I think America succeeded in doing what we usually do, taking a good concept for a great story and then beating it to death and dragging out uninteresting arcs for no other reason than to extend the longevity of the series. Quality took a hit.

It seems very telling that we're a month and a half away from the 5th season, and yet there's been virtually no attempt by Netflix to advertise or market the fifth season. One cryptic 30-second trailer doesn't cut it for decent marketing. When you compare what they've done with marketing for Season 5 with the marketing they did for previous seasons, seems to me Netflix is no longer really interested in this project.

I'd say it's obvious Season 5 is the last.

@Renovatio said:

How do you guys think this version of House of Cards compares to the original BBC miniseries?

Ian Richardson's performance is excellent, and lines such as "you might very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment" that were all but dropped from the remake give it a sense of lost refinement. The scene when he tells the king something to the effect of "my family was here before yours was even heard of" is also great. However generally speaking the original BBC version is mediocre and comes off as having been made on an extremely low budget. In the end, it is at times rather boring. The issue is partly that the decisions made by politicians in the UK are just not of the same caliber, so setting the plot in the US does help quite a bit but still I felt it could have been made much better. I expected more of it given some of the rave reviews I read.

I think they did a great job with the first two seasons of the American version... However, I think from season three onwards it started to become a bit tedious and I gave up on it in the first episode of season 4...

The problem with the US version on the other hand is that from time to time it seems to be engineered to shock, perhaps looking to trigger some people who would then go on to protest and give the series free publicity. None of it offends me at all but it just comes off as over the top where an understatement would suffice, and actually make the story more believable: it is for example difficult to imagine someone like Frank urinating on his father's grave or criticizing God in a loud monologue while in church because he is obviously a very focused individual and none of this helps him advance his goals in any way while it could actually pose a problem if he is overseen or overheard, a possibility that cannot be ruled out. For comparison, the scene when he kills a terminally injured dog was from the same playbook but delivered much more intelligently.

At times it also becomes too focused on who is sleeping with whom in all configurations, needlessly slowing down the plot. If it were up to me I'd get rid of scenes such as the one featuring Xander Feng and a plastic bag or the whole "Threechum" thing to make room for more politics and plotting. Perhaps all this was introduced to attract a different kind of viewer in an attempt of reaching a broader audience.

Season 3 was the worst in my opinion, and S4 gets better again, so you might still want to give it a chance. I'm concerned for S5 though, as now that the original producer is gone, it's supposedly been made by the people responsible for S3. So perhaps it is going to be the last one after all if it really sucks (but hopefully it does not).