House of Cards is a TV drama modern masterpiece with top rate actors and directors and based on previous British material. The first two seasons were near-perfect and a tough act to follow. The third season is slightly less compelling but still above most TV drama that ever aired.
Having enjoyed Kevin Spacey's consistent stellar acting, great guest directors David Fincher and Joel Schumacher who normally make movies or TV director Allen Coulter, the show has been mostly about acting and directing. James Foley takes the most directing workload for the first 3 seasons before leaving the show with varied success helming 12 out of the first 36 episodes. Robin Wright is an amazing actress and directs dutifully since season two too!
In general, the writing material matches the tone and tension and is clever and captivating in its own right, yet in Chapter 36, Frank Pugliese's screenplay steals the show for the first time. The right words are riveting and work even better than the hurricane metaphor of Chapter 34 which was trying to be a writer's episode. Frank Pugliese is also a producer of the show since season 3 and crafted a seminal screenplay in Chapter 29. He was spectacular with the Russian Arc and introduction of the Viktor Petrov character well portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen. Two 10/10 episodes for Frank (Pugliese, not Underwood) so I look forward to see what else he comes up with in Chapters 42 & 48 next season.
Two fists to the table...