This season almost feels like we're starting anew with this show. All of Frank and Claire's adversaries they climbed over to get to the top are no longer relevant and no real conflicts from earlier seasons persist. Yes there are still people in the House and the Senate that Frank has beef with, it is politics after all. However, no scams and schemes persist other than the Rachel thing and to a lesser degree Gavin Orsay, aka HEROnymous Bot, and his relationship with the FBI.
I thought the problem with the first season is that Frank had no worthy adversaries. Everyone was too easily manipulated and controlled and it was like Frank was the only smart person in Washington. Frank was like the superhero but he had no arch-enemy/super-villain to overcome. Though perhaps that should read the other way around and Frank is the super villain? The second season was much better. The Underwoods had lots more worthy opponents to overcome. Such as Zoe Barnes, Remy Danton, President Garrett Walker and his wife (though he was still a little too dumb and easily manipulated for someone holding the highest office in the world) and finally, and by far the most worthy, Raymond Tusk.
So coming into season 3 we have no ongoing story lines from previous seasons, other than Rachel and HEROnymous Bot, and no worthy nemesis' for Frank to outsmart and crush. Hence my feeling that we are almost starting afresh with this show. We have to find new story lines and new rivals capable of stretching our protagonists to come up with more and more devilishly wicked schemes to out-think them and still get their own way.
Perhaps this was an oversight by the writers and producers that they didn't think beyond season 2 and that they needed more threads persisting into later series' to keep things tied together and the drama flowing more evenly as most of the suspense has gone and now needs to be rebuilt from scratch, almost.
12 out of 12 found this helpful