User Reviews

Frank attends a re-enactment at a Civil War battlefield near Spotsylvania. He comes to find out that an ancestor was killed fighting for the South. There is a metaphorical thing going on here with Ulysses S. Grant winning because he had more soldiers, even though he allowed his own men to be butchered. Events thicken as negotiations with the Chinese begin to go sour over a huge bridge to built on Long Island. The Chinese representative is a bit unstable and is a worthy adversary for our favorite Vice President. Meanwhile, fallout occurs over Claire's announcement of her abortion after a rape. Claire enlists the aid of the First Lady in her campaign to reform the military on these issues. A young man finds out that the abortion took place five years after the rape and moves in to extort Claire and Frank. The discuss whether to go along with his wishes. Lucas's contact is now seen as an absolute sycophant, living in abject fear day by day. Lucas is the target of greater powers. Meanwhile, Frank continues to bring more and more distance between Tusk and the President. Excellent episode.

Season 1 was a great season from personal opinion, with all the thirteen episodes that comprised being good ("Chapter 8") to outstanding ("Chapter 11" especially). Had high hopes for Season 2, and on the most part while it is not as great or as consistent as Season 1 it is still impressive with a lot to like. Albeit with the odd disappointment, with Frank having a tendency to dominate too much and the newer characters not being as interesting as ought straightaway.

"Chapter 18" is another very good episode, if not an outstanding one. Of the Season 2 episodes up to this point, so five episodes in, only "Chapter 14" and "Chapter 17" have been properly outstanding. The others are very good, just to say that is still a good standard for prime-'House of Cards', and 'House of Cards' in general, but at the same one cannot help feeling ever so slightly disappointed.

While certainly interesting, the Civil War stuff was a little muddled and could have gone into more depth.

Also really don't care for Lucas, he is not a compelling character and the way he has behaved so far in the season has mostly been rather frustratingly stupid. Am especially talking about with the fingerprints in "Chapter 16". Here his subplot doesn't intrigue or fit, and how it ends here is far too sudden and not a surprise really at all.

However, the storytelling and characterisation is progressing and becoming more intriguing rather than going backwards or being repetitive. The tensions between Frank and Tusk and Feng becomes edge of the seat stuff, especially between Feng. Frank has always been a fascinating and juicy character and it is great that with each episode of Season 2 he has become more dominant or unscrupulous. The previous episodes did have the problem of him dominating the episode too much and the newer characters not really shining. Not so here, his role is huge in "Chapter 18" but the newly introduced Feng and his suspenseful and brilliantly written interaction with Frank are two of "Chapter 18's" best assets. One sees a darker tone with Season 2, like the increasingly tense political edge the episode and show has, which is cynical and intelligently handled, didn't find it dull or unrealistic here and it has yet to be laid on too thick.

John David Coles does more than competently in the director's chair, allowing breathing space while giving momentum as well if not quite as tight as with the previous episodes' directing jobs. "Chapter 18" looks slick and stylish, with lots of atmosphere with a darker look and no trouble with cohesion. Nothing to complain about there. The music knew when to have presence and when to tone things down to let the dialogue and characters properly speak. The writing is sharp and has bite and the story does interest on the most part. Have almost forgotten to talk about Claire, found her and her subplot another two of the episode's biggest strengths, felt for her here. The performances are all round great, Kevin Spacey is brilliant as usual and Terry Chen is wonderfully off the wall as Feng. For me though, Robin Wright gives the best performance of "Chapter 18" and her icy yet also sympathetic performance is her best up to this point of 'House of Cards'.

In summary, very good but not great. 8/10

Why does Hollywood always have to make actors, who obviously can't speak Chinese, speak crappy Mandarin? What, no Chinese speaking actors in the U.S.? Most of the time I don't understand what those people say, so why bother to have them speak some language they never learned? It also happens when it's Japanese or Korean or some other foreign language.

Although, to be fair, Gerald McRaney, who played Raymond Tusk, obviously put some effort in trying to speak Mandarin as well as he could. I'll give him that.

I know my "review" is unrelated to the plot but more of an accusation against the whole industry, but I just couldn't take it anymore.