 Ladies and gentlemen, it's all over House of Cards has officially come to an end. The final season is now streaming on Netflix But how does it weigh up against the previous five seasons, especially now that it's missing its star? But before we get into that, let's just appreciate the series as a whole. House of Cards is the original Netflix original. It was Netflix's first attempted original content and back in 2013 when it premiered, it was the first of its kind releasing all episodes to consume at once on a digital streaming service. It had never been done before and no one knew if it would even work. I remember seeing a poster of Kevin Spacey advertising the show before it came out and I remember being surprised that Spacey was doing television after his stellar portfolio of films. But although this was a TV series, it ended up being just as celebrated. Netflix themselves make reference to their original TV show at the start of every Netflix original. You may have noticed that the sound effect they use for the Netflix logo is taken from the season 2 finale when Frank becomes president. But enough about its past, let's talk about this season. The first thing you notice is that everything seems brighter, not only in the tone of the season, but also in cinematography in general. It's like Francis was the darkness and now that he's gone, it's a new day. And Claire's direct address with the bird kind of cemented this, her mantra being no more pain. I can't say I like how well-lit, especially the first few episodes were. It sort of steps away from the noir vibes that we got from the early couple of seasons. But I remember having a similar note in season 5 as well. Obviously it takes some time to get used to Robin Wright in the lead. It takes a little while to stop expecting Frank to walk in at any moment and take over. But let's talk about Frank's death. Having it happen before the events of episode 1 was probably the best way to play it. It saves the complication of having it happen off-screen and means you don't have to show the body. Although you do briefly see your body double in the funeral photos. They did however concentrate a lot more on his absence than I thought they would. In fact, one of the main story arcs this season is figuring out what really happened the night of his death. Claire's direct addresses were a nice departure from the style of Francis's though. She says from the very start that it's going to be different for her and us and she's right. Her tone towards us differs from Frank's and it doesn't feel like she's impersonating him. Speaking of direct addresses, let's delve into that aspect of the show. The rules of them have kind of changed throughout the series. I remember watching episode 1 not knowing that this was an aspect of the show. When Spacey first strangled that dog in the pilot it blew my mind to see a serious adult show break the fourth wall like that. It made me uncomfortable in the best way possible and I feel that Spacey would have been the only actor that could pull something like that off. It started off with time sort of freezing whilst Frank addressed us. Then Claire first looked at the camera and we knew that it wasn't just us and Frank. Season 5 had Frank actually walking through unknowing crowds whilst delivering his addresses and then finally Claire took the reins completely. Well apart from a few ones were dug towards the end which didn't really seem necessary. Claire even breaking the fourth wall to him through his TV. But direct addresses are such an important part of the show. As the underwoods are so dark and unreadable it helps us root for their cause and understand what's really going on in their minds. And because of that it somehow makes us judge them less. Anyway, back to this season. We had newcomers The Shepards step in as a similar foundation to what Francis was trying to achieve. Which makes the end of season 5 make more sense. The finale of that season really was the only time I questioned Frank's intentions. But the foundation he aimed to start obviously has immense power and support from the federal government like he intended. Even though The Shepards Foundation aimed to overthrow the government. The Shepards themselves played by Greg Keneer and Diane Lane. I just really found annoying for the most part. Obviously that's the role they're playing but they obviously show no respect to Claire and have this self-righteousness about them that just rubs me the wrong way. Plus I hate seeing the playful side of Claire that Annette seems to bring out in her. But even with other characters too in the first half of the season it really started to frustrate me that no one was respecting Claire in her position of president. It makes me wonder how Frank would have played into all this. I'm thinking that he would have played a similar role to Bill Shepard. Interestingly, I saw in a recent article that in the three episodes they filmed with Spacey, Greg Keneer didn't do a single scene with him which leads me to believe they would have worked separately. Maybe Bill's character was rewritten as part of the process. And on that, lots of parts of this season did feel like a quick rewrite. There were some messy moments and even some filler episodes. You would think that squeezing 13 episodes down to 8 would mean that things would be quite fast-paced and action-packed. But then we have episodes like Kathy's Wake which could have been dealt with a lot more decisively. And storylines like Annette Shepard's son Duncan really didn't amount to anything. They introduced Flashbacks which was a risky creative choice but they didn't play a big part and I didn't hate them. However, again, they didn't really amount to anything. They just gave us a brief snapshot of why Claire is the way she is but none of them gave us anything of substance. But can we just stop for a second and appreciate Claire's costume designer for this season? She's always been dressed impeccably but her presidential attire is on another level. Even her presidential pyjamas in episode 3 were dapper. Asha was a key player this season, especially in the first four episodes. Claire made him Vice President, no surprise there with him knowing what he knows. But he's playing the role controlled by the outside much like Frank wanted to do with Claire. But was it just me or did Asha look tired? His eyes just seemed dark for some reason and I never want to see him shirtless again. We had the return of Jane Davis which was good to see. She played a kind of comic relief role in season 5 which even in a serious show like this somehow pays off. And plus I always love her curious obsession with Claire even though Claire tries and fails to bring her over to the dark side. We got a cameo by Linda Vasquez. What she had to say was brief but I think she got a point across. On a side note, did you realise how much these people are on the phone? It seemed that every second seen someone had a blackberry up to their ear. But let's talk about the major spoilers. Firstly the deaths of Kathy, Jane and Tom Hammersmith. Those few seconds where they were killed off were intense and happened completely out of nowhere. Looking back though I guess it did make sense as it conveniently wrapped up all of their storylines. Another insane moment was the announcement of Claire's pregnancy and I hated it. What I liked about the Underwoods is that they weren't the type of people to become parents. They were power driven instead. I get the strategy behind it but I saw a sweet aside to Claire as the pregnancy progressed and I just couldn't get on board with that. Another thing I hated was that Frank's director dresses were made into audio recordings. Which kind of ruined the one-on-one we had with Frank and made them public. And then we have the season finale directed by Robin Wright herself. If you watch the opening title sequence you may have noticed the statue in honour of Claire which they included amongst the usual shots of Washington DC. Most of the episode was nothing too crazy however things pick up steam when Claire receives the package from Doug. I think we all knew that it was going to come down to a face off between Claire and Doug in the very end. I must admit I thought that Doug would kill Claire and then himself like a proper tragedy plus it would wrap up both their storylines. However Robin Wright was right when she said the finale would be operatic and shocking as it was a surprise to see Claire survive through it all. It felt like a season finale but somehow it didn't feel like a series finale. What are the Shepards reaction for this? What are the consequences for Claire now that she's killed Doug? And what happens to Baby Underwood? But now that I think about it I feel that if Frank was still around he would be the one lying dead on the Oval Office similar to the UK series. Though a lot of unanswered questions but it isn't exactly unusual for a show to leave you thinking after the final credits roll. But what did you guys think of the final season? I'll be chatting with you guys in the comments. But before I sign off I'd like to say a huge thank you for all your support through my House of Cards videos. I have this show to thank for the early success of my channel and it's been an absolute pleasure reading all your comments. And I've actually put together an edit of Claire's Rise to Power which I'll leave a link to at the end. I'd love for you to check it out but I've got a lot more in the works so until next time this is Matt Rogers and that is all.