That's it, "House of Cards." You lost me.

Similarly, the third season of House of Cards spends a hell of a lot of time humanizing the Underwoods and other characters. To be sure—spoiler alerts!—recovering alcoholic and chief of staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) is still capable of going on booze-and-sex benders and killing innocent people, but even he thinks twice before finally dispatching the prostitute Rachel, a loose thread whose existence threatens the president’s reelection.

For all that, we are reminded time and again—and without irony—that leaders and policymakers are constantly balancing an impossible array of interests and tradeoffs. Even the despicable Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelson) turns out to be a complicated man who deep down really does want world peace. Domestically, he doesn’t imprison homosexuals because he’s anti-gay—hell, some of his cabinet ministers are gay, he confesses to Frank, and his nephew is too! He imprisons gays because it’s what conservative, religious Russians, who have suffered so much under post-Communism, want.

Like the titular Russians in that old maudlin Sting song, it turns out Petrov loves his children too. Several of the characters, including ball-busting Underwood staffer Remy Danton and Deputy Minority Whip Jackie Sharp, either walk away from politics altogether, trim their career ambitions, or recoil in disgust at exactly what they’ve been doing for the entirety of the series.