What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 3, Episode 2 “Chapter 28” (B+)

It’s not common on this show to see the Underwoods fail to get what they want. Claire really crashed and burned during her confirmation hearing, getting agitated after Mendoza was confrontational and pushed her to the point of seeming unreasonable and hot-tempered. Frank is also not keeping his nature hidden, swearing angrily at those around him and letting his contempt boil over. Learning that those in his party didn’t want him to run so far ahead of the next election was a blow, and leave it to Frank to be incredibly manipulative and announce almost immediately that he won’t seek reelection even though we know that he has a plan up his sleeve to be able to trick them into thinking they wanted him all along. He is slipping, however, particularly in his ability to convince people he’s paying attention to them, most notably with Dunbar, who he managed to completely ignore several times over the course of the episode. Jackie asking to be his vice-president is interesting, and I do think that she’s the closest ally he could have in terms of her cutthroat nature. Truth be told, seeing Frank squirm in his position of power, unable to exercise his every desire and see it come to fruition, is exactly where this show should have gone after Frank so easily ascended the rungs to hold his high office. Frank dispatching Seth to check in on Doug didn’t get past his former top advisor, and he’s spiraling very gradually out of control, unhappy with being sidelined when his counsel would actually prove very useful to the president.