Have made it known my thoughts on being a fan of 'House of Cards' in its prime, one of my favourites. The prime period being Seasons 1-4. Seasons 5 and 6, especially 6, unfortunately saw a big decline to the point of not being able to recognise the show. Which is enough to make one mad when the show at its best was absolutely brilliant.
Season 2 of 'House of Cards' is a more than solid season, with none of the episodes being less than very good. It doesn't have the same number of great episodes that the first season did and there was a slight slump in quality between "Chapter 14" and "Chapter 19", but even then the episodes were very close to great with many fantastic things let down slightly by an over-dominant Frank and in a few of them the charater of Lucas.
One of the second season's best episodes from personal opinion is "Chapter 24". One of my favourites up to this point of 'House of Cards'.
Absolutely loved the development to Doug, and have done this entire season. It was great seeing him get an expanded role and the season really makes the most of it. Particularly loved the heart to heart scene with Frank, it said a lot about the characters and their chemistry together. Brought a new dimension actually and showed seemingly that Frank was more than the dominant unscrupulous character that he has increasingly become over the season.
What was another fantastic scene was Doug's speech about Rachel, which makes their relationship clearer for anybody who was confused by it previously. Despite what was said above, Frank's powerful dominance and amorality is still obvious. Especially apparent in the opening scene, his manner manipulative but in a subtle way.
Visually, the episode looks great, the slickness has not been lost and neither has the atmosphere. The music knew when to have presence and when to tone things down to let the dialogue and characters properly speak. The writing is sharp and has bite and intelligence. The story is taut and absorbing.
Kevin Spacey is as to be expected on towering form as Frank and Michael Kelly brings a lot of intensity and poignancy to Doug.
Concluding, fantastic episode. 10/10
