What I’m Watching: House of Cards

House of Cards: Season 3, Episode 3 “Chapter 29” (B+)

It’s rare than an entire episode has pretty much just one focus, with Doug and Gavin occupying a very small portion of the hour in their own intersecting subplots. The two main obstacles standing in the way of the Underwoods achieving what they want – reelection support and ambassador confirmation – seem to have been dealt with for now, with Frank back in control of his objectives without having to think about 2016 and with Claire having to contend with being thought of first as the President’s wife and second as the ambassador, overshadowing the secretary of state who should really be doing most of the speaking herself. Fortunately, that relationship has been smoothed over thanks to a post-vodka round of beer pong which put Claire and Catherine on even footing and allowed them to bond while decompressing. The visiting dignitary certainly ruled the evening, planting a big kiss on Claire and getting the entire White House party to drink several shots of absurdly expensive vodka. While Frank didn’t let the alcohol affect his demeanor, he did lose control of the night. His personal conversation with Petrov was one of the episode’s best moments, and I like that he chose to get his revenge by holding a press conference without his Russian counterpart, throwing him under the bus for ignoring the protesters who poured out their vodka and stormed out of the party. Doug’s new job did seem too good to be true, and it’s clear that he is not prepared to let go of his former post just yet.

What I’m Watching: Eastbound and Down (Series Finale)

Eastbound and Down: Season 4, Episode 8 “Chapter 29”

This is déjà vu in many ways since I reviewed what I thought was the series finale of this show over a year and a half ago. Fortunately, this episode manages to succeed wondrously while featuring some of its token over-the-top gross-out humor and some celebrity guest stars. Sacha Baron Cohen was well-used as the vile plane passenger who turned out to be the head of the network, and I enjoyed recognizing Alexander Skarsgard in the episode’s final moments as Kenny’s grown-up son. Kenny firing all of his lawyers and declaring that April should call off the divorce wasn’t a great start, but that quickly turned around once he got his own show. Taking responsibility for and apologizing for all he did to everyone in his life in his rise to power was a bold step, and it was nice to see all the different people he wronged smile while watching him on TV. Ditching his own show was great, and it was sweet to see him be selfless, going on about the benefits of Southwest Airlines in New Mexico when he accepted that his family was leaving. Luckily, his “turns out I was a success the whole time” speech won April over, and we got treated to a happy ending after all. Watching the future play out only to discover that it was just Kenny’s screenplay. It was a great way to go out, and a fantastic, highly memorable way to end this truly unique and undeniably awesome show.

Series finale: B+
Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Danny McBride
Series grade: A-
Series MVP: Danny McBride
Best Season: Season 1
Best Episode: TBD