House of Cards has been one of my personal favorite TV shows for the last few years. Having lived in DC, and an education in Policy it has it’s own special interest for me. While season 3 I felt was no where near as good as 1 and 2, I believe season 3 has successfully brought the series back on track.

I’ve endeavored to make this as spoiler free as possible, but I’d still recommend seeing it first before reading further if you’re super worried about spoilers though.

While I’ve always liked the Character of Claire I felt that season 3 was a failed attempt to empower her. I supported the idea of making her as strong and as formidable as Francis, however, I thought that their attempt to do that feel flat and it instead seemed as if she was blaming him for her failures. Likewise while the series was based around their rise to power, season 3 got bogged down in too many distractions and ultimately prevented Francis from using on the power he finally had.

Season 4 though returned to capitalize on what 3 had set up. First, Claire returned and finally was formidable as she should have been in 3. Also while Francis still floundered with enemies on every side it felt more believable in an election season. In the end we finally got to see them as equals that we had always hoped to see.

To keep this as spoiler free as possible the ending likewise was strong enough to return the show back to the cut throat House of Cards we know and love.