House of Cards (TV Series) Chapter 73 (2018) User Reviews

What. The. F!?

[lennholm82 · 2/10 · 28 April 2019]

I watched this episode a few weeks after it was released. Like the rest of this season I didn't care for it very much, the storyline made no sense and none of the characters behaved like any real person would.

After I finished the episode I thought "OK, so that was episode no. 8, moving on... hmm, strange, episode 9 doesn't seem to be available yet. Well it was kind of a plot twist at the end so I guess it's the mid-season break now..."

Didn't think much more of it until recently. "Whatever happened to the rest of the final season of House of Cards?", I thought. Only then did I find out that this episode was the ending of the entire series!

WHAT!?

What the h**l kind of an ending was that? How is this even an ending? It doesn't resolve anything. It doesn't work as a conclusion to anything other than a few of the sub-plots. It only sets up an even bigger mess that might actually have been interesting to watch.

There have been some terrible endings to great series over the years, but this one really takes the cake.

shouldn't have bothered

[paulstarr-14327 · 2/10 · 11 November 2018]

House of Cards is an excellent series, but Season 6 should never have aired. It really damages its legacy.

This was the ending to an EPIC show? REALLY?

[OGmacadamia39 · 2/10 · 4 November 2018]

I don't believe Doug would have ever killed Francis. So that was a weird end game plot twist. I'd have rather seen it be Claire. And there are far too many questions remaining to leave this to be the last episode.

2 points because Doug killed his role as always.

Just horrible! Read if you want to know how it ends.

[oppec · 1/10 · 4 November 2018]

Pregnant Claire (who is at least 50 years old) meets alone with Doug in the Oval Office. He uses the letter opener to threaten Claire by holding it against her throat. He slips and she's injured. Doug backs off and Claire turns the letter opener on him, stabbing him in the abdomen and then cradles his head while she suffocates him.

Unbelievably stupid ending to what was once a great series. I'm sorry I wasted my time and if this review saves even one person from wasting their time, my work is done.

!?!?!What!?!??

[tw231982 · 1/10 · 30 November 2018]

A complete letdown. Do yourself a favor if you read this:

Stop at the end of Season 5, and walk away. Go watch Narcos or something like that. (Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Slapped together ending, which makes you think: "What? That can't happen." and "That wouldn't happen..." scenarios that keep going on and on with side stories that end up with pointless dead ends. A lot of character die offs because they didn't know what to do with them all.

I think it would have been better if all the main characters boarded Air Force One, had a bird strike and they all ended up in the Hudson River and no one survived this time.

What a disappointment.

A decomposed series

[plmillernc · 1/10 · 7 November 2018]

This episode was absolutely the worst ending I have ever seen. It concluded a series that was terrific until Frank needed to be buried and then the series decomposed like poor Frank's corpse. Where to start? 1. Frank's death was described so differently it was hard to know how the poor shyster died. Bed?Floor?Murdered? 2. Claire spent most of the series waving the feminist banner when she wasn't having people bumped off. The most misogynistic person on planet Earth could not have created a character more over the top and unbelievable. 3. The VP never seemed defined as principled, just horny, a schemer or a political doofus. He had no center. 4. Did I mention the writing sucked? 5. Claire's speech detailing how Jane was dead, along with Catherine and Tom sounded like a ripoff from Michael Corleone detailing how he had, during the baptism, "settled all family business." 6. Claire's all female cabinet was like a Mel Brooks' parody. Were the creators and writers on coke when they wrote that? 7. Poor Tom's body was carried around, frozen, then defrosted, used as display when needed. I suspect controlled substances were at work during that writing session also.

8. And then the baby. What a plot contrivance that had no link to anything else that was happening! When was this magic baby conceived? When Claire was not returning Frank's calls, or as he lay dying on the carpet/bed/whatever? I kept thinking that her belly would rip open, an alien would pop out and Sigourney Weaver would kill it.

9. And the conclusion!!! Doug gets killed, with no resolution to his concerns, Claire is about the push the button and start nuclear war, Bill Shepherd is looking at art books, the cabinet is looking at Claire like she Pennywise, the Shepherd boy is stuck in jail and mother Annette's assassination plan came a cropper.....nothing, absolutely nothing resolved.

