it is hard to invest in. The result is a momentary diversion as opposed to an enduring work of cinematic greatness.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Transformers: The Last Knight
Rough Night
The Mummy
Wonder Woman
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

5.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Stalled Democracy: House Of Cards Season Five Reflects Reality.

The Good: Good performances, especially by Robin Wright
The Bad: Tone, Unfortunately meandering plot, A bevy of unlikable characters
The Basics: The fifth season of House Of Cards has a glimmer of true intrigue and showcases wonderful actors, but continues to lose footing as President Frank Underwood strongarms his way back into the Presidency.


One of the consequences of being a long-running television show is that it is hard to maintain the fanbase and interest over years and years of production. In the case of House Of Cards, it is difficult to get excited about the fifth season of the show, which aired today on Netflix because the series is a dark look at American politics. House Of Cards was once a cautionary tale of what could go absolutely wrong with a self-serving villain at the top of the U.S. government; now, it is competing with reality. In some ways, the fifth season of House Of Cards suffers for that; the writers and executive producers did not seem to have a clear idea of what to do with the show after the hole they wrote themselves into tat the end of the prior season and what has happened in American politics since.

Ironically, the fifth season of House Of Cards begins at a position that should have a lot of inherent interest for the fans. At the climax of House Of Cards season four (reviewed here!), Francis Underwood's crimes were laid bare by Tom Hammerschmidt and the U.S. was dealing with a domestic terrorism situation that President and Claire Underwood were looking to exploit. How President Underwood could possibly survive the events of the first season (reviewed here!) becoming public is inherently intriguing. House Of Cards Season 5, despite potentially having less of a "hook" to it, begins at a place that has a lot of potential to it, but the season has to maintain and progress the story through the inevitable election storyline and then create a new hook for the sixth season.

In order to give the season any real dramatic tension surrounding the election of Francis Underwood to the Presidency, House Of Cards essentially neglects the bombshell of the past revelation and plays out a whole new level of political conspiracies. The fifth season of House Of Cards delays the results of the Presidential election and creates a crisis that is initially resolved using the Constitution . . . which allows Claire Underwood to temporarily assume the powers of the President.

Two weeks before the Presidential election, Claire Underwood is taping P.S.A.s for Homeland Security when President Underwood addresses Congress directly by appearing within the House Of Representatives. There, Underwood demands war be declared on ICO and the U.S. The Conway Campaign struggles to maintain momentum, while Hannah Conway makes a statement that could be construed as sympathetic to the domestic terrorists. After the funeral for the American who was killed, Claire Underwood has a conversation with the mother of the surviving domestic terrorist. Claire appeals to the terrorist's mother to have her son turn himself in.

Of course, Underwood has already caught Josh and when his usefulness expires, he has the FBI stage a death during "capture." As the investigation into Frank Underwood picks up prior to the election, Underwood has to influence the governors of swing states, including former Vice President Matthews. Claire is in New York when one of Frank's old classmates from the Sentinel lets her know that Tim has gone missing. Claire begins to worry that Ken might run off his mouth about Frank and Tim's relationship back in the day, while Seth Greyson offers to flip Stamper to the Congressional committee.

As Election Day looms, Underwood's staff begins to suspect that Conway's military heroism was manufactured. On Election Day, a terrorist threat is manufactured in Tennessee after low voter turnout is predicted in all of the polls. When Ohio also suspends its voting, the results of the election remain undecided for weeks. In the interim, Conway and Underwood work hard to influence Senators and House members in order to ratify the President and Vice Presidential elections. Ironically, Leann is able to deliver the votes that make Claire Underwood Vice President. With the Presidential contest unresolved, Claire Underwood is made temporary President.

But the election in House Of Cards is essentially over by the fifth episode of Season Five, which leaves nine episodes for the season to develop its next main plotline. While there are a few episodes in the middle of the season that explore a period of limbo which put Claire Underwood in the office of the President while Conway comes unhinged and his Vice Presidential running mate is essentially promised the post and uses his military contacts to orchestrate an attempt to influence the election. Ultimately, the fifth season of House Of Cards brings new adversaries into the political arena to combat the new Underwood Administration.

The latter half of the fifth season of House Of Cards finds the Underwoods dealing with a hostile Democrat who wants to replace Womack as Whip, an up and coming reporter who is slowly wooing Seth Grayson, and Conway's final campaign manager and a businesswoman who has assets and agendas all around the world. Jane Davis is introduced as a new major adversary who is playing political games on the level of the Underwoods with an agenda that appears to be motivated entirely by her own desire for profit.

House Of Cards has a tough tone for Season Five. More than in any prior season, it is obvious that the two lead protagonists in House Of Cards - Frank and Claire Underwood - have no friends. In the fifth season of House Of Cards everyone who surrounds the Underwoods is restless or flat-out hostile. While the show does an excellent job of illustrating why Frank Underwood is actually a better choice than Will Conway, who starts to come seriously unhinged and volatile, the only truly joyful portion of the season is the brief episodes while Claire Underwood is President. In fact, the ideal selling point for the sixth season would be to have a time leap in the story to eight years out as Claire Underwood prepares to assume the Presidency on her own.

In fact, tone is the real killer in the fifth season of House Of Cards. Unlike something like The West Wing (reviewed here!), where the characters are always working to build something, the characters in House Of Cards in the fifth season never seem to actually be working toward any agenda other than the maintenance of their own power. Seriously, when my business slowed, I mentioned to my wife that I thought it was time for me to apply for the Rural Internet Access program. That program was one that was part of The West Wing, but it was written in such a compelling way and with such clarity that for a time, I mistook it for something in reality. There is no analogous program or even idea in House Of Cards, something which becomes highlighted when ex-President Garrett Walker makes a reappearance and actually comments on how he wanted to do great things for the United States.

As a result, House Of Cards drags some through its fifth season. The show fails to hit and truly compelling notes; Claire does not assert her authority and independence in the brief time she is President to help make the de facto argument that women can handle the role for a U.S. audience and the Underwoods seem like a broken couple yet again. House Of Cards is most interesting when Frank and Claire work as a team together; in Season Five, Frank is just back to doing his own thing without ever listening to Claire's good advice. So, the fifth season of House Of Cards is very unsatisfying.

