House of Cards: A Career of Evil

***Contains some spoilers***

We know what Frank Underwood gets up to on House of Cards: murder, manipulation, corruption, more manipulation, backstabbing, back alley deals, the whole nine yards.

In the excellent fourth season of the Netflix series, we get to see a little bit of everything from President Underwood, and he throws in a new twist: terror.

House of Cards is an excellent political drama, from every sketchy promise to every politician laid by the wayside if they cross Underwood, played again magnificently by Kevin Spacey. The latest streaming season does not disappoint in the least, as Underwood takes on the challenge of doing something he hasn’t had to do to this point in his rise to the highest level of American office: win an election.

A primary focus of the season is the continued fallout of the very newsworthy story of Frank’s murderous and corrupt rise to the Presidency, which results in him being shot and hospitalized, forcing his semi-bumbling VP to take charge for a couple of weeks, and then manipulating everything so that his new running mate can be none other than the second most manipulative person in the country: the First Lady, Claire Underwood. The season shifts back and forth from the election race to the many back door issues that the President is facing, including a new terror threat, a strong up-and-coming competitor for the Presidency, an oil crisis, and a resurfacing of the story that could end more than his career.

Plot and political dealings aside, it has become clear over four seasons of House of Cards that the thing we love the most is seeing how evil and manipulative the Underwoods can be. Every single move they make is for their own betterment, and they will leave no stone unturned in order to ensure their own power and legacy. It is amazing to watch, as the writers have crafted perhaps one of the most deliciously evil couples ever to grace our screens. We should hate them, for their selfishness, for their ruthlessness: yet we don’t.

Quite the opposite, really.

It is a guilty joy to watch them scheme and scam everybody around them, always building to the next big coup that will keep them in the White House, or safe from the press, or loved in the eyes of their supporters. They manage to think the game several steps ahead of everybody else, never leaving any possibility unexplored.

The acting between Spacey and Robin Wright is so dead-on that they have truly become these characters, regardless of their previous strong acting resumes. We understand how despicable they are, yet we can’t help but cheer them along in their strange journey to become a husband and wife President and Vice Presidential team.

Why is it that we enjoy watching this so much? Perhaps because we still strangely hold the false hope that our politicians are good people, public servants wanting to truly do what is best for the people and their country. And a show like House of Cards manages to break those assumptions, or show us an alternate viewpoint. Or is it the opposite: we believe that our politicians are liars and cheaters, and they are always looking out for #1 first and foremost, and this show simply reinforces that fact?

Perhaps there is a part of us that wishes we had the ability to be as manipulative as Frank Underwood, treading over whoever is needed in order to get what we want. He has come to represent what we could all be should we shed our morality and integrity, focusing on life with such a self-serving attitude that nobody, or nothing, else matters.

Or more simply, it could be that we, as television viewers, enjoy watching someone do something so well, regardless if it is evil. We wanted to watch Dexter be the best serial killer of serial killers out there. We love Sherlock for being incredible at solving complex cases despite questionable social skills. We love seeing our TV lawyers be the best at what they do, our doctors be saviors, our criminals be masterminds, our police officers be virtuous.

And our politicians be the absolute best at one of the most entertaining things to watch: the manipulation of others.