And we are left with Claire, Lady Macbeth with fewer scruples, a body count that would embarrass Tony Soprano, still president, still ready to destroy the world and no justice, no ending, no resolution, just several hours of my life that, along with other victims of this dumpster fire of a season, I cannot get back.

The house of cards just collapsed.

[ffiisshh · 1/10 · 11 November 2018]

The writers of this season must have taken a cue from the writers of Dexter. This was their formula: Make a fantastic show for multiple seasons, get the fans thoroughly engaged, intrigued, and personally invested in the characters, plot, and general vibe of the show,....then pull the rug out from under the audience and hit them with the most underwhelming and assanine finale. Give an infinite number of monkeys access to a typewriter, and you would have had a higher probability of a better conclusion to House of Cards. Sad...this was Netflix's one true flagship show, and they blew it!

Shame on you Netflix

[konvict_amin · 1/10 · 9 November 2018]

The worst final season............. You ruined the Series.

Thank God There Were Only Eight Episodes

[Hitchcoc · 1/10 · 6 November 2018]

I have little to say. This is one of the most boring and disappointing conclusions to a major presentation that I have ever seen. What a miserable mess. There is no suspense. Claire, somehow, manages to run everything. It's as if there isn't a brain in the political hierarchy. I watched this in two days. It could have been worse. There could have been another episode.

Really

[bjboulden · 1/10 · 10 November 2018]

I have never seen a season or an episode crash and burn as bad as this one. There was so much that could have been done. I won't spoil it but Netflix owes me 8 hours of my life back

It can't be

[phy_tri · 26 July 2019]

I keep waiting for one more episode to be the ending one! What a disappointment

I think people are badly misreading the ending

[CLNels · 10/10 · 4 November 2018]

So I have to admit, when I first watched the final episode I thought it was the worst finale in television history. There was so much posturing and proselytizing that I hated throughout this final season, so much betrayal of so many of the characters they had carefully built up (the treatment of the Jane Davis character was especially egregious in its pathetic caricaturic transformation), all in the name of the worst kind of hipster political and cultural "cred". I could write a novel of everything I hated about the writing, character by character, all season long.

However, with all of that said, why on earth would I give this episode a high rating? Because the one character they were true to was Doug Stamper. Yes, that's why I think people are badly misreading what happened at the end. In his own words (paraphrased to past tense) "it didn't go the way you think." Now i would love to write a summary of my interpretation of what happened, but I don't think I'm allowed to do that here. Too much spoiler content. However, I will say that unlike lazy, completely ambiguous dreck like the endings of series like The Sopranos and Lost, all of the information necessary was laid out there in front of the viewer. This was more like the original ending of Roseanne, in that no matter how much horrible writing, shoddy characters, miscast actors, and generally acting that was clear it was mailed in over the entire last season, it all came back to its roots in the finale. I have always thought that Kevin Spaceys presence made the entertainment, but Doug Stampers character, with all of its complexities, made the show. Kelly was nothing short of a genius this entire series, and he was true to bringing us Doug Stamper right until the last few frames.

So all I can say is, if you are a fanatic about the first 2-3 seasons like I am, watch the last episode again, ask yourself what you think Doug would do based on all the information that you have and everything you know about this fascinating character over 5+ seasons...and then ask yourself if you don't see it staring right in front of you. To me, this was one of the worst final seasons of any series I have ever watched...but the finale actually reversed that opinion, rather than cementing it.

Well... Hmph.

[cam-eagle · 6/10 · 6 November 2018]

Look.

I love this show, I love the aesthetic, I love the political intrigue and the drama, and I love the way characters evolve and change. I habitually go back when I'm at a series finale and watch the first episode to catch all the callbacks and see how the characters and setting evolves, and I'm glad I did. Doug and Claire are background noise in the first episode and they're the main players in the very end. I would have loved to see FU's story end, but under the circumstances seeing the two people his power-struggles damaged most come to blows is excellent. They both carry half of Francis with them and the final conflict shows us his characters impact even if they can't show his face. This I love, it's like poetry. And them both addressing the camera... Just yes (though it could've been meatier, they could've actually monologued a bit).

