By positing a Johnsonesque power broker and master schemer who wields cabalistic influence behind the scenes, “House of Cards” assigns order and purpose to what, in real life, is too often just an endless, baffling tick-tack-toe stalemate.

Or maybe it’s just a cleverly made Washington thriller.

After much maneuvering and malfeasance, Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a Democratic congressman from South Carolina, is about to be sworn in as vice president. He remains just as intent on consolidating his gains and squashing his enemies, especially the few who suspect a conspiracy. He is racing against time and karma: It is Underwood’s precarious limbo between power and self-destruction that lends “House of Cards” much of its suspense.

He is one heartbeat away from the presidency, but also just one step ahead of the truth.

Season 2 is as immersed in the battlegrounds of governing as “The West Wing” was: entitlements, Chinese cyberespionage, anthrax scares, parliamentary procedure, government shutdowns. But that Aaron Sorkin series on NBC ennobled politics. “House of Cards,” which was adapted from a 1990 British series of the same title, eviscerates it. And while the second season picks up where Season 1 left off (the tagline is “The race for power continues”), this continuation is possibly even darker and more compelling than the first.

Underwood still turns from the action to address the audience in the style of Shakespeare’s Richard III, but his cynical asides are not as clever as his underhanded actions. The conceit worked better in the British original, which was more arch and satirical and closer in spirit to “Kind Hearts and Coronets.”