You're going to question the point of keeping Doug alive by the end of this season. I love Michael Kelly, but they really shit the bed on his arc this season.

You seriously think Doug Stamper is a minor character?

After Kevin Spacey, and maybe Robin Wright, Michael Kelly is the best actor on the show (Corey Stoll is up there too, but he's long gone), so I was hoping they'd kept him. Sadly, (no spoilers) his arc this season is poorly written (even more so than the mediocre baseline of the show) and mostly a waste of time. Kelly…

I think because of the small screen time. When I watch this show I can see the nuggets of good ideas. This is the kind of show where the best character moments are slightly underwritten and given short screen time-otherwise, the writers fuck it up.

The dude's got a gimpy leg and apparently no gun. If she's not an idiot and doesn't let him get close enough to strangle or bludgeon her, the only thing he can do is mow her down with the car, which is too messy. I don't know what happened, but the reason she's dead has to be because she was naive and let Doug get too…

That's one of the amusing things about the show to me. It wants to be a prestige drama so bad. It's like extraterrestrials studied our best shows, and got all the best actors, and cinematographers, and great music and great shots, but ultimately they don't understand what they're aping.

I thought the redemption arc was interesting since Doug was such a terrible person before, but ultimately, it didn't mean much. I don't think they knew what they were doing. It could have worked but ultimately came out being incoherent. He's a coldblooded motherfucker who loves his brother and nephews? If they just…

I think they were going for some really cynical commentary on politics and political operators like Doug, but the writing was so poor that they didn't earn the cynicism and it just seems juvenile.

The problem with the show is that it's only mediocre this season. It needs to either try to be good, or go full retard to be truly compelling. I'm hoping for the latter. Cast Louis CK as, like, some powerful Senator (from the South so he has to do a terrible accent) and have him, I dunno, spray diarrhea on Underwood…

I was frustrated because I had my fingers crossed that they didn't kill him off, and then they kept him only to drop the ball on his story line.

The thing is, either way could've been a valid commentary on politics and humanity (or whatever the fuck the show is going for, the writing is so incoherent sometimes) but the writers didn't *earn* it, you know?

I knew they couldn't kill off Doug, because after Spacey and Wright, he's the best actor on the show (well, they did off the incredible Corey Stoll, so I guess they could have).

I like how Frank isn't portrayed as omnipotent, he's actually fucking shit up and vulnerable (but at the same time, this marginal increase in quality makes it less entertaining than the previous two seasons where he's just pwning people left and right).

I don't think Louis CK is a great comparison to Cross though. CK is, I agree, amazing at making you think that he is going off on an unplanned tangent, or just thought of something. But that is something that he clearly works hard at. Cross seems like he has a lot of raw talent but lacks the discipline to polish as…

I'm not sure I agree that Louis CK was responsible for ushering in a new age of comedy in 2008. Helped popularize a new wave of standup that had been brewing for a little over decade, but 2008 was definitely not the beginning.

You're right. But I don't think it's fair to characterize my criticism of Cross as being about his lack of "traditional" setup/punchline/tag/transition- I just think his standup sounds pretty sloppy. It's frustrating to hear him say something inspired and hilarious and then just stutter or not give it any time to…

This is true, but he was still much better at acting than he ever was at directing.

I'm torn on David Cross. I've fallen asleep to that album dozens of times (that's a compliment, I fall asleep listening to my favorite albums) but I never found it laugh out loud funny. David Cross really shouldn't be hat great of a standup because:

The bit that begins with him talking about killing George Lucas with a shovel bit is one of Oswalt's greatest. But I don't think that can really be improved on, so he's really doing himself a disservice by going back to the Star Wars well.

I'm torn on David Cross. I've fallen asleep to that album dozens of times (that's a compliment, I fall asleep listening to my favorite albums) but I never found it laugh out loud funny. David Cross really shouldn't be hat great of a standup because: