Frank’s back! House of Cards returns for a fourth series

Knock, knock… who’s there?

“There are two kinds of pain,” snarls Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) as he attends to his neighbour’s whimpering dog. “The sort of pain that makes you strong, or useless pain. The sort of pain that’s only suffering. I have no patience for useless things.” With that, he snaps its neck and the show begins.

House of Cards’ central character bears the mark of every despicable character trait imaginable. Manipulative, callous and deeply selfish. In his underworld of deceit he is alone – no relationships just a Blackberry full of accounts, a ledger plusses and minuses. People he owes, people that owe him; the useful and the useless. The unfortunate few he does depend upon have bought that burden at a high price. Underwood’s selfish logic is limitless, there is no one he won’t ultimately use, hurt or let-down. He has but one doctrine: “hunt or be hunted.”

Kevin Spacey returns to our screens as Frank Underwood to cause more delicious political mayhem and conspiracy. Image: Flickr / Paul Hudson.

For all his supercilious charm, however, Underwood is a worker ant. He’s always stacking, day and night. Stack, stack, stack. People, political beliefs, the truth – he lays and discards.

You’ll never “love” Frank Underwood – no one does, not even his wife. At times you may find him skin-crawlingly loathsome but you’ll always respect him. Worse, you’ll admire him. His cunning grin and southern drawl will charm, while the efficacy of his “ruthless pragmatism” will impress. And as he pauses to consult you on one dastardly scheme after another, you may even start to see things his way.

House of Cards is part political drama, part dance with the devil. The success of the show, like its main character, depends on the audience falling for Underwood’s seduction.

House of Cards appeals to the Machiavellian in all of us that wants to believe we have the intelligence to get what we want from others. While the show indulges our sociopathic delusion, it also explores the disastrous consequences.

Through three seasons we have watched Frank climb the greasy pole. But we’ve also seen his actions grow increasingly drastic in a desperate fight to keep control. The sequence of actions and reactions has become harder to plot as his enemies multiply at the foot of the Hill. Season four – rumoured to be the last – is delicately poised. Will Frank hold on, or will his house of cards finally come tumbling down? Friday 4 March, all will be revealed.