Chapter 54
- Episode aired May 30, 2017
- TV-MA
- 52m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
3.3K
YOUR RATING
Frank and his team work to leverage support in key states by any means necessary. Claire learns some upsetting news about one of Frank's friends.Frank and his team work to leverage support in key states by any means necessary. Claire learns some upsetting news about one of Frank's friends.Frank and his team work to leverage support in key states by any means necessary. Claire learns some upsetting news about one of Frank's friends.
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsThe text message shown at 0:38:14 includes the word "cemetary". The correct spelling is "cemetery".
- Quotes
Francis Underwood: When, and if, Garrett Walker appears before this committee, do you think he'll betray the party?
Jim Matthews: You mean you?
Francis Underwood: Well, that *would* be the same thing.
Featured review
"The older I get, I learn that assumptions are dangerous"
Was pleasantly surprised by the Season 5 opener of 'House of Cards', a brilliant and addictive show at its best, "Chapter 53". Generally was not as taken with the fifth season as much as the previous four seasons from personal view, and consider it one of the weaker 'House of Cards' seasons (the worst will always be the sixth though, a very wide consensus and for good reason) but that episode is one of its better episodes and set things up quite well with promise evident.
"Chapter 54" is about the same in my estimations, but if to choose which is better between the two maybe this marginally (but partly because it feels a little more settled on a story level). It is a quite good episode and fares quite well as far as Season 5 goes, but like the previous episode it feels like something is missing. "Chapter 54" again still has a good deal of things that made the show so great, but there are a few things that aren't as strong.
Lets start with the good. The photography is still stylish and classy, things that were the case through the show's run. The music again fits the atmosphere well and has presence without sounding like it belonged somewhere else, unlike Season 6 where all the episodes felt over-scored and like they had forgotten what they were scoring for. The direction is expertly when necessary, the rapport being increasingly ruthless Frank and icy in demeanour Claire is brilliantly written. Full of intrigue and chills.
The politics are hardly neglected and they are interesting. Frank and Claire continue to be well written characters, Frank especially has been one of the most fascinating lead characters on contemporary television (am not joking, and it's all personal opinion, even in the lesser episodes when he was still part of the show he was one of the main reasons to keep watching). There is some nice tension in particularly the interaction between Frank and Claire, which was one of the more interesting components throughout the season even in the lesser episodes. The performances are all great.
On the other hand, everything with Claire and Yates really didn't grab me at all. Yates is bland here, and throughout the season, the chemistry between them is nowhere near as electrifying as with Frank and Claire (didn't detect very much actually) and the writing between and for them is far too melodramatic. This was something that was apparent throughout Season 5 and one of the main things that dragged it down, am not kidding here.
Even when being less muddled than the previous episode, the season opener, and thankfully not as convoluted or as ridiculous as 'House of Cards' would be later, "Chapter 54" shouldn't have been afraid to adopt the "less is more" approach. Again, a little too much going on. The show is losing its freshness somewhat as well, personal opinion of course.
Again, a pretty good episode but not a great one. 7/10
"Chapter 54" is about the same in my estimations, but if to choose which is better between the two maybe this marginally (but partly because it feels a little more settled on a story level). It is a quite good episode and fares quite well as far as Season 5 goes, but like the previous episode it feels like something is missing. "Chapter 54" again still has a good deal of things that made the show so great, but there are a few things that aren't as strong.
Lets start with the good. The photography is still stylish and classy, things that were the case through the show's run. The music again fits the atmosphere well and has presence without sounding like it belonged somewhere else, unlike Season 6 where all the episodes felt over-scored and like they had forgotten what they were scoring for. The direction is expertly when necessary, the rapport being increasingly ruthless Frank and icy in demeanour Claire is brilliantly written. Full of intrigue and chills.
The politics are hardly neglected and they are interesting. Frank and Claire continue to be well written characters, Frank especially has been one of the most fascinating lead characters on contemporary television (am not joking, and it's all personal opinion, even in the lesser episodes when he was still part of the show he was one of the main reasons to keep watching). There is some nice tension in particularly the interaction between Frank and Claire, which was one of the more interesting components throughout the season even in the lesser episodes. The performances are all great.
On the other hand, everything with Claire and Yates really didn't grab me at all. Yates is bland here, and throughout the season, the chemistry between them is nowhere near as electrifying as with Frank and Claire (didn't detect very much actually) and the writing between and for them is far too melodramatic. This was something that was apparent throughout Season 5 and one of the main things that dragged it down, am not kidding here.
Even when being less muddled than the previous episode, the season opener, and thankfully not as convoluted or as ridiculous as 'House of Cards' would be later, "Chapter 54" shouldn't have been afraid to adopt the "less is more" approach. Again, a little too much going on. The show is losing its freshness somewhat as well, personal opinion of course.
Again, a pretty good episode but not a great one. 7/10
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- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 10, 2020
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime52 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
- 2.00 : 1
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