The latest House of Cards season 4 trailer has officially dropped (not long after the new poster), courtesy of Netflix, and that means the long countdown to the season has really begun. The next season debuts on March 4, and is dropping all at once like always. The show is at a crux here. The first two seasons were all about intrigue, while season 3 amped up the focus on Frank and Claire Underwood’s deteriorating relationship. It looks like the new season 4 trailer combines both approaches—as well it should. We’re getting intrigue, we’re getting sex, we’re getting post-relationship drama, and we’re getting a crazy election!
House of Cards Season 4 Trailer: Drama Amid Sheets, Suites
“You have no idea what it means to have nothing,” says the President of the United States as the trailer begins. Is it a rejoinder to his wife, Claire Underwood? To Heather Dunbar, his heiress primary opponent? Does it matter yet? No, because both plots will intertwine. The collapse of a presidential marriage—an event unprecedented in America’s real political history—taking place during a presidential campaign… that’s the blend of romantic and political intrigue we want. Throw in a few shots of Doug Stamper walking around looking serious, plus some illicit-looking sex, and we’re left to hope that House of Cards is diving back into the underhanded Nixonish intrigue (the illegal kind) that made the show a hit in the first place, even though it took a back seat in season 3.
What does it mean when the president speaks of the America Works program, of the country’s great future, with one breath, and says “We had a future until you started destroying it” to his wife with the other? Is that a problem? Is it even a conflict? Can a man run the country, run the world, as his own life starts to fall apart? That’s one question we’ll see in House of Cards season 4, but probably not the most interesting one. That’s a little different: What lengths will Frank Underwood go to in order to hold onto his power? What dreadful crimes will his chief of staff commit to shore up the Nixonian edifice of the Underwood administration?
House of Cards season 3 showed us that even Frank Underwood, the master schemer, had his limits. It threw failure in his face and forced him to stare it down. The new House of Cards season 4 trailer suggests that in this season, we’ll find out what exactly he’ll do about those limits. And it probably won’t be pretty for anyone.
