With Election Day upon us, here are some very quickie thoughts about the final season of House of Cards (which I binge watched this past weekend).

Most everyone knows Kevin Spacey (who played the lead, Frank Underwood) was fired from the show after the sexual misconduct/assault allegations hit last year. It was decided to soldier on with Robin Wright (who plays Claire Underwood, Frank’s wife) at the center. And that is one of the biggest mistakes House of Cards makes. Frank and Claire were great partners and adversaries during the first five season. Frank dies off screen between seasons. And with him gone, the show really flounders in trying to find a stable story and resorts to a slew of very outlandish plot developments to keep the things moving even though Frank is mentioned in every single episode of this season. It’s like he’s still on the show but you never see or hear him. House of Cards could sometimes strain its own credibility … but this season pushes way, way past that with multiple assassinations, an out of nowhere pregnancy, the brink of nuclear war, and many more things that push the boundary of belief. Can you imagine what would happen in real life if a sitting President just didn’t leave the White House residence for three weeks straight? Seriously. That is a major plot development this season. Maybe the show runners thought they needed to compete with an already bat-shit crazy news cycle. Thankfully, season six runs only eight episodes instead of the usual 13. Five more episodes would have made this even worse and it’s really, really bad already. I don’t want to downplay Robin Wright as Claire. She’s been great in all the other seasons and is great here to. It’s just the plot for this season is so choppy and ludicrous. Personally, I hated it and wish Netflix had just killed the show off when Spacey killed his career.