Available today, will binge on it as soon as I can. This is the thread to discuss the third season.
I’ve seen the whole season and will just make some general comments. Season 3 focuses more on political drama and the Underwood marriage as opposed to the “thriller” aspects. Not as many jaw-dropping moments as we saw in previous seasons. The second half of the season was a bit of a slog.
Claire has the most promiment character arc, which ends with a nail-biting, if highly implausible, cliffhanger. Much of the plot is devoted to a certain former aide of Frank’s. I find the character fascinating, but I suspect a lot of people will see it as wasted time.
I thought strongest episodes were the ones featuring Petrov. The actor who plays him is spot-on Putin.
Most hilarious moment of the season? The Jesus statue.
In Season 2, why was Douglas Stamper so interested in Rachel? Was it love? Need for control for his own psychological reasons? Wanting to isolate her so she wouldn’t reveal sensitive info? Something else? Maybe I missed something but he seemed to being very possessive and controlling of her yet he doesn’t seem the type who falls in love easily.
Doug has a highly addictive, obsessive-compulsive personality. His obsession with Rachel is eclipsed only by his obsession with serving the Underwoods. I think Rachel did tap into a more sensitive and protective side of him, but the whole thing was far too twisted to call it love.
We’ve just started Season 3. What’s with the bourbon in the hypodermic? Remind me again what happened to Doug in S2?
He was so spot-on as Putin, I finished the episode before recognizing him from Sherlock.
I didn’t get that either. If someone can explain, I’d like that.
Doug in S2: He got knocked out by Rachel when she got scared/broke free of him.
Was the UN peacekeeping thing Frank or Claire’s idea?
Sahara: What was implausible about it? She seems to have realized that her political hopes were never to come true and that she was never really going to be an equal in that relationship so she quit and hurt Frank both personally and professionally.
Doug is in recovery so shouldn’t be drinking. I think the needle is a way to feel in control, if he just measures out just so much. Plus, by having the hooker do it, it sexualized the act.
Is it me or do the episodes have themes?
For example, in one of them, memory or the past seemed to be a theme. In another, starting over (the video game that makes your start over, the Tibetan monks’ art thing).
Do the themes stretch over the whole season or does one theme tend to be concentrated in one episode?
On episode 4 so far. Im enjoying it though not as much as previous series. A couple of bugbears; I didn’t enjoy Putin(in all but name) and Pussy Riot being represented. Far too real world for me. It’s a fictional drama, let’s just keep it fictional. I also have a dislike of real news anchormen being represented. It’s tacky and does little more than bring some extra “showbiz” to proceedings. It’s a cheap way of bringing “realism” to such shows but in reality it’s just human product placement and star spotting.
Yeah, it would be extremely foolish to invite Pussy Riot and Petrov at the same dinner or even to have them in the same room.
As for product placement, did you know that Claire Underwood uses a Apple laptop while in silk pajama in the White House? She clearly, undeniably does. Very prominently, with the Apple laptop being angled just so and the Apple logo shinning bright near the center of the image.
Thanks. I had to go find a synopsis, as I’d forgotten the roles of several characters. There are a lot of players in this series.
Product placement is how these programs are paid for. I’m sure we could also pick out particular car manufacturers and other products other than Apple in this series.
I can’t help thinking what Frank’s motivation is for his America Works plan. First, it is such an over the top plan that it couldn’t possibly get more than 4 votes in Congress. Completely eliminating Social Secuirty and Medicare to give the unemployed jobs that pay $35k per year.
Let’s say it passes; how does that help Frank and Claire?
10 million new potential Underwood voters?
Of course, “You are entitled to NOTHING” is the absolute worst campaign slogan of all time.
What about the close to 100 million votes he loses because senior citizens have no medical care or monetary safety net?
I was thinking that he was attempting a power grab by getting more and more people enrolled in America Works until it gets to the point that unless one bows down and worships Frank Underwood, they cannot get jobs. Sort of a giveth and taketh away type of scenario.
We know that just being President isn’t enough for Frank. He wants absolute power.
The one thing that I thought was incredibly stupid is having Stamper himself go kill Rachel. The fucking White House Chief of Staff has to be known to at least a few people even in a rural setting. It seemed like a letdown to have all of that tension build up from Rachel being able to bring down the whole “house of cards” by telling her story to just go ahead and kill her like they could have from day one.
I can’t understand why Claire is acting the way she is. Like Frank said, there is only one chair in that office. They knew that going in. Why don’t they groom her to be President? I don’t know why she is now upset and wanting to leave.
BTW, what was the “truth” about her abortion? Didn’t she already admit having an abortion in a prior season? What did she lie about?
In another speech, it was toned down to say that the programs need to be restructured, not eliminated.
I’ve only seen the first 3 episodes. I like the “you want a job, you got one” idea, but what exactly will you be doing?
I was also a little fuzzy on what happened to Doug other than that it had to do with Rachel. Why are the Underwoods keeping him at a distance, though?
I get the sense Frank will, as everyone suspects, actually seek reelection. But how difficult can it to be beat someone who 18 months ago publicly promised he was a one and done president?
He’s not eliminating them. He’s basically semi-privatizing them. He said he needed $500bil for America Works. Social Security & Medicare, which have to be restructured to pay for it, cost something like $1.4tril.
Claire was assuming that she’d get her turn to do something with power. But it became more and more apparently that her goals didn’t matter and that Frank didn’t care to help set her up for a Congress gig.
She denied ever having an abortion.
Didn’t she claim she had an abortion after being raped by the army general back in college?