House of Cards

Caliane

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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For reacting in ways that a normal person would react, that's why she was disliked. Is this how people wanted it to play out: "Oh, you're a murderous drug dealer who has repeatedly endangered the lives of our family while simultaneously largely ignoring your role as a father? I'm totally okay with that and will have no problem adapting or not holding any grudges!"
are you for real? did you watch seasons 1 and 2?
Claire personally interviewed her husbands mistress/informant. then in season 2 was fully aware he personally murdered her, and was fine with it.
She ruined the life of the nonprofit founder she stole control of it from.
She helped ruin the life of her own lover, blackmailing him and destroying his career.
Has repeatedly been shown to be in direct cahoots with everything Frank did in s1 and 2. They planned it together. she was often even shown to be the driving force, while FRANK had moments of weakness.
her "I shouldn't have made you president" is quite accurate. and in character.

And now you are saying, she realized Frank is a bad person? is it becuase you think women are not capable of being bad people? S1 and 2, and even half of season 3 Claire is a fucking MONSTER. then suddenly out of nowhere, completely contrary to every thing we've seen before. she decides morals are worth fighting for. again, dispite destroying people for that very same reason. this action was the exact opposite of what she did to the nonprofit women.
 

Cantatus

Lord Nagafen Raider
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I don't know that it wascompletelyout of the blue. We've seen Claire exhibit moments of conscious over the course of the show - her relationship with Adam in the first season, breaking down after Megan Hennesey's suicide attempt, even to some degree her desire to become pregnant. The problem is that they went from agradualprogression to just flipping some switch in her. There really was no catalyst to explain her going from telling a woman she'd "let your child wither and die inside you" to derailing everything she's worked for by confronting the Russian President on live television.

I think we're meant to see the conversation with the gay man in Russia and his subsequent suicide as the thing that pushes Claire over the edge, but that was fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. I can accept that being something that pushes Claire towards "good", but not as rapidly as it did. We should've seen her doing more and more to undermine Frank and even more of her conscious start to come to the forefront, not her emerging from that prison cell as an entirely different person.
 

fris

Blackwing Lair Raider
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where are you guys getting a rise in morals from Claire? She was pretty direct, she hates not being in power. And as first lady, her only power is that she's fucking the president. No longer being in the UN, she can't even use that anymore. It sickened her to have to use her husband to get the job in the 1st place. She didn't leave him because of some moral awakening, she left him to further her own power grab.
 

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
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I definitely understand her wanting more power but divorcing is certainly not going to accomplish that in politics. Its really pretty stupid.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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132,415
Clair has zero power, zero pull, zero anything, her power is that she is married to Frank, who is currently POTUS. What's her first lady thing? that sexual harrassment issue? wasn't that put down?

Look at least michelle Obama has eating healthy or someshit, and the stupid white house garden.

Fucking nancy reagan had "just say no" still rings in my ears.

What did Hillary have? some health plan it was shit, so what did she do?

She moved her hick midwest ass over to one of the bluest states, NY and got elected senator. The only first lady to actually do shit and not look like the biggest trophy wife, and she did it twice, got re-elected. Then she went up against obama, oh well nothing could be that affirmative action train.

She couldn't even get vice president and had to settle for secretary of state, sure ok.

So what did Hilary do? she got at least 8 years of real gov't experience being a sentor, then decided to run for POTUS.

wtf gov't experience does Claire have? hell she barely has work experience, she's just a CEO of a non profit, hell that non profit was just largely funded by the crooked gas company that paid Frank and Remy off anyway, it was basically a gift.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
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Huh? What power does this get her?
The show was trying to make the argument that, at least in Claire's mind, she is the power behind Frank. She is driving the Iowa victory, she put him in the seat to begin with, and they get tot he White House and now she has to rely on him. But that was always the plan, this is why the show's narrative doesn't make sense. The whole plan was to put Frank in place to make shit happen for her, and she is whining like a lil ol bitch, getting set up the bomb by the Russians, TANKING her confirmation hearing. Seriously, that hearing was the first time in the show I went "huh?" Because that wasn't Claire, at all. At least not S1 and S2 Claire. It made no sense for the character to get played like that.

I could see a story where the wife gets impatient with waiting for her husband to do his part and coupled with her head being filled full of BS by some opinion polls and a meeting with a shitty mom in Iowa she decides to go rogue.We only got half of that though. She just went rogue, there is no real build up to that.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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There'd be no way to coherently do this now, but it'd be interesting if the show was set up differently such that as Frank was working up the political food chain to the POTUS, Claire was working up the chain as well where she goes from the non-profit to state senator, to Governor and then when Frank gets the POTUS she starts to be involved in the national debate and the next season culminates in stealing the POTUS from Frank in the same weasely way Frank did. And the only reason she is successful is because Frank helps her, doesn't realize what's she's doing and then doesn't have the balls to stop her when he understands what's happening.

