Well that was ... weird. I imagine the show is over, but who knows? Frankly, I thought the season peaked in episode 11 with that marvelous debate. What a great episode! Overall it was an uneven season. I still struggle with Claire's character. I didn't connect with her arc. Where did the turn of events happen? Why the switch back against Frank? How did she reach the point where she wanted to leave him? I genuinely thought that Frank's only love beside himself was her. The show constantly hinted at this, even through most of season 3. But then the last five minutes of the season happened, and we see he only loves himself. It just didn't jive with what we've been shown throughout the rest of the show.

Going forward, I don't see where else this show has to take me that I want to see. Doug's character has nowhere left to go. Frank's character has finally been boiled down to a man who loves nothing but power, not even himself. To hammer that point home, he went so far as to literally urinate on his father's grave and spit on a crucifix. OK! We get the point! The show has had its moments, but season 3 had far too few of them, and all the characters have become so unlikeable that I no longer feel I have a reason to watch the show.

I did enjoy the very realistic parts of it. The Victor Petrov/Vladimir Putin arc was interesting, as was the Jordan Peacekeeping scenario. As I said before, I really loved the debate and the backchanneling between candidates. I think they took some pages out of real life for all of those situations. Perhaps the most fascinating thing of the whole season was watching those Tibetan monks create the powder tableau. Very very cool. It's too bad the show runners have chosen to wallow in the mire of human deprivation. If the show is over, fine it's over and it ended about where we thought it was headed toward. If it's not, I think I'm done anyway. I have no interest in watching a show full of villains triumphing over people with good intentions. Even Heather Dunbar ultimately turned out to be corruptible, which I suppose is the show's final point: power corrupts.

Edit: further thoughts. One of the show's strengths was Frank's ability to connive and worm his way into power and solve problems. In season 3 he proved ineffective at everything. We had a hint at the end of season 2 that he was going to be effective, but ultimately that proved to be untrue. The season might have earned higher marks from me if he had at least accomplished something, but he didn't. Not only did he prove to be an absolute yewt to EVERYONE around him, but he didn't get anything done. He had no victory to propel the story forward. Each season ended on a victory note, this one felt more like defeat. Sure, he wins Iowa, but as soon as news breaks that Claire has moved out of the White House, he's not going to win anything again.