HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

couldn't find a thread, but i've finally gotten into this show over the past couple weeks and it's so good you guys. i've made it through ep 8 of s1 (the bachelor party) and that was the best episode yet.

succession-heads, succession-converts, or succession-curious, let's anticipate and discuss this acidic, mean-spirited, and addicting show,

FAM-LY THERA-PY!

Season 1 is incredible. I didn't clock it was created by one of the Peep Show writers till about halfway through, but it makes so much sense.

Yup s1 is great, didn’t know s2 was out

s2 starts sunday fyi

yea great show

Oh whoa wait, back up a tick...I'd pegged this as one of their lower-tier shows a la Ballers buuuut Peep Show writer, you say. Hmm.

oh not at all! Very very good! Watch it ASAP!

s1 was amazing but definitely peaked in the middle when it had less plot to deal with

Season finale was a knockout I thought.

finally finished season 1, the finale was mostly great, especially everything with tom. the chappaquiddick moment was a little on-the-nose imo, they could've maneuvered kendall back into the fold in a different way, but the payoff scene with logan and kendall was worth it.

agreed on every point there

fuck off!

loved this week's episode, seems like logan dangled the ceo position to shiv to get her to submit to him. what a terrible man.

really good ep, got chills at the end w kendalls monotone statement/threat to the takeover group, & the calm answer back of lets proceed w that then or w/e

ah, we have a thread now

yes, the final exchange was perfect

I'm assuming Shiv is getting played, given that we didn't see how Logan's conversations with any of the other kids concluded

I love the Arrested Development-ness of this show. I keep waiting for Brian Cox to mention the banana stand.

I saw their plan and dad's plan is better

"I'm looking for pussy like a techno Gatsby"

been thinking about this vaulter headline for 24 hours that’s just “is every taylor swift lyric secretly marxist?” pic.twitter.com/T7Mwey160j

— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) August 20, 2019

Because my father told me to

Did not realized the New Mexico brother is Cameron from Ferris Bueller!

i'll eat your sausage tom

"the doctors say he only has a week or two"

"remind me in a week or two"

fuck off

is this max on fire
https://i.imgur.com/Al77w6h.png

this show is so good.

this week's episode is out early btw

features an all-time Tom & Greg scene

i’m finishing season one

“I like your girlfriend”
“thanks, I met her at a sex party where she was giving a blowjob to the groom”
“you should marry her”

are you asking my PERMISSION to blackmail me?!?

prob the best show on tv right now? new cast additions are a joy. Holly Hunter! Zach Cherry!

hate all these people so much

like every moment of kendall on screen is anticipating how he’ll fuck up, while hoping he gets hit by a bus

Yep!

you don't hyper-decant ?!

Connor’s the most obvious representative of the hyper-moneyed class who never needed a particular ethos or organizing principle for their life (because: money) and constantly scrambles to find one because he’s deeply unconfident. But you don’t have to commit to anything or feel a real investment in efforts because, money!

I feel like they’re leaning into that directionless concept in season 2 with Roman attempting to learn the company

connor roy was interested in politics from a very young age

https://i.imgur.com/6wyaXiD.jpg

I'm kind of worried about his paid consort

we need a running tally of every time someone in the family treats a normal person like garbage, only to have a scene where one of their handlers is seen giving an envelope of money in return for a NDA signature in the background

another great episode goddamn. the cousin greg bit at the end was the cherry on top.

speaking of cherries, cherry jones was awesome, hopefully she wasn't just a one-off.

the maid shooting a knowing look at Kendall as he wandered by in the morning might be first first no-payoff-envelope scene where the whole family was present, but given the circumstances that probably isn't foreshadowing?

I think you mean cousin Gregory

yes, my apologies to the honorable gregory

Overjoyed to discover that hyper-decanting is actually real.

Are you an actress or a poetess or something

endless quotable episode but i partic liked
SPINNIE SPINNIE CHICKEN DINNIE

also "i think maybe the morgue is closing for the night"

i love this show but also i wonder if there's an audience of MBA dudes who view it as aspirational (a la Wall Street)

i mean when logan said "you want to hear my favorite shakespeare quote? take the fucking money" i was like "whoa badass" for a second

the pearce family are awful

Oh wow Shiv fucked it. I think the one to watch now is probably Roman? In that he's actually doing the stuff that Shiv was too impatient to bother with, and if there's anyone to have as any ally/mentor it's probably Geri (leaving aside the deeply weird nature of that alliance).

