Criticism: The house of cards collapses finally

This article contains the details of the plot for the entirety of Room of cards Season 6

For a show based on the principle that people will give up their values ​​to the slightest hint of personal advantage, one must recognize the limited time they have. Room of cards, off screen, has faced the growing number of sexual misconduct charges against his star Kevin Spacey last year. (Spacey apologized to the actor Anthony Rapp, as a result of new allegations.) Production was suspended and a few days later Spacey was fired. Season 6 has been announced as the last in the series. It was convenient that before Spacey's shot, season 5 of Room of cards finished with Robin Wright Character Claire Underwood takes control of her husband to become herself president of the United States. "In my turn," she says directly to the camera, in one of the most successful turnoffs in the series. The turnaround has become an unexpected moment of prefiguration, both for the direction of the show and for the national conversation on the ongoing struggle for gender equality. In season 6, whose eight episodes began today, Claire is the president and Frank is only a memory – we talk a lot about it, but we do not have much of it anymore. never heard of it. Room of cards will not even play his voice, which becomes more and more obvious as Frank's old vocal memos become a wanted testament to Claire's terrible character. In the timeline, which emerges a few months after Claire's rise, Frank is dead, but we do not know how or why.

Unfortunately, even with the boost provided by the season 5 finale and the delayed exit, the production is unable to conclude the story. I do not even want to say that Room of cards does not end well, but it is not; I mean, there are several stories that are simply abandoned. Wright is excellent. She is doing her best job this season, half flirting with the public as she struggles to consolidate her position. In the sense that Room of cards transporting the viewer into a fantasy of absolute and destructive power, Wright offers a window on a feminine version of it, much more elegant, because it is not invaded by the trailing mark of South of Spacey.

As the show has rehearsed since its inception, power is still ugly – exciting, cathartic and fulfilling a very human desire, but still ugly. But Wright inherited an impossible task. The story tries to conclude five seasons of action, which includes the death of half a dozen casual business bandits and several layers of Machiavellian manipulation. The story of season 6 just does not fit. it's scarcely enough tracks to summarize. In a way, the total distribution is magnificent. it's like watching the story collapse on itself, an abandoned building, carefully demolished.

In exchange for an arc of land, Room of cards is based on what he has always done best: cynical provocation. The most confusing is Claire's judicious use of the feminist language for political gain, which in the second half of the season is transformed into the story of her pregnancy in the office. (You never know exactly how Claire gets pregnant, it could be her naturally conceived child with Frank, but the careful deployment of her condition suggests a much more calculated method.) Wright puts a lot of time into the movement of his face, but Room of cards Claire has very little to offer about Claire's feelings about impending motherhood or how a pregnancy changes the environment of the White House. In the middle of the season, Claire announces her return to her maiden name, Hale. She also gives lectures at the crisis room, during a nuclear crisis, about how no one knows the word opposite to that of misogyny. (Claire, apparently, did not care much about the Internet since 2013)

Claire's story is not just uncontrollable. Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear play the billionaire Shepherd's brother who tries to use Claire to his advantage and ends up becoming his main opponent; a combination of the Koch brothers and Facebook, their corporate fund manages to exploit data, pollute the environment, steal user privacy and defend traditional family values. However, while brothers and sisters are a fascinating and grotesque portrayal of power, privilege and traditional family values, they barely have a story. Like so many other things in this season, the plot only represents relevance. Lane's character, Annette, Claire's friend since the girl's age, is a stunning failure for Claire's rise. (Back in Andover's dormitories, the two men echo each other in complicated cotillon-style reverences, while sharing a biting joint.This is a busy, catchy moment, but it's just that : one moment.)

