thoughts on House of Cards, Season Two (spoilers)

So I finished the second season of House of Cards last night.  Though I enjoyed it to an extent and recognize that it is an objectively well-written and well-acted show, I didn't like it as much as Season One.  I looked back at my blog on Season One and saw that I apparently flew through that season in six days; this season probably took me about three weeks to a month.  This is partly because of timing; I watched the first season in the summer, when all of my regular shows had ended their regular seasons; I watched this while a number of shows I like were still broadcasting new episodes.  However, there are definitely other reasons why I found myself consuming Season Two less quickly.

For one thing, I missed the characters that left the show-- or rather, that FRANK KILLED-- in late Season One and early Season Two.  I liked Pete Russo (Corey Stoll) a lot, and while, as noted in my blog on Season One, my opinion on Kate Mara's Zoe Barnes changed throughout Season One, she was interesting, and it quite frankly pisses me off how things consistently end so horribly for the journalists on this show.  Zoe got pushed in front of a freaking train.  Lucas (Sebastian Arcelus) is in jail.  The journalists on this show are the only ones who are even trying to tell the American people the truth, and it's not even just that they are thwarted in their attempts to tell their stories; politicians actively work to destroy them.  Does this happen in real life?  If it does, it makes me feel bad for and about the world.

Additionally, when Zoe and Pete left, we lost a human element that was mostly missing from Season Two.  Was Zoe and Frank's relationship skeezy? Yes.  Was it compelling and, let's face it, a little bit fun to watch?  Also yes.  And though Zoe didn't always act ethically as a journalist, she was at least, in her own way, trying to do the right thing.  Same thing with Pete.  He was flawed, yes, but he was trying to be good; it's just pretty much impossible to do so when you have people like Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) actively planning your demise.  And so we're left with few characters who have anything interesting going on outside of their political lives and even fewer characters who are even trying to do the right thing.  And the ones who do try?  Beat down.  As I mentioned earlier, Lucas is in jail.  Megan Hennessy (Libby Woodbridge), the young woman who comes forward to reveal she was raped by a high-ranking military officer to try to help Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) get legislation passed to keep the same thing from happening to others is basically attacked on national television, abandoned by Claire, and then eventually pretty much suffers a nervous breakdown.  Can the good people win anything ever, please?  I'm not saying always; I know that wouldn't be realistic.  Just once in awhile.

I think they tried to insert the human element into two storylines: Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali) and and Jackie Sharp's (Molly Parker's) romantic relationship and whatever the hell was going on with Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) and Rachel Posner (Rachel Brosnahan).  However, Remy and Jackie's relationship lasted about five minutes, and I never really connected with Jackie as a character; I feel like with her, they needed an actor who seemed more conflicted, or who you could see change more throughout the season.  Remy tells her at one point that she's gotten colder.  Her: "It makes things easier." Me: "Really? She has? She's never seemed particularly warm to me."  And...let's talk about the Doug and Rachel thing.  So...Rachel was the prostitute who contributed to Pete's demise, and she "knows things" about what went down with Pete.  I feel like there are ways to keep her from talking other than exiling her in an apartment in a town that doesn't even appear to be that far away, given how often Doug visits her, and forbidding her from having her any human interaction outside of work.  Doug's fixation with her was creepy.  I know that he himself recognized this and tried to stop.  This doesn't mean that it was anything but uncomfortable to watch him interfere with her romantic life and show up and make her read to him and stuff.  It also doesn't mean that I couldn't help but be all, "Good for you!" when she nailed him in the head with that rock at the end of the season.  RIP, Doug.  You won't be missed.

So, bottom line, I probably will still at least start Season Three, whenever it comes out.  But I just find it more and more difficult to find any connection to any of these characters as the series progresses.