Love me like an Underwood

House of Cards, the critically acclaimed Netflix political drama, released its entire second season on Valentine’s Day to the delight of many single politicos.

For those not familiar with the show, Kevin Spacey — a Democratic majority whip during the first season — connives, conspires and masterminds his way to the White House, where the second season begins.

The message is the same — Washington is a jaded and deeply cynical town where it’s hunt or be hunted. Its denizens are devoid of just about any philosophical or moral authority. Spacey is able to rule Washington, D.C., with his own brand of ruthless pragmatism.

Among the doom and gloom of the show’s politics, the marriage between the two protagonists — Francis and Claire Underwood, played by Spacey and Robin Wright — presents a fascinating portrayal of marriage few shows I’ve seen have been able to paint.

The marriage between the Underwoods isn’t one in which the loving wife acts as her husband’s chief cheerleader. Instead, it’s a calculating marriage with mutual ambition as the foundation instead of love.

The Underwoods are equal partners and accomplices in an extremely dangerous political game. Independent of the show’s brilliant writing, I can’t help but see the Underwoods’ marriage as a reflection of the times and, perhaps, even a more self-actualized version of the institution itself.

Women’s rights and women’s empowerment have gone mainstream and continue to transform traditional gender roles.

Marriage as an institution continues to falter with 41 percent of first-time marriages and 60 percent of second marriages ending in divorce. For our generation in particular, many millennials look at the institution of marriage skeptically — especially given apps like Grindr and Tinder, which have have led to the dispensability of intimacy.
Yet, for the first time, the LGBT community is truly beginning to grapple with marriage in mainstream society, a right they historically were denied.

In a way, marriage itself is evolving, and I can’t help but believe the Underwoods’ marriage represents the best of it.

Sure, there will always be people who idealize marriage as finding of his or her Prince Charming and having a house in the suburbs with the white picket fence. But given how much society has changed, marriage should no longer be just a hokey love story some are willing to rush into for the sake of fulfilling it.

Perhaps it may reinforce the idea of ruthless pragmatism House of Cards is founded on, but a marriage with unfaltering mutual support and a cut-throat passion for success as its bedrock is no less valid than one that began with a “500 Days of Summer”-like attraction.

If anything, the former may be a stronger and better marriage then the latter, as Beyoncé and Jay-Z can attest.

Perhaps my House of Cards binge-watching is getting to me. Perhaps I’m glorifying a relationship that places mutual success and ambition above anything else.

Or maybe I just really want to be told in true Frank Underwood fashion, “I love you more than sharks love blood.”

­— edsalas@indiana.edu