House of Cards - Season 5 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Creator: Beau Willimon
	Actors: Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty), Robin Wright (The Congress), Michael Kelly, Joel Kinnaman (Robocop)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: June 2017, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: The Underwood couple (Spacey, Wright) make use of every possible trick to stay in power.
Review: I have unfortunately the feeling that with this fifth season the series finally slows down, and I am starting to loose interest. Oh it is still very tense in the line of the previous seasons, but may be suffering from a the lack of the novelty that I praised in season 4. It takes until Ep 9 - Chapter 61 to resolve the cliffhanger from the previous season and this is almost too much time to convey the message that Frank's opponent (Kinnaman) is not enough experienced nor determined. During that time I also had enough of the romance with Tom Yates, and the press scandal orchestrated by the character of the journalist Hammerschmidt which seems to lead nowhere. I could see attempts at re-using elements that were popular in the previous seasons (Frank's ancestor, a retreat in the forest...) but I didn't find many new things to like, apart from the two characters of Mark Usher the campaign manager and Jane Davis who befriends Claire, as they seem both very clever and hide their secret agenda. The manipulation of people is much less clear as in the previous seasons, and I would say sometimes even confused (at least to me) so that I miss simpler times when Frank was calling in favors and making threats. Also not much seem to happen in this season in terms of decisions for the country or world politics, apart from a shy conflict with the ever-likeable Russian president Petrov. The episode 12 - Chapter 64 does offer some surprises and the last one Chapter 65 spends more time reflecting on everybody's situation, leaving the presidency in a new state, but I fear the series will have to find a totally new angle to keep being attractive in the future.
Rating: 6 /10