Chapter 64

One of the things that had always bothered my about this series is that there are many people that choose to violate themselves and know that Underwood violated the law.Both Underwoods would have been busted in season 1 if it were the real world. The entire story is a Con Job. On a story level the series ended on day 1 too. Underwood never had an agenda. He was always about evading responsibility for something. P#ss poor story writing.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Chapter 64 ", 12th episode of "House of Cards" season 5 was the best episode of this season. It was superbly involvingly written, acted and directed. Some stories have ended, some of them are not. There is still one episode left to watch, but overall this season wasn't the best show has ever produced. 1st and 4th were more superb, but this one is very solid. And while there is still one season (last one) to go, i will going to watch but just to see how are they going to wrap it up without its star - Kevin Spacey. Say or think what you want to about him - but he is a terrific actor, one of the kind actually. Loosing its star without a doubt will impact negatively quality of this last season and the proof of it is each and every scene where he is in.

Terrific episode overall.

On the most part, 'House of Cards' is a great show, namely though because of the strength of the first four seasons, with all the episodes being pretty good to fantastic. It did start to lose its way in Season 5, which had enough good things and most of the thirteen episodes that formed it fared better on re-watch, but also a lot of big problems that started to have the feel of a different show. A feel that intensified in the disgrace that was the sixth and final season that had all the fifth season's flaws, amplified them and made more on the way.

Count me in as another person that was very underwhelmed by Season 5's penultimate episode "Chapter 64". It is the highest rated episode of Season 5 and one of the highest of the show, which in all honesty perplexes me and this is coming from a subjective person. For me it is actually the worst Season 5 episode, "Chapter 59", "Chapter 62" and "Chapter 63" particularly were vastly superior, the worst of the show up to this point of it (if better than all the episodes of Season 6) and the episode where 'House of Cards' started to properly decline.

It is not an irredeemable episode by all means. It looks great, as slick and audacious in the photography as always. The acting cannot be faulted, regardless of the material (which was pretty uneven in Season 5) Kevin Spacey was never one of the drawbacks.

He, if anything, was the main reason to keep watching. There are fleeting moments of thought-provoking and intrigue, when not being annoyed by the ridiculousness, over-the-topness and being bored silly. The music score fits the tone of the story and show well and didn't feel excessive or like it belonged somewhere else, that was the case with the first five seasons throughout but it was the opposite in the final season.

Sadly, "Chapter 64's" writing is far too soapy and melodramatic to an excessive degree. As well as talk-heavy and in a rambling way, the tautness and sharp bite are completely gone here. The pace is mostly dull, this and the next episode were the dullest Season 5 got, with too many uncompelling or unnecessary parts in need of being focused on less and not being as aimless. The biggest problem with "Chapter 64" is the story, which is a complete mess. Granted, it may advance things more than other Season 5 episodes but never in a revealing, natural or interesting way and not without screwing up royally on the character writing. The story is not just painfully dull and full of ideas indicative of the 'House of Cards' having run out of ideas (another reason for the dullness), it is also truly ridiculous and painfully over the top. "Chapter 64" for example contains the single most insultingly far-fetched and implausible opening scene of the whole show, or certainly up to this point.

Morever, didn't ever give a tuppence for the Claire and Yates relationship dragged out interminably throughout the season and served no real point to it. Yates himself also added absolutely nothing to the season and this episode did nothing to change my mind. It was good that it was finally ended, but not without doing it in such a contrived fashion and practically character assassinating Claire in the process. No other episode up to this point of 'House of Cards' had this many characters out of character and in so bad a way. The resignation was a primary example, being against everything Frank was and stood for. The character writing was simplistic and most of the characters when not out of character were uninteresting and even useless with chemistry that never sizzles or engages. The least frustrating character here is Doug and even his too soft decision making is questionable. There is very little consequence, with so many bad actions barely if at all resolved or handled indifferently, and much more at stakes, undermined by the overload of absurdity.

Summarising, has its moments but didn't really care for this episode at all. Sorry. 4/10

I know American politics is cur throat but this show is extreme. Too much BS and this episode was the tip of the iceberg.