Spoiler Alert: Read ONLY if you have watched the fourth season in full

Netflix's House of Cards made its name by shocking and thrilling viewers with its political chiaroscuro and seductive cynicism. The show's gorgeous cinematography emphasized Washington's clean lines and sharp edges. The only dirtiness was Frank Underwood's, and his filth was philosophical. He's a pseudo-Shakespearean devil, a cunning exploiter of defects. The only character more compelling than Frank is his wife – Robin Wright's magnificent turn as Claire Underwood exposed the metastasizing ambitions of a political partnership, and her riveting trajectory resonated with real events. Through Claire, the show implicitly theorized the bitter and intoxicating vertigo of being – and becoming – Hillary Clinton, the brilliant ally and eventual political equal of a sweet-talkin', power-hungry southern man.

That's all to say that House of Cards was fun and dark, but also – and this is the key term – it was relevant. It no longer is.

The Underwood cunning is still fun to watch; this latest season is at its best when Claire starts methodically destroying Frank's plans in favor of her own. But something important is missing from the show's fourth season. That grim, satisfying resonance with the present is gone. Frank and Claire's perspective feels obsolete and the parallels with current events are uncharacteristically weak.

Take the House of Cards version of Isis, ICO: compared with its horrifying real-world counterpart, ICO comes across as a sad joke. Yusuf al-Ahmadi, the prisoner with whom Claire negotiates, even half-admits that while his anti-Americanism is genuine, his religious attitudes are more expedient than real. The teenage recruits don't inspire horror. They seem banal, about as shocking as the last mass shooting (can you even remember which was the last one?).

Just as the show's villains seem unimpressive, its emergencies, too, seem out of step with our own political realities: gas, for example, is at an all-time high on the show just when prices in the real world have plummeted . As for the election? The shenanigans to which the Underwoods resort to get Claire nominated as vice-president are tame compared with the events of this primary season .

It's amazing: House of Cards, that venomous riff on the evils of American politics, suddenly scans as not just retro, but naive.