Love how Kendall literally shat the bed and was the one who actually secured the crucial vote in the process.

but ultimately did shiv fuck it? was logan really going to name her as his successor? it feels like he has no intention to ever name anyone and is just toying with all of them like he has done through their whole lives. they're all going to get their turn as "front runner" (except connor probably) but he's never going to hand it over. that felt like the root of him being so obstinate in the pierce negotiations rather than him getting revenge on shiv.

love how logan always calls roman 'romulus,' maybe he is planning to make him king after all

appointing an heir is the one thing Logan has absolutely no certainty about

Shiv's the most competent but ideologically off. bringing her in is a test to see if she'd run things in a way he could reconcile with his ideas

Kendall's thirsty and can be ruthless but previously wanted it without his dad's blessing, and he's just too fucked up at this point. could see him being cultivated as a choice now that he's in-house, but he's too cowed to be really respected

Roman's the wild card. could be good, has no focus or seriousness and has all the mental baggage of growing up moneyed but, luckily, not purely hungry for power

I dunno I got the sense Logan was sincere about Shiv at first and then promptly regretted it, it was less a matter of ideology and more down to her impatience, reluctance to do the management training course and general bad judgement.

He's going to end up leaving everything to Greg.

otm

He's going to end up leaving everything to Greg.

*Gregory

Greg the Egg.

gregory the eggory*

Intrigued by what was going on with Marcia in that last episode though.

xpost YES.

Episode 5 is a masterpiece.

My money's on Greg(ory) as well. I'd like a Greg only bottle episode.

the entire cringe-worthy panel discussion with the siblings tripping over each other was exactly what the family and we, the viewers, deserved

we hear for you!

no no no
we HERE for you
loved the various people around greg(ory) cracking up at that

you doing the old cocaine?

the relationship between mole woman and rock star has become one of the many (highlights) of this show
"i have thoughts, but go on"

https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/succession-season-2-cherry-jones-interview.html

Because it’s Succession, when I read the script I thought, “There is no one in this episode who is noble.”

Logan practically chasing down the car was the most pathetic moment showing that he's a big old weak narcissist under all that projected self-confidence and braggadocio

Season 1 felt way too caricatured for me, with characters not really going beyond their tics — Roman will approach a buffet, take a bite of something and put the rest back, and so on; Greg will raise the last word of every sentence. Costumes were fantastic, though.

But now season 2 (just watched it all up to now this weekend), and it’s a much better show. The characters are getting shaken out of their easy mannerisms, and just in general it feels a little more credible. And putting the Roys against the old-school Ivy League elite is really satisfying.

Ugh, and just after writing that, this episode goes back to Season 1 shallowness, taking away Holly Hunter character’s nuances and sophistication and the whole thing has a kind of BFA-LaBute-protege approach to sex and unoriginal swearing.

counterpoint: i really enjoy seeing Holly Hunter on television doing anything

Hard to see her have to deliver lines like “Kendall now has a bigger diaper to shit in” after a few episodes that work hard to credibly establish her tight-lipped New England manner...

I get the feeling that the character is purposefully chameleon-like and it was the Pierces who were tight-lipped New Englanders

and that she's playing for whoever is paying the bill? that was my takeaway as well. Unless the Pierce's are playing the tune and this is a long con...

upon reflection though I would agree this was not a strongly written episode.

ROY
CUNT

good to see 'cunt as a term of endearment' is now part of scotland's international brand

last two have been a bit bumpy and not as finely wrought tbh; hoping the ship rights itself tonight.

lol we’re really into “uhh pedo guy was a fun insult in south africa when I was a kid” territory here with uncle mo

and this situation with roman is somehow going... worse!

“Rights the ship”??? This is clearly another classic season plz

yes - it bangs

You can’t make a Tomelette without breaking a few Gregs.

fantastic episode last night. though odd that none of the roy children fucked anything up for once.

i guess tom and greg made up for that.

the hardest i've ever laughed at this show is when tom tried to say he'd never met greg and that cut to shiv losing her mind.

tom is fuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

they said they need a blood sacrifice, but really it's gonna be more like a sacrifice-by-marriage

good thing he signed that pre-nup, right

otm about the tom denying knowing greg scene, I was cackling

you can't make a tomlette without breaking some gregs

do you think Tom started out like Greg and was crafted into an oblivious but malignant exec by some similar svengali figure?