Doug killing Francis... I didn't even catch it when I first watched the episode. It's an interesting idea, showing Doug as a sociopath who idolizes the man enough to be the one to kill him and try to salvage his legacy, that's dark and interesting. It was executed pretty poorly and the reveal didn't seem very substantial, but I like the sentiment. Could've been fleshed out more.

But like...

Claire can kill Doug, that works. The problem is that she is still there, standing over a dead man in the Oval Office, forever. Like I have no problem with the episode except that it ends where it simply can't. As long as she is in office, as long as the Shepherds are after her, there's a story. What happens when they find a murdered man in the Office? Like what? And how can this be a true conclusion if she's still operating, if the conflict of her character is in no way resolved?

Rarely do I say that a season needs another episode. Most seasons are padded with marshmallow plots and empty calorie characters, but at least they actually end. One more episode to wrap up the Underwood nightmare would be everything, but this great series ends with just another episode.

Will Go Down In Infamy

[will-schwartz · 1/10 · 2 November 2018]

I want to make it very clear that unlike most viewers, I was excited to see what the writers of House of Cards could do without the presence of their leading man. For the first four seasons, and the allegations surrounding Spacey, I was in love with this show despite a lack-luster finale in Season 3. However, I fell off after the first episode of Season 5 for many reasons. It felt as though the show couldn't surprise its viewers anymore, the politics of the show's characters were adapted and betrayed to parallel America's political climate, and after 52 episodes, the show had quite literally shown its full deck. Come Season 6, and Wright taking over as leading lady I saw an opportunity for viewers to experience something new. Doug, Claire, Tom, and countless other characters have been just as complex and captivating as Frank in the past, and while perhaps no one has as much gravitas, there's only so much of the same conniving practices that you can witness from a character before it feels mundane. Robin Wright, an acclaimed actress portraying a phenomenal character could very well take back the white house, and viewers hearts.

With that said I have never witness a show's thematic intentions, it's characters, and it's integrity be so utterly betrayed in its final hours. I feel empty in all the wrong ways seeing characters of the past six seasons thrown around like rag dolls because the ghost of Frank Underwood willed it so. Claire is somehow eclipsed in importance by her posthumous husband, despite the writer's seemingly adamant intentions to move past that plot point. Yet the Underwood name is the least of this season's troubles, as the final episode is truly the worst series finale since How I Met Your Mother, Dexter, or Two and a Half Men to name a few.

Claire, a strong-willed and passionate politician is chalked up to the cookie cutter image of what every male republican fears a woman in the white house would look like. I am not implying that I too share this political affiliation, more I am tumultuously disappointed that the writers could not muster a way in which to properly write a woman in power.

As for Doug Stamper, his performance in the earlier episodes of the season provide the only psychologically engaging moments of Season 6. Kelly as always knocks his character out of the park...until his calm, collected, dedicated demeanor is usurped and replaced in the last ten minutes with a cowardly, idiotically sociopathic, and exceedingly manipulatable shell of what he once was.

The hyperbolic politics, the patronizing ambiguity, the soap opera inspired final scene, and good lord, the agonizingly atrocious final shot of Episode 608 culminate to form what is undoubtedly one of the worst series finales of all time. Never has a fall from grace been this quick and this brutal.

An absolute trainwreck of a finale.

[chunkylefunga · 1/10 · 4 November 2018]

Robin Wright hasn't been the same this season, and again in this episode her acting is off. But it doesn't stop there. Sadly everyone's acting is off too.

The lines felt forced, no doubt because the actors knew how stupid they sounded, and the storyline is completed contrived. There were too many forced plot lines going on, along with multiple storylines that were just completely abandoned this season, giving us zero closure about them. Even Lost closed more storylines than this finale.

Storyline wise, who the hell thought we'd give a toss about the Shepherds. What are they doing in the show? I don't even remember their first names off the top of my head. They were completely unnecessary in this season. Look I get it, they were obviously supposed to be Frank and his mistress in the original but you can't just rename them as their plot obviously now doesn't make any sense. It would have been better to replace Spacey with another actor, preferable Christopher Plummer instead of dealing with ghost of Francis.

