So, how do the writers get Frank out of his jam when Cathy recovers and, in addition to her damning testimony, says that the President pushed her down a flight of stairs after telling her to stand down?

It's sad, but that's pretty much the only viable exit strategy at this point given the huge corner they've written themselves into. Oddly enough, I would probably have to at least give them props for doing that and salvaging a little internal consistency.

I had to laugh when Hammerschmidt is in that meeting with his paper's editorial board and all the bigwigs and he has to desperately convince them - these fellow journalists - that the most openly corrupt president in history is up to some shady shit.

Just like Machiavelli said: "Push a lady down a flight of stairs."

Yeah, because when the president's chief of staff kills his mistress on his behalf, we all know the President comes out of that looking squeaky clean.

Of all the lazy, insulting, half-baked shit the writers pulled on us this season, resorting yet again to the deus ex machina "I have the dirtiest dirt on your biggest rival" out of nowhere was up there as the worst.

This show feels like work to keep up with it. It is so tedious trying to remember names and who is who, and who wants what, and who told what to whom and when…. and who is THAT guy now? Where did that woman come from? And why does she know this stuff?

This show started to lose me last year when we supposed to believe Claire was popular with the public. I'm sorry, but being the wife of a thoroughly hated and disgraced man would stick to anyone. There is a 0% chance she gets any distance from her husband's many crimes and corrupt dealings.

Considering he literally threatened her with a letter opener while insinuating he was truly a serial killer last year… well, let's just say that was HoC being subtle.

I wish that this show would just fully embrace its absolute worst tendencies and jump cut 40 years into the future, with a 105 year old Frank Underwood revealing to us in a monologue that he had served two full decades as President and another 20 as VP to President Claire Underwood. The military tried ousting him for…

Somebody on an earlier thread mentioned that the biggest flaw of this show is that all of the Underwood's opponents have flaws that are magnified 1000% and bring them down, but all of the Underwood's scandals are minimized to an absurd degree. That's pretty much season 5 in a nutshell.

Season one, plastered on the front pages of NY tabloids. This was back when things the Underwoods did could actually be liabilities (or at least feel like them).

The Aidan Macallan thing is just ridiculous. Nothing is explained, nothing makes sense, nothing logically follows the previous development…

She had a very public affair, as well, so there's that.

Announcing that Frank had won the re-vote in Ohio (and the presidency) through a ticker crawl on a fake CNN show after a "One week later" jump cut was perhaps the most insulting thing this show has ever done to its audience. It may be the most insulting thing ANY show has ever done to its audience.

The only thing surprising about this season so far is that they waited until 6-7 episodes in to drop the giant "deus ex machina character flaw in the Underwood's primary rival" bomb. That was some real restraint this team of writers' part!

Nobody has ever been more of an audience surrogate than Will Conway, when he screams at the TV (as the election goes to shit) that the Underwoods need to go the fuck down already.

I wouldn't say I ever watched strictly for the realism, but there was something thrilling and new about season one (and even two), watching all the insider wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, complete with a protagonist who would explain his motives and moves in secret to the audience.

I should add, the NSA thing seemed like it had some promise, as confusing as it was. The general plot there should have been, "The ruthless Underwoods weaponize the massive security apparatus and turn it into a political machine."

Yes! I forgot about that.