Reviews

Review: House of Cards’ Final Series

7 January 2019

By Lauren E. White

As loyal readers of b**p will know all too well, I have been a House of Cards superfan from the first second I watched the series. My biggest achievement to date (screw the A Levels and getting into uni) is finishing the series in four days.

When allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Kevin Spacey, who played Frank Underwood, the lead character of the series, came to light, it cast a dark shadow over Netflix’s biggest hit. In an effort to blow away said shadow, Netflix rightly dropped Spacey from the final series of House of Cards and made it without him. This put Robin Wright slap bang in the centre of the show as Clare Underwood.

The final series of House of Cards with Wright front-and-centre failed to keep my interest. I was only watching because I had loved every other series, and I realised when watching that it was only because of Kevin Spacey. His effortless charm and appeal as Frank Underwood made you keep watching. It was addictive. Every time he spoke to you personally, it was thrilling.

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Wright basically takes up Spacey’s role this time, and she does it well. However, once you’ve had a taste of the best, you can’t really go back. It is a real shame that Wright could not carry the show on her own, but it was obvious from the beginning that this would not be possible. Frank and Clare were a team, no matter how disunited they were, the dynamic between them was crucial to House of Cards‘ success.

Unfortunately, the final series of my favourite show was a flop. Based around the death of Frank and a power struggle between Clare as the first female POTUS and a powerful family, House of Cards this time around lacked its personality and boldness – all of which, it seems, came with Kevin Spacey and what he had to offer. Of course, they were right to drop him from the show. But were they right to continue the show simply for the sake of it? Probably not, because in doing so, it killed what was once great television.

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