In the fifth season of House Of Cards, the essential characters are:

Francis Underwood – President of the United States, he is beseiged on all sides as he fights for re-election. When voter turnout risks his chances of being elected, he manufactures a crisis in order to delay the results. He wins his first election for President by getting damning quotes from his opponents. But as soon as he is inaugurated, he has to wrangle a new upstart Democrat and fend off constant attacks by Tom Hammerschmidt. He stops listening to Claire Underwood and in ignoring her advice, he inadvertantly sets Garrett Walker off,

Claire Underwood – Polling better as Vice President than the President is, she manages to get confirmed before it becomes clear Congress will not elect a Presidential candidate. She assumes the Presidency during the uncertain time and she turns to Tom for companionship when Francis is distant from her. She is approached by Jane Davis during a crisis manufactured by a powerful General. She tries to both advise Frank Underwood and secure her political future,

Katherine Durant – The Secretary Of State, she has reservations about the President's declaration of war against ICO and his attempt to make more radical travel restrictions. She is made deeply uncomfortable by Underwood's actions, especially when there is a new Middle Eastern situation brewing (thanks to Jane Davis) that can actually be prevented. Against all odds, she remains loyal to the Underwoods during the most trying times,

Thomas Yates - Speechwriter for the Underwoods and Claire's paramour, he starts to get sloppy and restless. After having an affair on Claire with the White House tour guide, he struggles to find his place with Claire. He wants to write and seems tired of having to keep his relationship with Claire Underwood entirely under wraps,

Doug Stamper – Having an on-again, off-again relationship with the widow of the man who died so the President could get a liver donation, he frequently feels marginalized. He is still the most loyal member of Frank's staff. He drinks on Election night when it looks like Underwood might lose the election. He does not trust Seth Grayson and he works to keep Rachel Posner from resurfacing as an issue. He finally comes clean to the widow and gets an unexpected response,

Leann Harvey – She acts as intermediary with Aiden and has strong feelings for MacAllen. She fights and negotiates for Claire to get the Vice Presidency. She works to protect the Underwood Administration, but when MacAllen goes on the run, she is pushed out of the Administration's staff. When MacAllen sends her sensitive information, she comes back on Stamper's radar,

Aidan MacAllen - Very nervous about the NSA taking his algorithms, he is convinced by Leann to infiltrate the NSA to alter his algorithms and use the NSA to disseminate new information. He creates a massive cyberattack in order to destroy his algorithm. Terrified by how his work has been used, on election night, he jumps ship and goes into hiding. He ends up in Indonesia before being captured by the Russians. His return becomes a priority for President Claire Underwood, but his extraction is delayed until later. Upon returning to the U.S., he is unable to live with all he has done,

Conway – Experiencing tension with his wife, the Republican Governor of New York and the Presidential candidate for the Republican Party, he starts to crack. When his Vice Presidential runningmate references his war record, he has to use his military experience to carry his campaign. He does a twenty-four hour live-stream in order to try to differentiate himself from the Underwoods. When the election results are delayed, he becomes twitchy and starts to illustrate that he is not cut out for the Presidency,

Jane Davis - A businesswoman with contacts in every part of the world, including in places where the U.S. has no functional presence, she manages to get herself into a government bunker during a key crisis to get President Claire Underwood's ear. She wants Claire as President and is part of conspiracies worldwide intended to advance her causes and bring her profit,

Tom Hammerschmidt - The former editor of The Washington Herald debates with Claire Underwood on Charlie Rose. He continues to run a specialized team of reporters at the Herald, which now seems dedicated to trying to bring down the Underwood Administration. When his efforts fail to keep Frank Underwood from getting elected, he starts getting flash drives packed with damning information on Underwood's schemes,

Mark Usher - A Republican political operative, he joins Conway's campaign at the very end. When he starts to see that Conway is unfit for duty, he prepares to prop Conway's Vice Presidential candidate up to take over. When Underwood learns of that plan, Usher jumps ship and helps Frank win back the Presidency. He joins the Underwood Administration as a senior advisor, though he is playing Romero and Davis against the Underwoods as well,

and Alex Romero – An upstart Democratic congressman leading a progressive block, he has no love of Frank Underwood. He worked with Mark Usher in the past, but does not respect Usher or Romero. His ambitions lead him to make a deal with Underwood and, when he is betrayed, he leaves the Democratic party.

House Of Cards features an exceptional cast. Kevin Spacey, Michael Kelly, and Neve Campbell all give good performances. Colm Feore is criminally underused in House Of Cards Season 5. Patricia Clarkson erupts into the fifth season in a role that might be the first one I've ever seen her play where I did not like the character she was playing. Clarkson's Jane Davis is slimy as they come and Clarkson is masterful in the role.

Robin Wright and Jayne Atkinson rule the performances in House Of Cards Season Five. Wright is incredibly presidential as Claire Underwood. Atkinson manages to play both skittish and competent in ways that most actors could not manage.

Ultimately, their performances are not enough to make the dreary fifth season of House Of Cards enjoyable to watch. Yet another season of House Of Cards passes where none of the characters are likable and nothing actually happens save that the tenuous political administration it details desperately maintains power.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
"The Return Part 4" - Twin Peaks
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 3
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4
Sense8 - Season 2
Dear White People - Season 1
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 2
"The Pyramid " - Doctor Who
The Walking Dead - Season 7
Thirteen Reasons Why - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 3
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"Finish Line" - The Flash
"Nevertheless, She Persisted" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

3.5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Power Couple Broken, Power Restored: House Of Cards Season Four Is Claire's Season!

The Good: Moments of performance, Plot and mood development, Character development
The Bad: Protagonists become utterly unredeemable, Oppressive mood
The Basics: House Of Cards Season Four starts and ends dark with a middle that unites the Underwoods against the world.


House Of Cards had a rough third season (reviewed here!). Outside the introduction of Petrov and Heather Dunbar and the debate episode, it is hard to go back eagerly to the third season of House Of Cards. Nevertheless, I found myself getting up at 4 A.M. to start watching the fourth season of House Of Cards with pizza, coffee and a surprising amount of anticipation. House Of Cards Season Four is a slow-burn season; the first few episodes are slow and the mood is ponderous and oppressive, but it builds to something engaging and smart fast enough to make the initial investment worthwhile.

It is impossible to discuss the fourth season of House Of Cards without significant references to the prior seasons, especially where the third season left off. Indeed, the fourth season relies upon the prior seasons - especially the way it peppers back characters from prior seasons in significant ways - for its successes. The reappearances of Lucas Goodwin, Raymond Tusk and Russian President Petrov have significant repercussions in the fourth season of the show.