Tom has been working towards this his entire adult life and he's fucked.

I like how Team Roman being held hostage at gunpoint was almost the light relief from the general sense of clammy dread.

Actually it might be Kendall who's fucked and Logan has enough leverage to make him take the fall.

Have we done this yet?

👀 King @PUSHA_T pic.twitter.com/MRubMz0IJ5

— Nicholas Britell (@NicholasBritell) October 7, 2019

*snore*

not trying to start a feud or anything but I’m a little annoyed @HBO & Nicholas Britell asked Pusha T to write lyrics to the Succession theme, since they asked me to first and turned my version down https://t.co/MUywcSIYzq pic.twitter.com/q8OLy52krZ

— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) October 9, 2019

demi for president

omg. i'm an episode behind; glad to hear there seems to be a general consensus the last one was a winner.

I remade the theme song to #Succession in #MarioPaint.@Succession_HBO @HBO @NintendoAmerica pic.twitter.com/53yNTfzeX7

— ℝ𝕖𝕧. 𝔸𝕕𝕒𝕞 ℂ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕠 (@adamcatino) October 3, 2019

Perfecto landing

yup

Succession but everyone wants some of Logan's M&Ms pic.twitter.com/pTxIyXWen4

— my ass is haunted (@Buncahn) October 13, 2019

two amazing smaller moments:

greg complaining about his rosé
roman trying to get shiv and kendall to be serious and them briefly considering it before mocking him with baby voices

i love the brief moments on this show when sibling affection peeks out from behind the verbal animosity. even a couple of episodes back, i realized the connor actually laughed out out at some of roman's cracks instead of the usual exasperated stone face he gets from everyone else.

ugh the threesome stuff

So what's the consensus: Did Logan orchestrate the betrayal?

nah

or I take that back. He might have hoped that was what Kendall would do

Yeah, I guess that's what I meant. I don't think he and Kendall were in cahoots.

I am also curious how Greg came to feed Kendall the documents.

he did tell Kendall back in S1 that he had them

i thought the smile was more of a bookend from kendall's tv performance at the beginning of the season--before he was a groveling simp, now he might actually be transforming to the killer that logan dreamed he'd be.

i don't really think l to the og was behind the plan, but i trust the writers to make any scenario sing.

I think Greg only decided to back Kendall right at the end - it had the feel of something cooked up on the plane. Greg looked too shook in previous episodes to have been planning it all along.

sails out, nails out

do y'all think that kendall + logan's failed meeting with stewy was part of kendall's plan? idk how much he thought everything through, beyond the scheming with greg (and greg must've had those documents on the yacht at some point)

I was just thinking there was no way Greg would have had his sole copies of those documents in a folder in a drawer at work.

I think the tipping point was when Logan referred to the death of the kid as "no real person involved". Like this is the defining moment of Kendall's life and the event that's been torturing him for maybe a year and Logan just handwaves it away, while also basically admitting his involvement and complicity in the abuse scandal. Genuinely I think Kendall would have taken the fall before that moment.

I was half expecting Kendall to whip out a phone recording of that moment at the press conference.

greg totally had all the documents in a folder at work. the ones he had at the hearing were presumably the ones he snatched out of the grill before tom burned the others

Logan not completely surprised by the betrayal, but maybe not quite expecting it? It was only a matter of time before he could shift his self-blame for the kid drowning on to his dad and return to his scheming imo

He looked like he was actively proud of Kendall for shafting him.

he was definitely proud. It was the killer move

still not sure if he expected it to happen though (the fact that he knew the shareholders wouldn't accept anyone other than him taking the fall maybe points to yes?)

Logan was hoping for this outcome, i think. Bear in mind that we heard that the shareholders were going to call for his head so without any white knight on the horizon, he was going to have to back down or set the pieces in place for a coup that would allow him to go down kicking and screaming. Suicide by cop.