The shepherds amass all the pieces not yet dead from the last five seasons of Room of cards members of their team: journalists working on tubes, workers turned into data miners, Russian factories under Claire's administration, secretaries of cabinet and Supreme Court justices that can be bought at the right price. At the end of the season, in what looks like a desperate attempt to scramble the cards, almost all of these characters are killed. (The list includes Patricia Clarkson's Jane character, Boris McGiver's Tom Hammerschmidt, and Jayne Atkinson's Cathy Durant, technically dead twice.) Shepherds relying on a Supreme Court ruling that would limit Claire's power, too, to thwart them, President Hale plunges into an animated conflict between ICO, the version of the series ISIS, and Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen), the version of the series Vladimir Poutine. This brings the nation to the brink of nuclear war. And if that were not enough, Annette begins coldly planning the assassination of the president, with a cabal of co-conspirators that includes the vice president (Campbell Scott) His man for work? Doug Stamper (Michael KellyFrank Underwood has a long, hands-on career.

Which leads to the final scene of the entire series. A confrontation between Claire and Doug in the oval office. During which Stamper confesses to having murdered Frank, somehow by accident, by modifying his drugs – then rushing to Claire with Frank's letter opener. Claire returns adroitly to him and, bleeding, suffocates him. He can not resist. Then Stamper dies, in a pool of blood, a few inches from the presidential seal placed on the carpet. And Claire – nearly 30 weeks pregnant, expected with an armed nuclear football ball and political chaos looming – whispers: "More pain," then turns to the camera with an almost crazy look.

It's a good move. The camera looks up at Claire, almost as if we were lying next to Doug on the floor. The blond blonde Wright is heading towards the goal in a sweep. But it's a mysterious and ambiguous end to a show that until now specialized in rather brutal storytelling. Now that Stamper is dead, is Claire ready to succeed? Done to failure? Confident in his goal? Haunted by guilt? Does it mean its last murder or a harbinger of future carnage? What about all the rest – the press officer who knew too much (Kristen Sieh), the terrorist journalist (Athena Karkanis), the accomplice president of the House (Boris Kodjoe)? What about data mining that exposed intermediaries to fraud or nuclear conflict in Syria? What about Claire's still-unknown girl and Annette's thwarted assassination attempt? What about the story Janine (Constance Zimmer) had been working for so long to report? The story of Room of cards took Macbeth and Machiavelli and let him go to the White House; in the end, all that he can show the public is a thirsty moment of interpersonal thirst.

Room of cards has always been a show that works best in conversations with its political moment; the early years were so striking because their cold cynicism was juxtaposed with the president's optimistic optimism Barack Obama administration. At the time Trump, his cynicism seems to be prolonged in what is already pernicious. The weekend before the actual 2018 mid-term elections, it's shocking to watch this show, where politicians plot to steal elections and influence the Supreme Court justices with horrible enthusiasm. In this season, the story seems to be all about power and its dangers – but for a show that rewards both Frank Underwood's precise and brutal reign, it's a brutal detour.

In his view, this abrupt conclusion is a stunning commentary on what used to be: the stakes of Underwoods Room of cards were global and political, but that could only lead to this kind of intimate and selfish violence. The rest of the story – the world outside the oval office – is abandoned halfway. It's like if Room of cards tells us the rest of the story must be written by us.

Full screenpictures:Claire Underwood's 12 best performances Room of cards

Claire's cold blue dress matches her icy gaze in this presidential portrait. Card roomApparel designer Kemal Harris spoke of the scene saying, "I knew I had to design something with a cleavage that highlighted Claire's proverbial" cold shoulder ".

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

A three-quarter metal jacket almost like an armor in mode. Tom Broecker, the season 1 costume designer, said that Frank and Claire's looks "reflected everything they thought. It's almost an intentional thing. It's like an emotional barrier. "

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

A classic trench with a dark touch, a bit like Claire herself.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

In a cascade of money before a state dinner with the Russian president. When Putin's replacement begins to be fresh with Claire, she responds coolly with a brilliant phrase about her "little gherkin". He should have known that behind this silky and sensual dress hides a quick wit.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

In her brief crossover to the dark side, accompanied by a rich burgundy dress, Claire proves that sartorial prowess can all be in the strut. Blondes have more fun, but brunettes have more power.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

The outfit you wear when you have the best abridged suit of D.C.

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

Claire Underwood Bucks Room of cards Dark and dark traditional palette for this shiny sheath. Can we call it "Robin Wright-egg" in blue?

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

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