Opening with Lucas Goodwin in prison, getting information from his cellmate about the Armenian mob, the Department Of Justice puts the former reporter into witness protection and Goodwin comes back into play. While President Underwood struggles to fend off the primary challenge from Heather Dunbar, amid rumors that his marriage is falling apart, Goodwin makes his play by trying to enlist Dunbar in his investigation of Underwood. Underwood is besieged by Claire, though, when she leaves him and heads back to her family's home in Texas. Claire's mother, ill for years without her knowledge, quietly enlists her friends to support Heather Dunbar, while Claire scouts out a seat in the House in her family's district. Outmaneuvered by Frank for the House seat, Claire plays hardball with her husband and when he refuses to work with her, she threatens to divorce him after Super Tuesday.

But when Underwood is shot at a public event, the entire political landscape changes. When Donald Blythe assumes the responsibilities of the President, Claire seizes upon the opportunity to become de facto President. While Frank Underwood lays dying, Claire Underwood brokers an international deal that promises to lower gas prices at the pump by bailing out the Russian Federation. In the wake of a liver transplant, Frank resumes his post as President, now with Claire as his equal. Together, they run for President and Vice President after manipulating the nomination process and they run against the Republicans. But as terrorism and political enemies multiply, all of the Underwood's secrets are exposed!

The fourth season of House Of Cards is oppressive and intense before it becomes clear what the direction of the season will be. As the relationship between Frank and Claire disintegrates, House Of Cards becomes almost unwatchable. The thirteen episode season quickly takes focus as an assassin pops up and Claire's mother's health teeters on the edge. House Of Cards Season Four has a lot of death . . . and a lot of the darkest aspects of politics.

In its fourth season, House Of Cards returns every major character - save former Vice President Matthews and Rachel Posner - even if just for flashbacks or cameos. The resurfacing of the media as a factor in the lives of Francis and Claire Underwood returns the show's original dynamic, though now with a much darker flair.

The essential characters from the fourth season of House Of Cards are:

Francis Underwood – President of the United States, he is a Southern Democrat who is in an intense primary race against Heather Dunbar. He has taken Claire for granted and after she walks out on him, he begins to hallucinate doing violence against her. After removing her ability to run for Congress, he finds himself negotiating with her just to try to save their marriage. When an assassination attempt nearly takes him out, costing him his liver, he returns to the White House and Claire with greater strength and commitment,

Claire Underwood – The Southern debutante, she escapes to Texas where she reunites with her horrible mother. As she confronts her mother's sickness and her legacy, she decides to force the issue of prioritizing her ambitions with Francis. As a result, she steps in with the Russians and then maneuvers Durant out of the way for the Vice Presidential nomination. She is clever and takes serious power after threatening Frank with the nuclear option of divorce and outing his family secrets in Frank's race against Dunbar,

Katherine Durant – The Secretary Of State who has spent three years executing Frank Underwood's will, she slowly loses her influence at the White House. As Claire negotiates with the Russians, Durant gets skittish by her reliance upon Raymond Tusk, the Chinese, and continuing to work with Frank,

Donald Blythe – Entirely a nonentity, until Frank is shot, he is lost as acting President. He quickly leaps to the conclusion Frank wants, which is to not try to be on the 2016 ticket,

Jackie Sharp – Still having an affair with Remy Denton, she is extorted into helping to pay for the Russian bail-out. Remy works to protect her, but she opts to come clean instead of continuing to work for Frank,

Doug Stamper – Chief Of Staff to Underwood, he continues to ruthlessly enforce Underwood's will. He struggles to remain sober and maintain control over Seth and the secrets he has held for the President. When he uses his influence to get Frank bumped to the top of the liver donor list, the resulting casualty leads him into an intriguing new personal relationship,

Leann Harvey – A campaign consultant, she is hired by Claire to win the Congressional seat in her home district in Texas. When Frank torpedoes that effort, she stays with Claire as her de facto Chief Of Staff before Stamper hires her to run the Underwood campaign. Mistrusted by Stamper, Leann quickly proves herself invaluable to the Underwood team,

Conway – The sudden, presumptive Republican nominee, he has massive popular support and a mechanic to build a credible run for the Presidency right out of the gate! The governor of New York and a former Air Force officer, he is instantly formidable. He has a hot young wife and two children, which sets him apart from the Underwoods. But the Underwoods quickly figure out that Will Conway is a narcissist and they learn to use it against him,

Heather Dunbar – Despite losing the Iowa Caucus, she makes a powerful fight for New Hampshire and then capitalizes on Leann's interference to make serious gains in South Carolina. She slips when Lucas Goodwin contacts her and the resulting fallout forces her to choose between politics and integrity,

Tom Hammerschmidt - The former editor of The Washington Herald, he comes back into play after the assassination attempt on Underwood. After going through his notes, he investigates the story Lucas Goodwin brought him years ago. After discovering Meechum's travel logs were forged, he begins to woo people Underwood betrayed in order to expose the corrupt President,

and Remy Danton – Former Chief Of Staff, he resurfaces as a liability to Jackie Sharp maintaining her post as Minority Whip. He is finally put in a position where he reaches the end of his rope and is willing to betray Underwood.

House Of Cards might have dark, utterly depressing character arcs that lead to a rapid and powerful ascendancy for Claire Underwood and utterly ruins any lingering empathy viewers might have for Frank. The prevalence of past characters popping up at random makes it so viewers must have seen the prior seasons of House Of Cards in order to get the most out of the current season.

The fourth season gives Ellen Burstyn the plum role of Claire Underwood's mother. Burstyn has amazing range and develops the new character from a stubborn, somewhat off-putting, repressive matriarch to a wounded, deeply ill woman whose last chance for redemption pops up fast. Burstyn will undoubtedly get Best Supporting Actress for the role and the truth is, given the power of her performance, she deserves it.

House Of Cards once more gives Kevin Spacey a chance to showcase his range. Never before have viewers seen Francis Underwood so wounded and Spacey plays the physical aspects of Underwood being shot and slowly recovering brilliantly. Spacey has nothing on Robin Wright, though. Season Four of House Of Cards is very much Claire Underwood's season. Robin Wright plays Claire as ruthless, pragmatic, focused and she makes Claire a credible tactical threat to Frank. When Claire and Francis reunite, Wright is able to portray more emotion and depth than with many of the prior seasons.

