House of Cards (2013)

The fifth-season opener efficiently brooms away that creaky storyline, and even pivots on an effective twist that reinforces one more “HoC” theme: Frank will be Frank.

The bleakest (yet somehow still extremely fun to watch) season of the show yet.

The atmosphere feels looser, more wild and daring. ... [Michael] Kelly’s performance [as White House Chief of Staff Doug Stamper] continues to be subtle in the midst of a show that doesn’t much care about subtlety. That’s certainly true of Spacey’s ever-more-broad performance, and Wright’s near self-parody of a woman who wears her power like a suffocating mask.

By this point, the actors are comfortably in their element. Spacey is as assured as ever, even if Frank's occasional addresses to the camera seem to come out of nowhere. Wright again wears a cool mask to hide what Claire is really thinking as she deals with assorted crises while looking impeccable in her tailored suits. Less successful--again--are the portrayals of writers and journalists.

House of Cards' fifth season is its darkest, wildest yet, though not quite as irresistibly binge-able as the first two.

Fans of the series will be relieved to know that new showrunners Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese have kept the trains moving on time, while more tentative or wearied viewers should be warned that the frustrating aspects of the series have only grown worse and House of Cards spends at least seven or eight episodes of the new season spinning its wheels and running on forgettable fumes. To the show's absolute credit, entertaining and amusing things begin to happen by the 11th or 12th episode.

Underwood isn't Nixonian or Clintonian (pick your villain); he's a flat character for whom recognition is its own reward. This may make the show a surprisingly good fit for our times. But onscreen as in life, the desire for fame alone is insufficient motivation to compel viewers to stay tuned.

Five seasons in, House of Cards still trades in predictable scripting that recycles the same themes time and again. Even now we’re made to contend with an endless march of one-note side characters and expedient problem-solving via criminality, a set of moves that lost their ability to entice and shock some time ago.

The relevance doesn’t redeem the execution. Plot points take interminable hours to come to fruition, and if the show ever had any sense of fun before, it’s lost it almost entirely. ... At the same time, House of Cards continues to be adept at mimicking and critiquing media narratives, with a facility that tends to transcend the plot of the show.