The thing about House of Cards now

So I just finished watching the final episode of the third season of House of Cards and frankly, I didn't really like the entire season all that much. I think it comes down to the position Frank Underwood is in now. He obtained his goal and now we just watch and see if he can survive. So a lot of this season was just him trying to keep his power and be re-elected for next term. Which hey, if your into that political stuff, then maybe this is for you. For me however, it was not.

So let's talk about anime for a second. If you ask me to name an anime series off the top of my head, I would say Death Note. No, not because the name is easy to remember (though it is) but because it was pretty awesome. Essentially, Death Note is about a guy named Light who has the power to kill
people. Using this power, Light starts to kill off people and begins his vision of a utopia for earth. Of course there's this whole cat and mouse stuff and Light has to do a lot of scheming to stay one step ahead of the Police and such to make sure they can never make the connection between him and the killings. It's the intrigue that kept me going back to the show and it always left me wondering what Light was planning next.

Low and behold House of Cards was doing the same thing where Frank would make people look bad to further his standing in the office and I was engaged. I loved it. I loved that he had this master plan and everything was going his way. Thing is, Frank's plan was to become president and well, he did that. We saw Frank achieve his goal. Now what? Well obviously we see if he can run America and run it properly. Or how about we end it on a high note and just see him sit in that presidential chair and roll credits instead? No? We keep going? Well ok.

So here's my problem. He's in the position he wanted all along. What is the greater goal? Well there isn't one. Season 3 of House of Cards to me is filler. We were introduced to a new threat in the Russians and yes, Mr. Underwood could potentially loose his presidency in the upcoming elections, but there's no end goal now. I'm just watching him do what he does... without the scheming.

Some will say "Oh but there's so much more to House of Cards now. Like it's characters and whatever else." and yeah ok there's that, but it's not what got me sticking with this show. What struck me was that Frank had this master plan and we were seeing it unfold in front of our eyes. If you like the conflict between him and his wife, the relationship between Remy and Jackie or the tension between Doug and Seth that's great. Characters should evolve and create potential conflict between one another. But the core should stay the same.

So the obvious question is "Well what's the next conflict?" the answer is simple. We watch Frank fall out of power. We see that his scheming, the people he surrounded himself with, all turn on him to further their own goals(Thus the name). Thing is, we won't see that. Not for awhile. Why? Well because that's the end of the story. Which means no more House of Cards, which means no more hit Netflix exclusive.

The show can try and create as much conflict as it wants, but to me that's all filler. He can win the election, but then all that's left is for his other term to run out and we get some new guy. Of course, there's all the conflicts that can arise with other governments, and maybe some sort of scandal, but we would still all know that after those four years are up he's done. Maybe they move on to his wife after that? I don't know.