Ultimately, the fourth season of House Of Cards redeems the slacking flagship Netflix series. As the Underwoods fight to maintain their power, the show refocuses in an interesting way. With Underwood's father exposed as (potentially) being in the Klan and an election year Supreme Court nomination, one has to wonder if Netflix employs prophets. The full-season's arc takes a couple of episodes to get going and there is a lull near the end before it explodes in a new potentially villainous direction for the next season! That makes House Of Cards Season Four worthwhile television.

For other Netflix exclusive seasons, please check out my reviews of:
Arrested Development - Season Four
The Clone Wars - Season Six
House Of Cards - Season 1
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Orange Is The New Black - Season 3
Sense8 - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 1

6/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Inherently Precarious Season Of House Of Cards Does Not Crash The Series Down!

The Good: Good acting, Engaging plot development
The Bad: Little character development
The Basics: House Of Cards Season Three progresses the story of Frank Underwood as President Of The United States as he squares off against Republicans, Democrats and Russia!


One of the real challenges of stories that are centered around characters who desire power is how the story changes when those characters get the power they have always craved. The quest for power versus the struggle to maintain power can be a very difficult transition for a television audience to accept. House Of Cards got to the point where the second season (reviewed here!) ended and the third season was saddled with the burden of reinventing the political drama.

House Of Cards Season 3 opens with Francis Underwood as President Of The United States, having connived his way from the Vice Presidency to the Presidency from being Majority Whip in Congress and, originally, desiring nothing more than to be Secretary Of State under the newly-elected President Walker. The third season opens with a good sense of mood, but a very low “wow” factor and it builds to being what one hopes and expects from House Of Cards: a taut political thriller filled with interesting characters, intense reversals and political machinations that take a second viewing to truly appreciate!

Six months into the Underwood Administration, Frank Underwood’s presidency has stagnated: unemployment is on the rise, trouble is brewing in the Middle East and Republicans are already lining up a strong challenger for the 2016 election cycle. Doug Stamper slowly recovers and tries to get back to work, while Claire pushes to have Frank nominate her for U.N. Ambassador. After Claire is defeated in a Senate vote for the Ambassadorship, Frank gives her a recess appointment. Her mettle is soon tested as Russia becomes a stumbling block to Mid East peace. After a somewhat troubling visit from the Russian President, Claire and Secretary Of State Durant find themselves trying to work around Russia on the international theater.

Domestically, Frank struggles to sell his jobs program: America Works. As a tactical move, when Womack betrays him to the rest of the Democratic Leadership, Frank announces he will not seek re-election and wants to govern instead. His gamble takes a turn for the worse when he learns that Heather Dunbar is being groomed to run in 2016. When his attempt to redirect her to the Supreme Court fails, Frank is put on the ropes. When Claire speaks out in Russia against the laws that led an imprisoned U.S. citizen to suicide there, Frank once again feels attacked at home.

To get America Works actualized, Underwood uses FEMA and the District Of Columbia to have joblessness declared a disaster. The plan works with surprising success . . . until a hurricane bears down on the Eastern seaboard and FEMA needs the money. Frank has to make the difficult choice to be prepared for the hurricane and defund his most successful program or risk real lives if a disaster strikes. The situation with Russia reaches a breaking point when violence in the Mideast erupts in the Jordan Valley and Petrov leverages Frank’s love for Claire against potential peace with Russia!

Part of the excitement of House Of Cards Season Three that was most exciting going into the season was that I had no idea where it would end. I always said it would be neat to see Frank Underwood try to campaign and the third season of House Of Cards has a handful of scenes that illustrates just how charismatic he could be on the campaign trail. But, from almost the end of the first episode of the first season (reviewed here!), I knew where the season would end. Similarly, the second season had an obvious trajectory. The third season was the closest to a blank slate it could be and it manages to go in interesting ways because the characters move them, even if they do not grow and develop significantly for the most part.

In the third season, the essential characters in House Of Cards are:

Francis Underwood – Now President Of The United States, he finds himself struggling to maintain relevance opposite a hostile Congress and low approval ratings. His solution is a jobs program, America Works, which looks to cut entitlements and reinvest in jobs. His main adversaries become Heather Dunbar and Russian President Petrov who attempt to outflank him domestically and thwart his ambitions internationally. To fight the public relations battle, he hires a novelist to write about his life. He renews his vows with Claire and has to get involved with running for re-election much earlier than he thought after the hurricane,

Claire Underwood – An activist First Lady, she wants Frank to nominate her to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, so she can start running for office regardless of what happens with Frank’s political career. Given a recess appointment, she works to become Katherine Durant’s friend and ally to further her own political goals. She finds herself negotiating for the release of an American political prisoner against Petrov. She and Francis sleep in separate beds now. After spending time in the jail cell with gay rights activist Michael Corrigan working in Moscow, she is shocked when he kills himself with her scarf. She takes a stand against Petrov and that destroys the peace treaty Frank negotiated with the Russian President. After she and Frank renew their vows, she realizes that someone who knows her is aiding Dunbar. Her effectiveness as ambassador is challenged when Russian troops are killed in the Jordan Valley and the Russian ambassador tells her it was an inside job,

Katherine Durant – Secretary Of State, she has worked hard to arrange a Middle East summit. She has doubts about Claire as UN Ambassador and disagrees with Francis launching a military strike on a Palestinian terrorist so close to the summit. She helps to guide Claire to some early understandings of international diplomacy . . . through beer pong! After that, she pretty much disappears from the narrative,

Donald Blythe – Underwood’s Vice President, he accepted the post for an Alzheimer’s research center in memory of his late wife. He has no real power as Vice President,

Jackie Sharp – She is now estranged from Remy Denton, she wants to be on the ticket as Underwood’s Vice President come re-election. She is kept out of the loop by Womack. To bolster her chances of making her campaign seem viable, she agrees to marry a cardiologist, despite still having some actual affection for Remy. Running a campaign against Dunbar, she and Remy orchestrate the opportunity for her to join the Underwood ticket down the road. She, however, feels undervalued when her sacrifices are not met with any appreciation,

Doug Stamper – After being found in the woods, near death, he goes through months of intensive physical therapy. Determined to get back into the Underwood’s inner circle, he sets his own broken arm when he slips in the tub in order to make it to the White House for his first meeting with Francis there. When Frank keeps him out of the inner circle and Gavin is unable to find Rachel Posner, he decides to ally himself with Heather Dunbar. Stamper begins to feed Dunbar leads on jobs to offer and threats to make that help her get early support from donors. But, when Gavin finally gets him information on Rachel, his entire world falls apart,

