House of Cards season 6: Can the show be better again?

With season 6 of House of Cards approaching in just three months, will the show bounce back to a higher level of quality with President Claire Underwood?

Not only is there another look at President Claire Underwood, but she even got her own hashtag: #MyTurn. Whether or not House of Cards will end with her still in power is another story entirely.

After all, as outlets like Collider noted, the new poster calls back to the very first season’s advertising, and though House of Cards has seen quite the decline in quality since season 1, it’s clear that Netflix wants us to believe that Claire can bring things back to what we once expected.

Check the poster out below:

House of Cards season 6 poster. Image via Netflix.

The thing is, season 6 will operate in a fundamentally different place anyway. Claire has already “won” in the sense that she is in power and has set Frank aside. The first season of House of Cards is about how you come back after a loss and the slow climb back upwards. (It’s one interpretation of the blood on Frank’s hands that runs down the Lincoln Memorial. The other, of course, is far more literal, especially since he does murder Zoe Barnes.)

That means that season 6 can’t recapture the exact magic of season 1. However, here’s hoping the approach isn’t to go back to the first five seasons anyway. House of Cards has one season to tell Claire’s story — and Claire’s alone.

Although the posters are visually similar, there are a few key differences, particularly in the pose Claire takes. She’s not wearing a pantsuit — but rather the more traditionally feminine skirt suit. Moreover, she’s sitting with her legs crossed; Frank, of course, famously sits with his legs in a classic manspread in the first season’s poster.

Those little signals seem to indicate that the production team is still aware that Claire is not exactly like Frank. She may have learned from him, but she is not him.

With that understanding, the show might just be a pleasure to watch again.