Anna Daniels
Though she’s currently starring on a well-liked network drama in Manifest, Athena Karkanis has frequently looked to the land of streaming for work. On the mixed-bag final season of Netflix’s flagship drama House of Cards, the actress made a distinctive impression when she turned up as the fiercely conservative political pundit Melody Cruz.
The final season of House of Cards was hindered dramatically by the dismissal of star Kevin Spacey in the wake of his many alleged misdeeds — not to mention a radically shifting real-life political landscape at the time that was proving far stranger than any small-screen fiction could conjure. Still, the House of Cards team tried to make the most of a turbulent situation, and brought the series home with a shocker of a concluding season that didn’t quite stick the proverbial landing.
Part of the House of Cards creative team’s strategy in their post-Spacey world was to bolster the narrative with a fresh wave of controversial characters. One of the more prominent figures in that landscape was Karkanis’ Melody, who spends much of her time on the series skewering Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood for her many trespasses.
Though she ultimately played a smaller role on House of Cards‘ final season initially teased, Karkanis still brought fevered energy to the role, and helped make Melody Cruz both a despicable caricature and a brutally honest depiction of talking head culture in the current political ecosystem.
Written by: Looper
