So I've just finished Season 6:
Spoiler:
Despite everything I'd said pre-season...this was actually good.
For the first five episodes.
There was waaaay too much going on, in too little time. I think it needed another two episodes to flesh some of these characters out. I was struggling to keep up with who was who, and who was working with who
the "flashbacks" to Claire's childhood were strange, not at all useful character development and ultimately futile.
I've also got REALLY tired of this show killing characters off when they become inconvenient to the Underwood's narrative. Three in one go is just lazy, lazy, lazy writing. Cathy Durant's demise, followed by her reappearance? A great twist! Then they kill her off for real? What was the point in that? Tom Hammerschmidt was the only rootable character in the whole show and should have been the one to have the stories published and Claire and Doug brought to justice. Janine was always the biggest side character of the lot of them...it just makes no sense
Don't even get me started on the ending. Minutes before, they had that bizarre scene with Bill Sheperd, concluding with him saying something like "the cards must fall". Great, I thought - the ending we've been waiting six seasons for is coming!
And then that. This show ended like THAT? Doug is the most vile character on HOC and I couldn't even enjoy his demise. How does Claire's arc end? Imprisonment? Another coverup? She wins? Why haven't we been told? Where was the public finding out about Frank's crimes? Scenes of Claire and Doug in prison or being brought to justice? When did the House of Cards fall?
I appreciate the writers didn't have much time after Spacey's departure...but this...this was just a ****show. WHERE was the ending? The payoff? It wouldn't even work as a season finale, let alone a series one.
The thing is, apparently (I've just had a quick google) the writers hadn't decided who would win between Frank and Claire in the original ending. That just tells me they never had a plan, and were churning out season after season for the sake of it. When Wilfred finished for example, the showrunner said they knew from episode 1 what the conclusion would be. This is just poor. I'm so disappointed