Josh – Press Secretary, he pulls the credentials of his ally in the press when she oversteps in a press conference. He checks in on Stamper periodically, per the wishes of Francis. When Remy has a crisis of faith, he attempts to become Chief Of Staff,

Hector Mendoza – The Republican Senate leader is preparing for a 2016 Presidential run. But, when he fails to claim some speech money, he is unceremoniously dropped from the Leadership and replaced with a right winger,

Gavin Orsay – The hacker now works for the FBI, where Stamper is able to monitor the search for Rachel Posner. He wants out of the FBI and to do that, he cozies up to Rachel’s ex, Lisa. After playing on Lisa’s compassion, he gets a lead to search for Rachel. Unable to deal with the weight of all his deceptions, he comes clean to Lisa before fleeing the United States,

Heather Dunbar – Made Solicitor General under Frank, she has the financial backing from her family to be an instant contender. When Frank offers her a position on the Supreme Court, she decides to run for President. She is wary of Stamper approaching her for a job. Quietly hiring Stamper, she builds a solid bedrock of support in the Iowa Caucus for her presidential bid. But as the Iowa Caucus looms and her lead diminishes, she finds herself crossing all the lines she promised she wouldn’t,

and Remy Danton – Frank’s Chief Of Staff, he clearly misses Jackie. He tries to stand by Frank and support him, though it often puts him at odds with Jackie.

In the third season of House Of Cards, some of the characters are minimized or gone altogether: Edward Meechum is a virtual nonentity and Josh and Remy have no major character arcs in the season. Freddy is given a brief cameo which is delightful for fans of the series, but the new reporter character, Kate Baldwin, and the author Thomas Yates are given more substantive roles in the third season. So, regardless of any other issues, House Of Cards continues to evolve and develop in its third season.

Before watching the third season of House Of Cards, the two aspects of the show I was most excited about were seeing how the Underwoods might maintain their control and to learn the fate of Doug Stamper. The season premiere for the third season of House Of Cards spends an agonizing amount of time with Stamper and exploring his recovery. The other big change in the third season of House Of Cards is in the dynamic between Frank and Claire. This season finds them farther apart than ever. That makes the series feel more like others on television (as my wife noted, there are a ton of shows one could watch where a couple does not get along, but House Of Cards, especially in its second season, had the pair working as a real power couple).

The third season of House Of Cards is much harder to get into; the show is gridlocked at the outset and it struggles to find its footing. But when it does, it moves forward in an interesting and compelling way that at the very least encourages viewers to be excited about the possibility of Season Four!

For other television shows and movies that focus on politics, please visit my reviews of:
Game Change
Game Of Thrones - Season 1
Rome

6/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Remember That Movie You Liked? This Is Similar, But Worse: Horrible Bosses 2

The Good: It’s not boring, Competent acting, Moments of social message
The Bad: Not funny, Low on character development, Nothing extraordinary on the acting front, Ridiculous plot reversals
The Basics: One of the least-inspired sequels in years, Horrible Bosses 2 is watchable, but not worth it.


When it was announced that Horrible Bosses (reviewed here!) had a sequel in the works, I was admittedly skeptical. The film did a decent job of bringing closure to the characters for the situation they were in and did not feel, to me, like a movie that needed any sort of follow-up. But when the first preview trailer of Horrible Bosses 2 came out, I allowed myself to get my hopes up. Unfortunately, Horrible Bosses 2 is one of the prime examples of how bad a sequel can be, stuffing a pathetic series of scenes in as “plot” after an extended opening which is essentially a “best of” the source material.

Horrible Bosses 2 continues the story of Nick, Kurt and Dale from Horrible Bosses and Horrible Bosses 2 actually does a decent job of standing on its own. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as funny as the original and given how much of the first forty minutes has the main characters revisiting supporting characters from the original before the plot truly gets going. The result is a movie that belabors referencing Horrible Bosses before it transforms into a crime caper that is not at all funny or worthwhile.

Having quit their jobs working for their oppressive bosses, Nick, Kurt, and Dale come up with a new product, the Shower Buddy, which applies shampoo, conditioner, etc. from a shower head. But when they are on Good Morning Los Angeles making a product debut, their website name virtually destroys their ability to get investors. They are shocked, then, when an investor calls for a meeting. The next day, the trio meets with Rex Hanson, who wants to buy the Shower Buddy, but manufacture them in China. Unwilling to do that, the three men “bet on themselves” until Rex’s father, Bert, comes in and places an order for tens of thousands of Shower Buddies. After meeting their commitment by building a business from the ground up, Nick, Kurt, and Dale visit Bert with the good news and he tells them that he is cancelling the order. With their entire futures at risk, the three men decide that to get the money to save their business they will kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom from Bert.

After securing the Nitrous Oxide needed to knock out Rex, Nick, Kurt, and Dale, screw up and Rex becomes aware of their plan to extort Bert. Rex decides to play along with the scheme, but he ups the ransom amount from half a million dollars to five million. Despite Rex’s assurances, Bert refuses to pay the ransom and he goes right to the police. With Detective Hatcher investigating Nick, Kurt, and Dale, the trio begins to doubt they can pull off the fake kidnapping. When Rex escalates the situation by killing Bert, it looks like the three men will go down for his crime!

Horrible Bosses 2 is notable in that it is tragically un-funny. For a film that follows up a movie that has humor that replays well, Horrible Bosses 2 treads toward the banal and serious than wacky and humorous. Christoph Waltz, whose prior serious work The Zero Theorem (reviewed here!), illustrated what incredible range he had, is straightlaced and dull as Bert. But Waltz credibly delivers much of the film’s social commentary. Bert wants the Shower Buddy for pennies on the dollar and he is eager to destroy Nick, Kurt and Dale’s business and lives; he is a perfect allegory of big business in the United States. While Rex is more overt with the explicit problems of American labor, Bert illustrates how wealth creates wealth and American ingenuity is not dead, it is merely being undervalued by big business.

But Horrible Bosses 2 isn’t setting out to be a hard-hitting satire of American business, it’s a ridiculous crime caper. Much of the humor and potential joy for viewers comes from physical gags at the outset of the film and references to the first movie. Kevin Spacey’s Harken and Jamie Foxx’s Motherfucker Jones pop up in scenes where the protagonists are kicked down more than deliver any laughs. By the time Jennifer Aniston’s dentist character makes her appearance, even her fun parody of over-the-top sexuality plays poorly. The result is a sequel where the humor falls flat.