And which genius decided that Doug would have murdered Francis. It's like the writers just chose to completely ignore everything we've seen about Doug. There's a 0% chance he would have murdered Francis. This completely ruined the Doug character. If I had to power to at least save the final scene I would have changed it to Doug having pulled out the letter opener, whilst laying on the ground, and sticking it into Claire's neck, with the final shot being Claire bleeding out, whilst holding onto Francis' ring. At least that way everything would have been cleaned up and we could see that things were going to return to normal, with the Underwoods finally gone and their storyline ended.

This season was nothing short of being a full on soap opera, with all the ludicrous tropes that go with it; why the hell did they write in that nukes rubbish! Honestly I'd have rather they just had cancelled the show than air this tripe. The house of cards did well and truly collapse.

Huh ?🤔

[sirkeith7 · 1/10 · 5 November 2018]

What the hell was all that about ? Totally shambolic finale to what once was truly excellent series. Complete disaster.

Wow! Thank God it's over!

[ats122 · 1/10 · 7 November 2018]

Not the worst series finale ever, not the worst season of anything ever, not the first time a show went on too long, not the last time a show will go on for too long, but the last time I will ever have to watch this show again fills me with both sadness when I remember how much I loved it some years ago when it was good, and gladness when I remember that's it's over and I don't have to watch anymore of this terrible season.

From brilliance to abomination

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 15 September 2020]

Never in the history of television has a show resembled a large pack of cards held high and strong for most of its run crash to the loudest of thuds to utter destruction in the way 'House of Cards' did in its final season, and especially its final episode. Have said more than once about considering it the worst final episode for any show, yes worse than those for 'Game of Thrones' (hold that show in very high regard on the most part) and (from memory) 'Dexter', and still stand by that opinion.

'Game of Thrones' final episode "The Iron Throne" may have made me truly mad and induced an over an hour long phone conversation with my brother talking about what went wrong, but it didn't make me want to throw something out of the window or make me want to punch the wall in the way 'House of Cards' "Chapter 73" did. And no it is not just that Frank isn't in it, like the whole of Season 6 there is much more to the problem than that. Couldn't even appreciate Michael Kelly's valiant effort in the acting stakes because of how badly Doug is practically character assassinated (far more complex than the one-dimensional psycho he was reduced to in the last two episodes).

Didn't even find the photography all that special here, it's not bad but it doesn't stand out, and the editing doesn't have the tautness it usually does. The music is ham-fisted and while that the episode was directed by Robin Wright herself sounded promising on paper, having been impressed by most of her previous directing efforts for the show, this is quite pedestrian work from her.

The script manages to be the worst of the whole of Season 6, and of 'House of Cards', and dialogue-wise Season 6 was very poorly written to put it politely. So that took a bit of doing. The sharpness? The bite? The complexity? The thoughtfulness? None present here, replaced by fatigue, convolution, cheese, absurdity and contrivance. Only Kelly is halfway compelling here, wasted by Doug's simplistic character writing and the out of character and eventually cowardly way he behaves (also felt that he over-egged it at the end). Wright is both wooden and over the top, Claire lacking gravitas as a lead and not capable of making decisions that have any logic. Everybody else looks disconencted.

From start to finish, the story is both drawn out and tries to have too many ideas and does nothing with any of them. It all lacks cohesion and there is nothing illuminating or interesting here. The episode is almost single-handedly ruined by the ending, which is to me one of the worst and most insulting ever endings for anything to exist and a disgrace to the 'House of Cards' name. Too melodramatic, too illogical and too anti-climactic, that doesn't make sense and destroys Doug's character. The big revelation is an intelligence-insulting slap in the face and then the whole episode, and season and show, ends with almost everything unresolved.

Concluding, don't use the word abomination a lot but that is the perfect way to sum up this season and show finale that betrayed every character, theme, event, basically everything 'House of Cards' stood for. 1/10

Worst ending possible

[aliahmadi72 · 1/10 · 1 February 2019]

It was by far the worst finale I've ever watched, the worst ending possible and a destruction to what was once a great show, shame on Netflix for ruining HoC with this nonsense season 6

Worst final season ever

[ajseitz-115-967056 · 1/10 · 5 November 2018]

For a show that I loved, this has to be one of the top worst final seasons I have ever seen. For 5 seasons we watched a train wreck. You wanted to look away but couldn't. I for one wanted to see everyone get their just deserves in the end. It fell absolutely flat. One of the last episodes Claire looks to the camera and says, "Do you get a sense of ending". Both my wife and I looked at each other and agreed it felt like it would never end. Had lots of potential, and they blew it.

