This is easily the worst season of this show. This is my favourite show, and this season betrays everything that came before it. Seasons 1-3 were absolutely fantastic pieces of television, season 4 was excellent in a different way, and season 5 was still quite good in its own way, even though it was most certainly a different show. Season 6 is a different show yet again, and it is not just because Frank is no longer a character on the show.
The writing is bad and the pacing is bad. There is no more believability like there was in seasons 1-4. At least the acting is still top-notch (that's the one saving grace the show has). At the start of the season, I felt like I was watching some sort of mystery show rather than a political drama.
Doug was the best thing about this season. I thought that Claire would have been, as she has always been arguably the best part of the show, however, this season just has her going completely out of character. There are some good flashback scenes to her childhood, and those had me intrigued, but unfortunately they were never really followed up on.
Everything that worked this season was never really picked up on.
I must say, although my review of this season is mostly negative, I do say all of this in relation to House of Cards as a whole. I believe that if I am looking at this season as a stand-alone season of television, it most certainly isn't terrible, but rather it's actually quite entertaining and enjoyable. The issue comes when you step back and realise that this okay season of television is following on from 5 of the best seasons of television ever made.