Chris Pine’s Rex is characterized as smug and brutal, which plays off of Jason Bateman’s Kurt’s realistic intelligence as particularly cruel. Bateman and Pine actually have the chops to make a pair of dramatic foils for a serious crime movie or a business scheme film. Unfortunately, Kurt’s seriousness and Rex’s ambition prevent the humor from having enough space to breathe. Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis deliver lines and physical gags that objectively could work, but their timing and the situation they are in do not work.

The result is a comedy sequel that falls flat and is not worth watching, despite moments of performance that hint at the talents of the performers involved.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
To Write Love On Her Arms
The Seventh Son
Song One
Match
Vice
Paddington
Inherent Vice
Selma
Still Alice
Predestination
The Interview
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
Expelled
Annie
Comet
10,000 Days
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
Birdman

2/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Shut Up, Listen, And Learn: Swimming With Sharks Makes A Complicated Anti-Businessman Argument!

The Good: Most of the acting, Interesting characters
The Bad: Long build-up before all the characters become worth watching, Utterly unpleasant to watch
The Basics: Kevin Spacey foreshadows pretty much his entire career with exceptional range as the villain in Swimming With Sharks!


Since I managed to get my wife into House Of Cards (season 2 is reviewed here!), she has gotten into the works of Kevin Spacey. So, it seems like I’m going to be watching and reviewing all of the Kevin Spacey movies I’ve missed over the years. I loved Spacey in The Usual Suspects (reviewed here!) and American Beauty (reviewed here!), but there have been so many films with Spacey that I have missed a couple over the years. Today’s “Kevin Spacey Catch-up” film is Swimming With Sharks.

Swimming With Sharks is a dark film that was one of Spacey’s underperforming independent films. Given how it is essentially Hard Candy (reviewed here!) where the viewer actually knows what is going on from almost the first frames, it is unsurprising that Swimming With Sharks was a box office flop. So many people in the world live under the yolk of forces bigger than themselves (in terms of business/capitalist influences), so the expectation that the masses would want to watch such things in their down time is somewhat ridiculous. Moreover, given the ethically murky end to the film, it is similarly unsurprising that those at the top of the economic pyramid would actually learn a lesson by watching Swimming With Sharks.

Opening with the young, ambitious Guy at his breaking point, drawing a gun on his boss, Buddy Ackerman, in Ackerman’s house, Swimming With Sharks bounces between the past and present to tell its story. In the present, Guy has snapped and he loudly demands that Buddy give him respect, apologize for how horribly he has treated Guy for the past year, and submit to his torture. Buddy delays as best he can, taking the cuts and beatings from Guy, while still asking his personal assistant what it is that he truly wants. Woven amid the torture scenes are extended flashbacks to show the build-up to how Guy reached his breaking point and how Buddy pushed him there.

On his first day, Guy accidentally parks in film producer/executive Dawn Lockard’s spot and is yelled at by Lockard. Guy then goes into his job where he meets Rex, Buddy’s former assistant, who does his best to train him in how to manage the film executive. But, when Guy brings Buddy Equal instead of Sweet & Low (which is what Buddy asked him for), Buddy yells (loudly) at Guy in front of the entire office. By the end of the first week, Lockard has approached Guy to befriend him (ostensibly to protect him from Buddy, but also quite obviously so that Guy will give her access to Buddy so her script gets put into production with a hot up-and-coming director) and Buddy continues to find reasons to yell at Guy and demean him for doing his job. Amid the inconsistent reinforcement, Guy manages to get Buddy to bite on Lockard’s project (though Buddy takes credit for it) and the young assistant actually starts dating Lockard. But over the course of the year, Buddy’s impatience and anger rubs off on Guy and pushes him to the breaking point, undoing all of the work he has put in to make it in Hollywood.

Swimming With Sharks might have been a better film if it had begun with the answer to the key question that Buddy asks Guy over and over and over in the film: “What do you want?” If Guy’s actual goals were at all clear, the viewer might care about where he ends up or have some idea that Buddy is actually a means to achieving his goals. Instead, the viewer empathizes with Guy simply because no one ought to be put into the position where another person treats them so poorly.

That, of course, does not justify Guy torturing Buddy and as a result, the viewer has to go on faith that the incident that pushes Guy over the edge is sufficiently bad to justify his horrible actions. Unfortunately, because Guy’s goals are not known until the final frames of the film, Buddy’s excuse of “you’ve been free to leave all along” resonates more potently than Guy’s indignation. Guy puts up with Buddy’s poor treatment of him, but he makes the conscious choice to stay in Buddy’s employ (Guy is a man who has virtually unlimited career options at the outset of the film, so destitution is not at all a concern of the protagonist).

As one would expect from a film with Kevin Spacey, Buddy Ackerman is not presented as monolithically evil character. Instead, Ackerman has layers and they come out in the course of Swimming With Sharks. Ackerman’s personal tragedy does not justify his treatment of Guy, but it does make him more multi-faceted and it allows him to get in a few essential points that could otherwise be buried by a less skillful filmmaker/writer. Instead, writer/director George Huang uses Ackerman’s backstory to justify some of his anger and, more importantly, land some points on how Guy’s generation operates on a principle of instant gratification. That makes it possible to empathize with Ackerman some.

The character that is ultimately least interesting is Dawn Lockard. Lockard is presented as a character who appears to want to do good and help Guy, but is doing so in such a transparent way that viewers are unlikely to be at all surprised that her true allegiance is only to herself. While Michelle Forbes does a decent job of playing Lockard, the character arc is predictable enough to seem like one of her less impressive roles.

Kevin Spacey does a decent job as Buddy Ackerman, never letting his character break, though he is given a single monologue with which to soften Ackerman’s crusty exterior. It works and Spacey makes Ackerman a mostly horrible character, with some distinctly human characteristics that make it harder to write off his personal history. The film is dominated, though, by Frank Whaley. Whaley plays Guy and it is a very bland, white bread performance that is as indistinct as the character he is playing. Whaley does not bring any real force of character or sense that Guy is anything other than a mid-level office worker to the role. In other words, Whaley does not hint that Guy could be anything more than Buddy’s assistant and that works to the detriment of Swimming With Sharks.