I still hold that the seventh and eighth episodes of this season were missteps and that Holly Hunter's character ended up misused and disposed of... two episodes of sudden build up for her to immediately become CEO so they can have her leave after half an episode? It was ill-considered in the way that GoT would throw in ballast characterizations for great actors to rumble around and then get unceremoniously torched by a dragon. But yes, they DID get back on track pretty fast and 8 great episodes out of ten means that, occasional filler aside, this is still probably the most compelling show on television.

which episode had kendall's rap

bro, don’t get it twisted, I’ve been through hell
but since I stan dad, I’m alive and well https://t.co/vV1w8xHxX5

— sheila girlface (@buttcasino) October 10, 2019

I still hold that the seventh and eighth episodes of this season were missteps and that Holly Hunter's character ended up misused and disposed of... two episodes of sudden build up for her to immediately become CEO so they can have her leave after half an episode?

This could well be the case, but we don't know yet that she's definitely gone for good. Now she's another person with inside information and a huge grudge against the family.

Sure, somebody could pick up the character later and write her better and do something more interesting with her (and i hope they do, I love holly hunter!) but the point remains that the character went nowhere fast this season and was discarded unceremoniously. This wasn't prepping for future seasons so much as it was padding this one.

one point that is perhaps obvious on the face of it in the trump era is that logan's character doesn't mind being hated or attacked, he just can't stand losing or, worse, being irrelevant. from that perspective, a messy public hearing over stewardship of the company is like oh i dunno an impeachment trial of sorts

i think the point of the rhea character was to just hammer home why the successor had to be a roy--rhea had every superficial qualification, but she didn't have the ruthlessness

eh, i think the point of the rhea character is that they had holly hunter. which is not to say i don't get why you would want to hang on to holly hunter! I'm kinda sad they seem to have let Cherry Jones go! But the build-up of her going from well-written secondary character to aspiring to the throne and fucking logan then speedily becoming ceo and self-deposing with no real impact to the story at large seems like smoke and mirrors to bide time until we can get to the real story. she became "no real person involved" and that's not clever conceptual metaphor so much as just lazily considered storytelling.
Again, though: I love this show! But it's so good that when the quality dips a bit that glares all the brighter for it.

I thought it was interesting that Brian Cox said that he and Holly Hunter decided that their characters didn't actually sleep together.

Do you think Marcia will come back to Logan?
I hope it will happen. He clearly loves Marcia. There’s this idea that he had this affair with Rhea, but I’m not sure that happened. Both Holly [Hunter] and I felt that hadn’t actually happened, that it was more in the minds of the kids. He does ask her to stay the night, but that was because he had plenty of rooms. His sell-by date on that sort of thing is near. The kids thinking they were having an affair was more them projecting.

That’s fascinating. The general consensus seems to be that Rhea and Logan were having an affair.
Of course people think that! That tells you more about those people than what actually happened. [Laughs.] That’s the giveaway. That’s frailty in human nature, I’m afraid.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/succession-season-2-finale-brian-cox.html

the show certainly implied the fuck out of it! either way it suggests rhea as a toy for logan to bat around and that's not something the show needs more of.

idk, the show intentionally kept that ambiguous. i think that it's an interesting part of the show's dna to keep some important details lingering under the surface, but not explicit. it's clear that the roy kids suffered some serious emotional (and probably physical?) abuse at the hands of both parents, but the show and the characters never quite spell out exactly what happened (aside from jokey things about roman enjoying getting locked up in a cage).

well logan does hit his grown son so that's a hint

Roman's sincere "are you ok?" to Kendall after the announcement felt rooted in that too

I kind of stopped counting, but how many times in the show does it seem like Logan is sundowning? The closet shoe pissing happens a couple times, he seems confused multiple times in later evening scenes or when jet lagged, and seems to be making more choices midday on purpose

yeah i feel like a lot of those indicators were early season 1 -- and i at the time remember thinking it was gonna be a different arc & type of plot that it ultimately ended up being

i think brian cox said in that interview originally they were going to kill off logan at the end of s1

Interesting article here that talks about the Logan mastermind theory:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/16/20915933/succession-season-2-finale-twist-logan-kendall-this-is-not-for-tears

And has an incidental paragraph that explains the utility of Holly Hunter’s character

i think the show intentionally leaves it in the no-mans-land between 'logan hatched a plot' & 'logan smiled for some quotidian reason'; logan was obviously proud, he was obviously pleased w the outcome on at least one level, he hoped it would happen but knew kendall had to figure it out for himself...not sure how *conscious* it was of a "plot" by him, the word "plot" implies that he was really trying to set it in motion when i think the truth is probably somewhere closer to 'intuited it could happen'

'created the possibility for it to happen if his son was who he hoped he was'

agreed on all counts

right, but he's also been trying in his own nasty way to inspire kendall to be a killer his whole life. it wasn't part of a calculated plan, just logan doing what he always does.

