S1 was palace intrigue of the highest order. S2 was a dark political drama with murder and mystery. S3 was like a daytime soap opera that though it was more tense than it really was.

This season was a huge misstep. It was of course crafted to usher in the collapse of the house of cards the Underwoods had built with deception and murder. The villainous duo could not continue to effortlessly steamroll their opponents as they did in previous seasons. We're not talking peachoids anymore, we're talking about hardball geopolitics.

 However, I had hoped that this inevitable collapse could be driven by external forces rather than what I consider to be fundamental changes to characters that had been developed over the past two seasons. Frank crying in the oval? Claire growing a guilty conscience after years of ruthlessly playing the politics? The two seemingly shamed by the bombing of a foreign country, simply because of a chance of some collateral damage? These situations go against the ice cold pragmatists that have been shown to us in prior episodes. Where have they gone? These are people that planned the murder of people close to them and showed no remorse. Frank nonchalantly perused the subway map to plan Zoe's murder. Claire threatened a fetus with a slow death! A fetus for goodness sake! These characters were legitimate sociopaths, the kind that would not be softened by the "stress of holding presidential office" as I've heard many argue. This sociopathy, and the unlikely ability to coexist and protect each other is what made the Underwoods the most interesting couple on television. This first and foremost was a character piece and the writers have ruined it by Claire and Frank “finding the light”.

I agree that unchallenged success eventually makes for boring TV but this is not how I wanted to see the Underwoods fall. The Underwoods deserve better. No crying, no inter-spousal drama. Just fighting back to back against the wolves that would eventually overcome them. What was supposed to be a warriors death is looking a lot like a Darwin Award.

/r/HouseOfCards Thread