What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 2, Episode 6 “Chapter 19” (B+)

Each installment of this show feels very much like how I used to describe HBO series and how they were much more like standalone movies than hours of television. That’s why I’m pleased that I chose to go this route, watching one episode a week rather than marathoning through the series in one day. The energy crisis was front and center in this episode, which helped to hasten Frank’s efforts to discredit Raymond and get him booted from the President’s circle of trust permanently. I’m inclined to think that Frank engineered the blackout right before his pitch himself, though I think that’s a bit too godlike, even for him. Literally tossing him a baseball to signify that the ball was in Raymond’s court was appropriately overdramatic for Frank. Meeting with Tom to intimidate him into canning the story that Lucas wanted him to write was bold but apparently effective, and sending the FBI to talk to Janine was equally fearsome. Things are looking increasingly bad for poor Lucas. Doug is exhibiting enormous self-control with Rachel, though that situation is not headed anywhere good either. Claire knows exactly what to do to get what she wants, and Christina’s fate is not looking promising. Jackie and Remy sleeping together was an intriguing development, and I think that those two may just be the show’s most interesting characters, always on the sidelines and in second position but much more crucial than their stations should indicate. Big things are definitely in both their futures, independent certainly of Raymond and maybe even of Frank.