Ultimately, Swimming With Sharks is a fairly average film with a good-enough theme to be worth watching, even if its theme is a bit overstated and its tone is oppressive.

For other works with Michelle Forbes, please visit my reviews of:
Highland Park
True Blood - Season 2
Lost - Season 4
Homicide: The Movie
Homicide: Life On The Street - Season Six
Homicide: Life On The Street - Season Five
"Preemptive Strike" - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 5

6/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Warfare That Is Politics: House Of Cards Season Two!

The Good: Good performances, Very important social issues, Good character development, Generally good plot progression.
The Bad: One or two threads carried out a bit long/Demands viewing the first season to be truly understood and appreciated.
The Basics: The second season of House Of Cards finds Frank Underwood’s political machinations moving him closer to usurping the presidency.


There is very little in the way of television that I watch religiously these days. Given how unimpressed I was with the first season of House Of Cards (reviewed here!), it truly says something to the strength of Kevin Spacey’s performance abilities that I returned to House Of Cards for a marathon on the day its second season episodes made their debut. In fact, when the first season of House Of Cards was nominated for so many Emmys, I actually went back and rewatched the first season of the show and I almost felt I had been too harsh on the debut season. Either way, I found myself excited enough when Netflix released the second season of House Of Cards. The 13 episode season picks up immediately where the first season left off. As such, it is impossible to discuss the dark (realistic) political soap drama without some references to events from late in the show’s first season.

And the second season of House Of Cards is gripping, but insular. The challenge House Of Cards had going into the second season was finding a compelling balance between the political and journalist plotlines. Given the fallout between the main characters, Congressman Frank Underwood and reporter Zoe Barnes, how the show would continue without them having a working relationship had the chance to shift the dynamic of the show considerably. It is unsurprising, then, that the first episode works hard to re-establish Frank Underwood’s dominance in the House Of Cards world and tie up loose ends. Just when it seems that the show is going to simply reform the dynamic of the first season, it takes a powerful right turn that forces the show to redefine itself and it does that exceptionally well.

House Of Cards is an intense political drama with a few soap operatic elements to it and the second season continues the tone of the first season, while generally forming new arcs. While the first episode of the second season works hard to include all of the requisite information to make the second season stand on its own, the significance of many of the alluded-to events – especially the way the team of journalists is searching for clues to the death of Congressman Russo – is only truly evident by the extreme length Frank Underwood goes to cover them up. In other words, to truly get the most out of the second season of House Of Cards, one must watch the first season.

Opening with Frank Underwood and his wife running on a night when many loose ends in Underwood’s life are coming unraveled, Frank and Doug Stamper work to get Rachel Posner relocated. With Frank clearing up loose ends on his birthday, he reaches out to reporter Zoe Barnes to make a fresh start. While Claire eliminates the lawsuit her former employee is threatening her with (by informing the wife of the doctor Cole had an affair with overseas and then cutting off her health insurance), she explores the practical possibilities of having a child with Frank. Lucas, Janine, and Zoe continue to put the pieces together surrounding Russo’s death, though when Rachel disappears they find themselves without any proof of foul play. Frank sets Jackie Sharp up to be his replacement as Majority Whip in Congress before eliminating the nagging loose end that could be a legitimate threat to his ascension.

Having ascended to the post of Vice President Of The United States Of America, former Congressman Francis Underwood manipulates the Whip’s race to get Jackie in place. He works to diminish the power of Raymond Tusk, a billionaire who has the President’s ear. As Claire leaves the Clean Water Initiative behind, she begins taking more of an active role in being a part of Frank’s life and his scheduling. With Frank and the Secretary Of State working to pick political fights with China in order to undermine Tusk, Frank and Claire find themselves working together to fight their mutual enemies. Frank uses his newfound influence to push for entitlement reform.

As Frank is forced to reach out to the Congressman he sank on the Education Bill, the Capitol is locked down due to an anthrax mail scare. That puts Claire on a media offensive working for him outside the lockdown. When Claire outs the General who raped her twenty-five years prior, she pushes her military reform agenda with the aid of the First Lady. With Frank launching an offensive on a trade negotiation with China, the wedge between Tusk and the President begins to grow. When Frank, Doug, and the Vice President’s new aide, Josh, manage to uncover links between Raymond Tusk, American Indian casinos, and vast political donations, Frank sets his sights on cleaving Tusk from Walker and leaving the President entirely dependent upon him.

It’s hard to say what robs the second season of House Of Cards of perfection (though that is a status a series has to earn in my rating system, rather than one that is given and then whittled away from), but certainly an aspect of it is how certain plotlines or character arcs are drawn out longer than they need to (though the big right turn in the first episode completely caught me by surprise and I am thrilled not to spoil it in this review!). Rachel Posner is featured in almost every episode and while her character finds god and has to basically live underground for the season (unwittingly a target of a mole working for both the government and his own interests), the way her little asides tie back to the main plot is a long arc, but one that is ultimately unsatisfying within the second season.

That said, elements of the second season of House Of Cards are not as predictable as all that. While the Posner thread is maintained just so it can keep fresh in the viewer’s mind events from the first season, the appearances of Christina Gallagher seem pointless and Claire’s machinations against her seem like an unnecessary divergence. But the idea that Freddy could benefit from his rib joint being associated with the Vice President is a good one and the series does not do the predictable thing with his character (the genre fan in me was betting that the lone episode that began with Freddy would inevitably end with his death by gun violence in the ghetto and that did not occur). Similarly, while the season takes a long approach to Edward Meechum working the Underwood’s security and starts early on insinuating his attraction to Claire, when that is finally realized within the narrative, it is in an unpredictable and surprisingly satisfying way.

The other truly troubling aspect of the second season of House Of Cards is how few of the seasoned politicians in the House Of Cards world are playing on the level of Frank Underwood. Raymond Tusk is undermined as a character because he does not exhibit the gamesmanship of a successful businessman. In other words, the tools Frank uses against Tusk are largely the same that an executive like Tusk would be forced to use in the business world, so that he is behind the curve as Underwood separates him from Walker is disappointing. Moreover, President Walker himself is seldom believably presidential.

With that in mind, House Of Cards has moments of truly exceptional television making. The dynamic of the show shifts as the two principle characters become more intertwined in the first season: Frank and Claire are much more directly a team than in Season One. They are working together toward common purpose and that Frank does not throw Claire’s interests out the window when her Anti-assault Bill is jeopardized is good character growth for the politician.

