House of Cards season 4

Right now Hollywood is in a very strange place following the news of Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men who are now being called out for their actions. This included the news about Kevin Spacey, which occurred right around the time I was getting into House of Cards season four. I then wondered if there was any point carrying on with a series that seemed to have been dropped from Netflix's plans, but I wanted to finish this. Apparently Netflix will be providing a final season all be it without Spacey himself which has me even more curious where this series will go next.

Season four didn't seem to rank too highly among my friends, but then neither did season three which I thoroughly enjoyed. In some ways this season wasn't all that eventful and was rather slow making it testing at times. Fortunately, we start to see President Underwood as even more of a villain which suited the news around Spacey and helped me through the second half of the series.

Unfortunately, for a show about politics these scenes that dominate the show are the most sluggish parts and it made me wonder if there was a contract where this season had to last a full 13 episodes. Season one and two had the drama that kept the story moving with the journalist angle that added intrigue and tension. This fell into the background when Kate Mara's Zoe is murdered but season four gradually brings this aspect back and is the best part of the season as her old boss (Boris McGiver) starts to do some digging. I enjoyed these moments the most and I hope season five draws more focus towards this as the rest of the show wasn't all that engaging.

I'd even go so far as to add that this series has lost that David Fincher 'edge' that made it so appealing at the start. Occasionally it will show some of its original flare that caught my interest at the start but it's generally rather dull to look at now, and the great battles between characters seems to have withered. Season three ended on a really strong note as Frank and Claire clashed, which projected great acting, direction and visuals but season four lost this somewhere along the way.

House of Cards season four was a disappointing drag that failed to truly engage me, even before the Spacey scandal, and marks the lowest point of the series so far. The show even throws in a hostage situation right at the eleventh hour to provide some tension and offer a satisfying end to the season but it just serves as an example of poor pacing. I've heard season five will also be a challenge but I'll grit my teeth together for that final sixth season.