House Of Cards - The Complete Third Season

Scotch-paunchy now-President Francis "Frank" Underwood (Kevin Spacey, with less Richard III-style direct camera address this outing, although he does mention a "winter of discontent") continues his reign of sluggish self-interest in the third season of "House of Cards."

Svelte First Lady Claire (Robin Wright, who also directed three episodes, sporting an annoying swath of hair over her left eye, sometimes colored brown, but more often blonde because it plays better in focus groups) escalates her ambition and asks her husband to skirt Congress and appoint her as UN ambassador. But she's often at odds with her Frank's plans for smarmy divorced Russian President Petrov (lanky Lars Mikkelsen), who accuses POTUS of "pimping out his wife." The real Pussy Riot band makes a cameo to continue to make their point about the former Soviet Union's lack of free speech.

The couple also disagree about Russia's involvement in the Mideast, a plan that is almost solved by Claire's rousing game of White House beer pong with Secretary of State Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson, one of many grounded and vibrant supporting actors this season, including Solicitor General-turned-candidate Heather Dunbar, played by Elizabeth Marvel; muckraking Wall Street Telegraph reporter Kate Baldwin, played by Kim Dickens, who's in presidential biographer Tom Yates' bed, played by Paul Sparks).

Former aide Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) is off the wagon and on the sidelines, but still scheming, a fox in Dunbar's henhouse, and turning dark(er) after a traumatic brain injury.

The writing skews from topical -- "it's humiliating to have to beg from some kid who was on Facebook before his testicles descended" -- to vague -- "imagination is its own form of courage" -- to cornball -- "there's a fine line between duty and murder." Obvious comparisons frequently pop up: "You kicked out a pit bull, and brought in a dragon," and "We replaced a dud [Walker] with an atom bomb [Underwood]."

A lot of the plot is implausible, such as raiding FEMA to start the "America Works" program, and allowing Tibetan monks a residency in the White House to create a Mandala sand painting, which would send the Chinese into apoplexy.

Yet the mock Democratic nomination debate prep finally and clearly lists Underwood's transgressions: "Negligence, nepotism, misappropriation of federal funds, a foreign policy fiasco [the Jordan Valley], and being loose with the truth."

The four-disc set contains season three's 13 chapters, episodes 27-39, as well as two featurettes: "Backstage Politics: On the Set of 'House of Cards' " (including a brief interview with "the Meryl Streep of stand-ins"), and one I won't name because it gives away the ending. But after a constantly tepid and sexless relationship, where "legacy is their only child," the forever secretly smoking presidential pair finally utters their passionate subtext:

"I should have never made you ambassador," Frank says.

"I should have never made you president," Claire counters.

"House of Cards: The Complete Third Season"
Blu-ray Set
$39.98
https://www.netflix.com/title/70178217