In the second season, the essential characters in House Of Cards are:

Francis Underwood – Forced to quit smoking by Claire, he gets an e-cig and he has a tough time adapting to his townhouse being made over into a fortress by the Secret Service. He takes his post as President Of The Senate in order to push through his first major legislative move by threatening to arrest absent Senators. While trying to wrangle his political enemies, he has to witness Claire outing some of her most personal issues. After attending a Civil War reenactment wherein he learns his great grandfather fought and died for the Confederacy, he trades in his video games for making tiny figurines that recreate the battle. He keeps Doug on the offensive and lets Doug and Josh fight for his attention more. He champions Claire’s issues and continues to drive a wedge between Walker and Tusk. He stands by Freddy, Claire, and Doug when they are each threatened by media issues that threaten them. He and Claire work much more like a team,

Claire Underwood – She admits to Frank that the man who raped her in college is a General now, who Frank has to promote. She begins using the media to advance the goals she and Frank share. She has to deal with the question of why she and Frank did not have children and is accused of having a relationship that is more political than romantic. She deflects the attack by revealing the details of the rape and working to crusade for women’s rights and military reform afterward. She has to wrangle with Jackie and the Generals in order to advance a Bill that brings civilian prosecution to military personnel accused of sexual assault. She has to end her past relationships once and for all,

Zoe Barnes – When all of the evidence she has against Frank is objectively viewed, she realizes how circumstantial it is. Separating herself from Janine and Lucas, she approaches Frank on her own. When she does, she decides to grant his wish of deleting all of her records of him and that sets them up for a clean slate. Resolute to a fault, though, she pushes Frank for answers about what happened to Russo at an inopportune time,

Jackie Sharp – Frank’s hand-picked successor, she destroys her best ally in Congress in order to become Majority Whip. She finds balancing her personal issues with selling out her longtime allies with the power she gains to be more of an issue than she anticipated. She works to quickly differentiate herself from Frank. In the process, she finds herself in a romantic relationship with Remy Danton and that puts her as a wildcard in the war between Frank and Tusk,

Doug Stamper – Francis’s right hand man, he executes Francis’s will, dealing with Lucas and Rachel. His emissary works to get Lucas to commit cybercrimes to take him out of the picture. After relocating Rachel, he finds himself obsessed with her and unclear on what his relationship with her actually is. He has her read to him to calm him and works as the footsoldier against Tusk’s business interests,

Josh – In the wake of Claire’s public revelation of her abortion, he is hired by Remy to get dirt on the Underwoods. He uses that position to acquire the only evidence of one of Claire’s abortions, which he turns over to her. After muscling her new press secretary out, she joins Frank’s staff and turns on Remy and Tusk. He often clashes with Doug,

Linda Vasquez – The President’s Chief Of Staff, she owes her job to Francis. She finds herself in growing conflict with Frank over meetings between the Vice President and Chinese emissaries, so she becomes one of Frank’s targets and collateral damage as Frank solidifies his power,

Christina Gallagher – Now working as a deputy under Vasquez, she helps feed Doug and Frank information. Claire realizes she and President Walker might have a connection that can be manipulated. Undermined by Claire, she (like Linda) is mostly a nonentity until she is eliminated,

Lucas Goodwin – Undermined at every turn by his friends, who think he is just traumatized, he finds himself unable to gain traction against Frank. In his loss, he turns to the deep web for answers, trying to find records that connect Zoe to Underwood. He becomes the target of Stamper’s allies in the intelligence community who work to discredit him. Used by a government mole, he infiltrates the FBI and launches a cyberattack on them. He turns to an unlikely person to try to get him off the hook,

Raymond Tusk – A billionaire who is the President’s former mentor, he represents Frank’s greatest adversary. When Frank menaces his business interest’s relationship with China, he responds in kind, usually using Remy. Walker hangs up on him for the first time in their decades of friendship and he quickly realizes he is on the losing side of the conflict with Frank,

and Remy Danton – The protégé of Francis, he is now working as the liaison between Sancorp/Tusk and Congress. He comes to the aid of Frank and Jackie during the Entitlement Bill. He and Jackie find themselves hooking up. When that happens, he finds his loyalties divided and when Tusk has him start burning down the Democratic leadership, he turns to the least likely person to help him find a way out.

On the acting front, House Of Cards is suitably impressive. The talk for season two is going to be Robin Wright. In the least pandering way possible, she completely buys nominations and awards for her performance in the second season of House Of Cards with her fearless portrayal of Claire Underwood as a sexual assault survivor. The second season of House Of Cards makes an open, adult dialogue about the lifelong issues associated with sexual assault and Robin Wright is at the forefront of the character arc and the performance and she is incredible taking it on. Wright will get nominated and win awards for her role of Claire Underwood and every one of them will be justified; she embodies a survivor perfectly and steals every scene dealing with that arc.

While Kevin Spacey is great as Francis Underwood, Michael Gill seldom plays Walker as truly presidential. The real winners in the supporting cast are Michael Kelly and Molly Parker. Kelly plays Stamper and in the second season, he is more than just a lackey, an executor of Frank’s will. Instead, as Stamper is given demons to wrestle with in regard to his feelings for Rachel Posner, Stamper plays the internal conflict expertly, especially with his body language. In scenes without any lines, Kelly portrays the confusion of whether Rachel is his protectee, daughter, lover or drug and that is masterful acting. Parker joins the fairly tight main cast as Sharp and she is a credible former military Congresswoman. She is able to play cutthroat and cold deliciously, while still making it believable that her character would frequent a tattoo parlor for the pain.

It was only in the final episode of the first season that House Of Cards that Claire Underwood asks the key question of the characters: what is the point of all the power grabs from Frank Underwood if they are not having children? What is the point of ruling the world if you have no stake in the future? Obviously, Frank Underwood’s machinations are designed to make him the President of the United States and in the second season, the long arc is all about undermining President Walker. The plot is executed well, but the fundamental character issue with Frank Underwood remains: why does Frank Underwood want to be President Of The United States? Not everyone wants to rule the world and the nagging issue of what Underwood actually wants and what he believes in remains unresolved. Whether or not the series, not just the second season, becomes more than just a political soap opera will be determined by how that question is ultimately answered. Until then, though, the second season builds delightfully on the first and leaves us pining for more.

For other television shows that focus on politics and the media, please visit my reviews of:
The Newsroom - Season 2
Boston Legal
The West Wing

8.5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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