Ho boy.
First off, spoilers spoilers. Season 3 has been out for nearly a month now, so I figure if you were dying to find out what happened you would know by now.
Okay, so, when we left off in season 2 (apparently, because I had to catch up via Wikipedia), Frank Underwood had just been made president and henchman Doug Stamper had been beaten to death by former prostitute/born again Christian/budding lesbian Rachel Posner. Posner, the only person left aside from Frank and Doug who have any knowledge of the murder of Peter Russo, has disappeared.
So the first revelation of Season 3: Doug Stamper isn't dead. Someone finds him in the woods, he gets sent to the hospital, and he is brought back to life. It takes 6 months for him to sort of get back on his feet, with the aid of a cane.
And when he hobbles back to Washington? He finds that he has been shut out of the Underwood whitehouse, mostly by his ambitious press secretary Seth Grayson. Former lobbyist Remy Danton, instrumental in orchestrating the downfall of the absent Raymond Tusk, is now the chief of staff. He starts drinking again a little bit (so much for 15 years sober) and hunting for Rachel Posner with the help of a former hacker employed by the FBI who helped take down Zoe Barns love interest. Perhaps he hopes to find her, kill her, and prove his loyalty to Underwood. It is the only thing Underwood seems him to want to do. I fear that when he does find her and kill her, Underwood will do away with the last loose end; Doug Stamper himself.
Okay, so that takes care of that. Frank Underwood, it turns out, is a lousy president. His approval ratinngs are low, he has some sort of ridiculous America Works program which will slash entitelments to give people jobs somehow....He has also made his wife the US secretary to the UN, on a recess appointment.
Episode 3 is a bizarre dinner with the Russian President, who sort of looks like Putin but has some other name. Frank Underwood sings a song to the delight of all present afterwards, and it is the one time he looks human.
Did I mention that at the opening of the season he is seen pissing on his father's grave? No? Hmmmm.
The problem, I realize, is that now that Frank is President he can't be diabolical anymore. He can't really have his opponents killed. He is under more scrutiny than ever before. He has to be mindful of the political climate. He has to dole out patronage and watch his back for challenges like any other president does. He is angling for re-election, and he is lying and cheating all the way, but in today's political climate that doesn't really seem too much different from a normal politician, or only a few degrees worse than the obstructionist whiners who sit in the halls of power today.
It's like watching the West Wing where the falliable but likable president Bartlett has been replaced by a twisted, evil machine who has no redeeming values. And it's hard to enjoy.
It makes me question my initial buy into the new "House of Cards" franchise. But here we are on a collision course with Russia, and a re-election campaign that Frank has already said he won't participate in even though, somehow, we know he will.
Well, onto Season 4. Will it get any better? Will it make any more sense? I have my hopes, but I also have my doubts.
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