Kendall Roy what's on your awesome headphones while you plan to kill you father

https://robbreportedit.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/3.jpg

north american scum!

just finished this last night after marathoning all weekend . Great fucking show!!!

uh yeah he was playing that when he took them off xp

i know, was mostly commenting that it was a hilariously appropriate choice

i think he's listening to 'a christmas fucking miracle' by run the jewels

Tom eating Logan's chicken was awesome btw

fuck so many amazing scenes in this show though

and yet i feel like hardly anyone knows about it

it's awfully popular!

i'm sure i just slept on it myself but no one i know irl watches it

It's extremely difficult to get people irl to watch it ime

my mom binged the first season in two days

it's awfully popular!

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses)

Yeah to me it seems to have penetrated the collective cultural consciousness with startling speed - people irl are throwing around the character names without first referencing the show they're from already.

this show is so good

so many hard to watch scenes tho.

kendall's rap :s

at least once a week i find myself morosely thinking "L to the OG...."

haha.

finished season 2 last night. wow.

“look it’s a succession”- me pointing to a helicopter flying over nyc

— Catherine Cohen (@catcohen) October 18, 2019

tru

i was in the financial district of my city last week during the day on friday and i was seeing the dudes in their vests and stuff and just feeling like i was surrounded by succession people

saw that James Murdoch, of the News Corp Murdochs, is supporting Buttigieg and I had a big Succession moment

kendall says he's voting buttigieg, actually votes for trump

This show is incredible. Wasn’t even aware of its existence until two weeks ago. I’m not deeply clued into the TV landscape, but are people watching this? Visibility seems shamefully out of proportion to the quality of it.

That weekend retreat at the Pierce compound was maybe one of the best episodes of television I’ve seen. Penultimate Season 2 ep in DC, particularly Shiv talking the woman out of testifying, was some gut-level primal horror.

Really impressed by the entire execution of this. Doing a lot of things and doing them all very well.

I haven’t read this read this thread yet, watching the final season 2 ep now.

Finished S2 yesterday : great season, even better than S1, and that final ep was amazing.
so many great moments over the season but a few higlights come to mind : the Pierce/Roy families interactions, Roman and the hostages situation, Ken's rap, Ken's speech during the Senate hearing, Shiv's conversation with the witness...
And Tom & Greg are such a great comedy duo !
I agree that the whole Rhea situation was not satisfying (how it started, how she got so fast to the top, how she left...).
Marcia's "conversation" with her was great though.
Also, some of Logan's decisions over the season didn't seem very logical/convincing considering his charachter.
Sad to have to wait for such a long time until the next season...

Rhea was qualified to become the CEO and could easily have been given the job in the timeframe of the series (there's like a month between each episode maybe?) And totally within her rights to walk away at the clusterfuck she'd inherited.

did she fuck Logan though ?

brian cox says no, the characters shiv and roman say yes.

he urinated on her shoes

. I’m not deeply clued into the TV landscape, but are people watching this?

Everyone who works in media is.

SOLD.

WeWork, the TV series, based on WeWork, the book*, written by me and @maureenmfarrell

*Forthcoming!https://t.co/wOUP8fZHoi

— Eliot Brown (@eliotwb) December 11, 2019

heh yeah let's do this

as long as neumann has no input and gets no money, i'm in

Brian Cox. Cookie Monster. Two titans finally meet to discuss business....and cookies. #Sesame50 pic.twitter.com/l6zOiK6iPP

— Mashable (@mashable) November 15, 2019

i mean it's on hbo why not use the music

I finally got around to watching this show. holy fuck, so good.

