House of Cards (2013)

The payoffs aren't meant to be wild this season. House of Cards is aiming at authenticity, and--for what feels like the first time--consistently finding it.

Kevin Spacey, that wicked walking wink, remains a spellbinding hoot as Frank. But more than ever, it’s the First Lady--and Robin Wright--who rules this term. Her story resonates with issues of gender, race, and power, bringing in a trio of actresses who provide a sparky jolt.

While Season 4 still has the “Netflix Problem” of being a few episodes too long, it’s tough to say what should be cut this year. Almost every plotline serves a purpose, delivers some kind of rewarding payoff, and it further drags us down in the muck of Frank and Claire’s life.

While Frank may not be as wily as he once was, he’s still not someone you want to cross. Departing showrunner Beau Willimon is proving that while he’s leaving the show after this season, he’s leaving with a bang.

Luckily the addition of a few big-name guest stars helps the series regain "the big mo," as they say in politics. Judging by the six episodes I've screened, HoC remains an addictive if not credible political potboiler, elevated by new actors.

The new episodes--sordid little dopamine bursts, each as gratifying and wrong as a dirty campaign contribution--feature some delicious writing, parceled out in typically sharp one-liners and asides.

Season Four promises some fascinating possibilities. Netflix is determined to keep spoilers under wraps, but we can say there will definitely be surprises, and the show will be graced by the strong presence of tough females.

There is a razor-sharp focus, as well as a renewed sense of purpose, in the six new episodes Netflix made available to critics in advance of the fourth-season premiere.

With the Under­woods at war, House of Cards opens the doors on its most diabolical season yet.

House of Cards has its own distinct, if shallow, pleasures, including Spacey, who just gets better and better as Frank.... Wright is Spacey's equal, and in Season 4, Claire is more stony and stoic than ever.

House of Cards has found the complexity of its anti-hero but, in spite of its sublime direction, stellar cast, and deliciously dark drama, it has yet to master his brutal bite.

House of Cards has opted to diminish its central figure to allow others to emerge, even if that is done strategically, in the hope of consolidating his personal power. Whether that’s a winning strategy remains to be seen when all of the episodes are available to be binged.

The cat-and-mouse game between them [Francis and Clair Underwood] possesses genuine electricity, especially with Underwood’s chief hatchet man Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) back in the fold and running interference, having survived the tortures of the damned to get there. Yet it’s also on this front where some of the smarter political insights the show has exhibited begin to break down, with Claire veering past Hillary Clinton into something closer to Eva Peron territory, if not quite Lady Macbeth.

It’s hard not to wish that one of our most popular shows about politics cared more about the real world. That said, there are some real risks taken this season, both stylistically, and in terms of plot.... Whether it ends up giving the series somewhere new to go isn’t clear in the six episodes screened for critics, but it’s nice to see House Of Cards showing some of the ambition Frank so admires.

Season four's sweep is, in some ways, a little cheap (when you've written off as many characters as this show has, it's easy to buy gravitas by bringing a few back), but it's also entertaining.