We'll see how the next season goes, but I feel like season 3 starts at the start of act two here, and finishes near the bottom of act two:

how-and-why-linda-seger-paradigm.gif


Which is really me biggest reason I don't like it. It's not a full-featured season that stands on its own, it only sets up the next season (assuming Frank pulls through and the show doesn't just end with him in jail without winning the election. I think dead or in jail is the ultimate destination of Frank anyway). To me this is offensive even if the plot points were good and I was super excited fro the next season.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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Just finished binge-watching all three seasons. I didn't pick up on this when it first came out as the trailer didn't get me. Boy was I wrong, this is one of the best power-drama shows I've seen in a long time. I won't bother to spoiler my comments as reading back a few pages I see no-one else has. Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Great show, great plot, great writing/directing, great characters and great cast - mostly. I do like the ruthlessness the most. The Underwoods get shit done, and woe to anyone who gets in their way. I was not surprised when Frank killed Rossi. However, I was shocked to the point of letting out a "oh" when he killed the journalist (forget her name). Yet this was perfectly in character. That shows good writing. He is a guy who isn't afraid of stepping on other people, which is realistic, and I haven't regretted any of the "casualties" with the exception of Freddy. I'd have loved to have had the POTUS's motercade come round to Freddy's shitty joint now and again or having Freddy serve up some ribs to the Russian president, but still, it was in character so I'm not that disappointed.

The first two season are excellent, and the reason why is how they start and how they end. He has to fight all the way, scheme, lie, backstab and god knows what else, but in both cases he ended up on a higher rung than before. Starting season 3 I wondered how they would emulate that. Once he declared he would not run and the Russian plot started I figured he'd maneuver his way into a war and either use that to get elected (stand by your president in a time of war type of thing) or even just declare some sort of martial law (though I don't know if that is possible, I'm not a scholar on American presidential powers). I have to agree with many here that I was a bit disappointed with some of the ending of S3. It felt a bit of a downer, and as some here say it's like a filler series, setting up for S4.

Claire is also a bit of a puzzle. Now, correct me if I'm wrong but I got the distinct impression from late in S2 (or early S3) IIRC that they had discussed a plan that revolved around him being president first, setting her up with posts so she could gain fame and experience so she could come back and get another 8 years. A very logical plan for the couple, and in character, but I remember when I heard it I wondered how they would implement that within the series. For something like that to play out they'd need god knows how many seasons, and realistically, I think this will be a 4-5 season show, 6 at most, but that's pushing it.

I therefor expect now one of the two following scenarios: a 4 season show in which Claire falls apart, spills the beans and ultimately becomes the downfall of them both. Or, failing that, through some other means they both fall at the end. The second scenario that would probably call for a 5 or maybe 6 seasons, is that Claire purposefully helps Frank fall from grace through the same type of lying, scheming and backstabbing that Frank is so good at, with the aim of getting into the White House alone (since if she did enter it 8 years later with Frank by her side she probably knows that he would still be running the show).

Personally, the way Claire has behaved I think she may be getting cold feet so the first scenario seems more likely, but she could just be fooling us all. Either way, I think that in the end it's certain that Frank will lose (he has to) either by losing the election, being imprisoned, or assassinated. The only question in my mind at the moment is, will Claire fall to or will she "win". Anyone else see this playing out, or do you think Claire's character having gone too far?
 

Bondurant

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I think S3 went to shit mostly because Claire character went to utterly cold-hearted manipulative bitch into feminist white knight gay rights equality womyn. I've said it before, but why the fuck would anyone invite Pussy Riot to a USA / RU State Dinner, it's like doing a DEA friendship annual event and inviting Pablo Escobar.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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Yeah, there were some "wtf" moments in S3, that included. Another thing I didn't quite understand was why the Hacker (Max?) told Lisa to contact Doug if the Feds came around. Why would Doug help her? And why would the Hacker think that Doug would help her? I just didn't get that bit.

Another WTF was Doug's whole trip to Venezuela and hooker stalking/murderingaftergetting his job back. Surely the POTUS's Chief of Staff job requires you to actually be there and working and not chasing personal vendettas?
 

Dioblaire

And now my Watch has ended...
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Another WTF was Doug's whole trip to Venezuela and hooker stalking/murderingaftergetting his job back. Surely the POTUS's Chief of Staff job requires you to actually be there and working and not chasing personal vendettas?
Because he had originally told Frank that the prostitute was dealt with. Then after finding out she was still alive, he personally needed to take care of it so that as few people would know about it. His way of taking care of Frank.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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13,330
So Claire vs Frank. Hopefully it doesn't suck as bad as season 3 did.
 

spronk

FPS noob
22,566
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meh, the show has pretty much gone off the rails as far as I'm concerned. I'll watch, but after two shitty seasons I am not expecting greatness
 

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
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Doug Stamper was the only good thing about Season 3. Season 1 was great, but this show kinda sucks now.
 

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
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I liked season 1 and 2 a lot, season 3 was bad because as mentioned, feminist Claire was stupid and ruined the feel of the show. To me it looks like Frank, after reeling to her in season 3 gets the upper hand on her finally.

It looks like it's going to be a pretty action packed season, which good, we need more of that and much less of what season 3 was.