House of Cards season four: Neve Campbell joins cast as 'ruthless' Leann Harvey

Season four of the US political drama House of Cards was released online this morning and there is a new face around the White House - actress Neve Campbell.

The Scream star is one of several new strong female characters joining Netflix's dark comedy.

Campbell plays Leann Harvey, alongside other newcomers including Ellen Burstyn, who plays Claire Underwood's mother Elizabeth Hale, and The Help's Cicely Tyson as Texan congresswoman Doris Jones. Suicide Squad's Joel Kinnaman has also joined the cast.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Campbell's character is a "headstrong political consultant", says The Independent, while the Canadian actress told the BBC: "[Leann] is a strong, successful woman in her own right who is invited to help someone in their campaign this season."

She added she was sworn to secrecy about the plot: "All I'm allowed to say is that her name is Leann Harvey. That's it. Oh, and she's a lawyer."

Campbell's "ruthless strategist" makes a "useful foil" for Robin Wright's Claire Underwood, says The Daily Telegraph. The show is still "deliciously dark", it adds, and the new season has "a live-wire plot, with several genuine upsets and some mind-bending cameos".

Watching the show, in which Kevin Spacey's evil Frank Underwood is now president of the United States, has an added frisson with the race to the White House underway in real, life says the Telegraph.

"In contrast to the real life presidential race, there is, of course, the additional comfort of knowing that, no matter how deranged the storyline, it's all just make-believe," it concludes.