[29] Slate journalist Hanna Rosin noted: if Frank and Claire Underwood were a real-life Washington couple and they were found each to be having an affair, he would be accused of being "secretly gay, turned on by women only when he can use them for a pure power play".

"[26] Willimon notes that "What's extraordinary about Frank and Claire is there is deep love and mutual respect, but the way they achieve this is by operating on a completely different set of rules than the rest of us typically do.

[40] Underwood and Claire engage in a threesome with their Secret Service bodyguard Edward Meechum at one point in season 2, but have otherwise largely given up intramarital and extramarital sex in favor of their pursuit of power.

[38] Underwood ultimately kills Barnes in the season 2 premiere, by pushing her in front of an oncoming Washington Metro train after she begins to follow clues related to the murder.

[44] Underwood is fond of the head of his Secret Service detail, Edward Meechum (Nathan Darrow), and it is hinted several times that they harbor unacknowledged sexual feelings for each other.

Meechum's death is one of the tragedies Claire mentions in a press briefing for a gun control bill she is sponsoring, and Underwood has him buried in Arlington National Cemetery, a rare privilege for a Secret Service agent.

Underwood is an Americanized version of the original BBC series lead character Francis Urquhart, a Machiavellian post-Margaret Thatcher Chief Whip of the Conservative Party.

"[38] In addition, in season 3, after an argument with Claire that ends with her storming out on him, a seething Underwood vents his anger by lashing out at the viewer; looking directly into the camera, he snaps "What're you lookin' at?!"

He persuades Vice President Jim Matthews (Dan Ziskie) to resign so he can run for the office he previously held, Governor of Pennsylvania, the race being wide open following Russo's death.

[55] Thus, he kills Barnes by shoving her in front of an oncoming Washington Metro train,[56] and frames her colleague and lover Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus) for cyberterrorism.

Season 3 begins with Underwood's presidency off to a rocky start: six months into his term, he is unpopular with the public, and Congress is blocking his attempts to move legislation forward.

Underwood convinces Sharp to get married so she can announce her candidacy, for the sole reason of sapping women's votes from Dunbar, at which point she will withdraw and accept the nomination for VP.

Underwood begins planning to maneuver Claire into the VP spot and to use the NSA to illegally obtain voter information and spy on the Republican nominee, Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman).

This happens while Underwood and Claire advocate for a controversial gun control bill for the sole purpose of creating an atmosphere divisive enough to weed out potential running mates.

Facing disgrace and possible impeachment, Underwood decides to declare war on ICO and allow the public to see the hostage die in order to distract from the scandal and create an atmosphere of widespread fear that he and Claire can exploit in the weeks before the election.

In the days before the election, Underwood pushes Congress to formally declare war on ICO, and orders the CIA to kill one of the terrorists and make it look like he had died fleeing capture.

With help from Stamper and campaign strategist LeAnn Harvey (Neve Campbell), Underwood has NSA contractor Aidan Macallan (Damian Young) stage a cyberattack on several election stations.

The series finale reveals that Underwood had planned to kill Claire as revenge for abandoning him, and that Stamper poisoned him to stop him from being publicly exposed as a murderer, to "protect the legacy from the man".

On December 24, 2018, the same day that Spacey was charged with indecent assault and battery,[71] he posted an unofficial short film continuation of House of Cards titled Let Me Be Frank to his YouTube channel.

[43] The Independent praised Spacey's portrayal as a more "menacing" character, "hiding his rage behind Southern charm and old-fashioned courtesy,"[21] while The New Republic noted that "When Urquhart addressed the audience, it was partly in the spirit of conspiratorial fun.

[77] According to The Kansas City Star's Sara Smith, "Frank hasn't changed, and neither has his brand of Machiavellian political theater" and "Spacey has lost none of his smarmy magnetism as the cartoon-ish villain".

"[23] Chuck Barney of the San Jose Mercury News notes that the preview episodes show that "Frank's "Survivor"-like back-stabbing is beginning to feel a bit repetitive."

Even his showdowns with the president (Michel Gill) come off as one-sided..."[80] Verne Gay of Newsday notes that "Frank Underwood has no remorse, no superannuated sense of Washington tradition or decorum, and certainly no second thoughts.

"[81] Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times says "By positing a Johnsonesque power broker and master schemer who wields cabalistic influence behind the scenes, House of Cards assigns order and purpose to what, in real life, is too often just an endless, baffling tick-tack-toe stalemate.

[83] New York Observer critic Drew Grant notes that although the series aired during the golden age of dramatic antiheroes, Underwood's villainy has become trite: "House of Cards is a good reminder, however, that there is a reason Iago wasn't the center of Othello.

Don Kaplan of The New York Daily News wrote, "Underwood's bottomless appetite for dark dealing keeps Spacey so deliciously detestable you can't help but keep rooting for the bad guy to win.

"[T]heir partnership has morphed into an entirely professional exercise, with a shared lust for power having supplanted more conventional matrimonial bonds," wrote Brian Lowry of Variety.

[92] Brian Moyland of The Guardian wrote: House of Cards has never felt like the real presidency: Frank Underwood is evil incarnate, bumping off junior Congressmen and pushing journalists in front of trains.

Emily VanDerWerff of Vox Media called Spacey's performance "hamstanding", and said, "It's as if House of Cards wants to make Frank go full authoritarian dictator, but lacks the wherewithal to actually push its reality toward some sort of alternate dystopia.

[99] "In a deliciously cynical flourish, the commander-in-chief's response to whisperings about his misdeeds is to conjure a bogeyman in the shape of terrorist group Ico, which he presents as a clear and imminent danger to America," Ed Power wrote for The Telegraph.