Completely ruined one of the best shows

[tmate0421 · 1/10 · 28 November 2018]

The entire last season was shameful, but this last episode is the cherry on top. Shame on Netflix for having ruined this otherwise excellent series.

Intriguing final season that falls flat

[drtollie · 4 November 2018]

Netflix's ground breaking political suspense/drama "House of Cards" has finally come to an end, and like other presidents serving out their last remaining time in office this series ends as a lame duck.

This was a much anticipated show for this writer because there was interest in how they were going to address the Kevin Spacey exit. After all, it was Spacey that was a driving force behind the success of the show with his ability to talk to the camera and interact with characters with such ease. Although Robin Wright continues masterfully as Claire Underwood, her interaction with us the viewers seems forced and not as personal. In a previous season Clair only addresses us once, and that is to let us know she chose to ignore us. Now, in the final season, it seems President Claire Underwood has a lot to say - a little too much at times.

As for the newcomers to the show, Diane Lane (Annette Shepherd) and Greg Kinner(Bill Shepherd), both bring strong performances with Lane's character being the stronger. Although Kinner's performance is right on, his character is underdeveloped and never really fits well with the storyline. This is not the case with Lane's character, as we soon find out there is history between Annette Shepherd and Claire Underwood. But again, it ends up under developed and somewhat forced.

There is, of course, the return of Michael Kelly as Doug Stamper, Derek Cecil as Seth Grayson, Jane Atkinson as Cathy Durant, and Boris McGive as Tom Hammershmidt. All play their rolls well, but fall into a very forced and under- developed script.

In the end, the final season of House of Cards is weak in story and suspense. The final episode shows a final confrontation between Doug Stamper and Claire Underwood that leaves one scratching their and asking "What?"

All this writer can say in conclusion is, Claire should have squished the bird. That would have set a perfect tone to the the rest of the season.

People's inability to get past Kevin Spacey is limiting them from seeing this as an actually good finale

[spicypickle56 · 9/10 · 15 November 2018]

In the beginning of the season, I had my doubts. I got into my head that they were going to completely botch the final season, which would be a shame. As the season progressed, I found myself able to overlook the absence of Kevin Spacey. That's not to say it wouldn't have been 10x better with him, but it was truly great ending with what they had. People are complaining about how it's a shame that they made this season, but I think the real shame is peoples blatant disregard to acknowledge all that they did do, just because of Spacey's absence. People have given 1's and 3's, which, having read their reviews, I can tell you is not necessarily out of crappy production, but their detest for the show without Spacey. And even if they think it's poor production, I think that a lot of people went into the season expecting it to be bad, and didn't even try to like it.

Didn't like the ending, did like the Season.

[rockawaybeach-54245 · 7/10 · 5 November 2018]

As I am scrolling through the reviews, I am getting more and more puzzled as to where the extreme rejections towards this specific season come from? Was it different from the other seasons? Yes. But that doesn't mean it is worse. For me personally, I like the direction that the season in general took, it introducted several interesting new characters, it had some big twists, and it gave flesh and bone to Claire, a character that, in my opinion, was very difficult to read as opposed to Frank Underwood (also because we were able to hear his more inner thoughts as he conveyed them to us directly). We have gotten to know Claire Hale and the things the is capable of in order to retain her presidency and I definitely enjoyed that.

But did I like the final scene? Not really? Not because the scene was bad, a little bit over the top yes maybe, but because there are so many questions still left unanswered... Honestly, I liked this season and it only makes me crave for another one, this season's ending.

It almost looks likes they were not quite planning to quit after all...

Only got 1 star cos there wasn't an option for 0.

[bumberbee · 1/10 · 8 November 2018]

Worst ending to a completely unwatchable final season. First 3 seasons were spectacular. Robin wright's character was poor and acting was equally unconvincing. The way Doug died is laughable. A cold blooded murderer getting poked my a pregnant woman. The only way it ended they way it did is because the writers had no clue how to continue from there. Sad... Long live Kevin spacey. He made a mediocre show watchable for the last 2 seasons.