The idea that anyone thinks Logan and Kendall colluded in thge last episode is absurd for all the reasons that vox article lays out; people are ruined by other TV shows I guess. This show is more like Mad Men than Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad.

The masterstroke of this show is that it can make me feel sympathy for completely loathsome people. Fuck, even Tom is sympathetic in that last episode. I'm quite glad Kendall did what he did though. He's the only person I'm rooting for and the only person who probably actually has a soul.

https://ew.com/tv/2019/12/11/succession-cast-entertainers-of-the-year/

CULKIN: There are some funny fan theories [about the finale]. I’ve been taking general [business] meetings and finding out halfway through, “Oh, the only reason why you wanted to take this meeting is so you can geek out about the show and give me your fan theory.” I had this one meeting where the guy had friends who had a fan theory that he thought was bulls—. When he told me [their theory], I said, “Yeah, that’s bulls—.” He goes, “Do you mind if I take a video of you saying it’s bulls—?” So I took a video of me saying it’s bulls—, and when I left I was like, “Oh, I feel like such a whore.” His theory was that all the kids were in on Kendall’s decision.

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2019 season is nominated in the 2019 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2019 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends January 31

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (4 minimum, 25 maximum, organized by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail by end of day today. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

Finally got around to binging this. Great finale. Honestly they could end the show right there if they wanted to.

The wayward son finally learning that he can only earn his father’s respect by becoming his enemy...that’s such a satisfying trajectory.

Same here - finally binged watch this whole series over the last couple of weeks. So so good. Amazing pacing, each episode seems to end on the sweetest of mic drops.
Curious about Greg's narrative arc in all this - did he turn because of his moral queasiness and/or granpa Ewan's threats? Or did he just realise that he was destined to remain expandable Greg sprinkles?

Greg.ory, please.

Curious about Greg's narrative arc in all this - did he turn because of his moral queasiness and/or granpa Ewan's threats? Or did he just realise that he was destined to remain expandable Greg sprinkles?

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, February 11, 2020 3:37 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

a combination, i think, plus some affection for kendall, the only roy who treats him kinda like a person.

Greg may turn out to be the secret protagonist.

i ran through both seasons of this as my first dedicated quarantine watch and i'd just like to echo a vital post above...

sails out, nails out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1kjQOrVL5c

https://open.spotify.com/album/74qSRQ7rIF8OrHAK5UptdA

Beats ghostwritten for his boy DJ Squiggle.

Maaaaan
I just watched the whole thing
It is so good, I actually want to watch it all again so I can memorise it all

I would love to see how the writing process for this show works. It's so tight and so much not said/shown/seen yet really coherent. How do you decide the Congress hearing is where you decide to drop in the amazing Tomlette/Gregs line?

Also:
-"Why is Greg here?"
-"I always ask that."

Greg could've been such a one-note character but he is great. Sneaky little dork.

This show has kinda ruined TV for me. It’s so fucking good.

can’t remember which tv critic it was, either MZS or alan sepinwall, who said Greg is basically George W Bush: seems totally clueless and out of his depth but actually really crafty and self-serving. he’s going to end up on top for sure.

Yeah, Greg is great. Borderline insufferable but still on the right side of the line. As I think I already said upthread, he makes such a fantastic comedy duo with Tom.

Not seen this discussed too much, but I'm a big fan of Peep Show and imo loads of the lines stand out to me as ones that could be Peep Show lines. (Maybe more in s1, or perhaps at that point PS was more familiar to me than the Succession characters, who take a little while to 'get')? E.g. 'That's not very weddingy' vs 'That wasn't very Christmassy'. Most of the stuff Tom and Greg say (the doggy bags not being pre-pooped, etc). This is no criticism btw, it's a great next development for people like me craving the next 'white toast is the treat' -style insight into peoples' psyches.

Oh apparently I missed a reference to 'Stefan Strauss' in Succession - disappointed in myself *adopts permanent Kendall face*

Interesting article: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/tv/succession-jesse-armstrong-hbo-brian-cox

"You don’t hear much about syphilis these days. Very much the MySpace of STDs" another line you'd totally hear from Mark Corrigan.

I've said it before, Greg is the secret protagonist.

Yep

I don't remember the first ep of S1 but isn't Greg the first character that we meet/follow ?

i think given the opening of the series it is BEYOND OBVIOUS that the plan is for greg to end up running the company

I thought that but Season 2 focused quite heavily on humanising Roman, particularly the sexual abuse subtext, and embedding the idea that he's smart enough to do it if he grew up and applied himself properly. Greg's machiavelianism feels heavily telegraphed which makes me think it isn't going to be him after all.

The other weird thing about Greg's character is that in contrast with everyone else on the show he appears to have zero interest in sex.

He's basically a 10yo (very tall) dorky kid.

Greg is the Candide character, we can't focus on him for too long because he's only barely there. He does seem fated to Chauncey Gardener his way to the top though.

I find it excruciating that S03 has been delayed and live in fear that the castmembers will no longer be available when filming is set to resume

I haven't seen Peep Show but many of the zingiest lines in Succession seem to come straight out of The Thick of It, so Armstrong clearly has that identifiable style.

Watch Peep Show!

I see Greg as more of a secret antagonist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU_Fom02PIw

I caught season 2 before season 1 which was dumb but two things from s1 I don't think were mentioned itt - Tom walking in on Shiv wrestling Roman and doing an immediate 180 was a fantastic made for GIF moment and later when they all go to Conor's ranch both Conor and Roman make this sheepish 'hi...' at Karolina implying they both have some probably-not-good past with her but no more is made of it. Roman watching the satellite blow up in the bathroom at the wedding also so good.

I just binged both seasons in less than a week and I feel like i want to cry / eat lobster / snort rails of coke / fly in a helicopter


- kendall ie jeremy strong fuck that dude kills me with his acting so amazing just jaw on the floor

all the intersibling/familial history stuff is so good & well acted/written

- all the shared moments between the siblings are gold & so real. those “are you ok. no really” moments of protectiveness/love in such a love-starved family are so good.

- same vein: when logan backhanded roman & kendall sprang at him DONT YOU TOUCH HIM felt very true to life w abusive parents etc. theyve clearly been through some awful shit (the story shiv tells of logan beating roman for 5 minutes because he ordered the lobster at a restaurant when they were kids)

- kendall wanting to come clean to his Mum when she’s clearly never been that for him (or any of them) & she uncomfortably puts him off & then fully peaces out the next morning to avoid it completely. Just gutting. you see the kid & the adult simultaneously in his face but also it is so obvious on that moment that he’s so broken that he cant stop doing it to himself

also

my fav scene in the whole show😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭#SuccessionHBO pic.twitter.com/uIqS6d4yOa

— Ken △⃒⃘dams (@_Abudejain) August 28, 2020

yay Veg!

- kendall ie jeremy strong fuck that dude kills me with his acting so amazing just jaw on the floor

a million times this

I've finally persuaded my husband to watch it, so I'm watching it with him (sacrifices!). We've just watched one of my favourite episodes of season one, where Tom takes Greg out for the evening to show him how great it is to be rich, and it's not really that great because they are separated from everybody else. This is definitely one of those shows that improves on a rewatch because you know what's coming. All those great and scary things you talk about, for example.

season 3 when

There might be a few things getting in the way of filming right now.

That should do a special zoom episode.

they really shouldn't

Sarah Snook has been stuck living on a friend's sofa in a Melbourne flat for six months. Even if HBO were able to film her with a drone during the one permitted outside hour of exercise per day, she's not going to have Shiv"s requisite hair & makeup.

Well I assume the scripts will be pretty tight by the time they get to filming at least.

guys i feel so lost what the fuck do i even watch now. i almost want to drag my tv out into the street, what good is it anymore honestly

I have not watched all of TV but I feel confident in saying this is the best thing on TV.

They should really do a zoom special.

Sorry, Microsoft Teams.

On the plus side, I feel this is one show which could actually weave the covid crisis into its storylines in a satisfying way.

Armstrong has said he has no intention of doing pandemic storylines iirc

(presumably they'd have to throw out his entire plan for S3 and any further future for the show to do so - but if there's no plan beyond S3 yet, I reckon it would indeed provide great potential plot directions once we have some idea what society will look like beyond this)

obvs veg is being hyperbolic but for those who have not yet read the thread
Top 77 Television and Streaming Video Series of 2019

those are great takes, vg. the brilliance of the show is in finding and shining a light on the remaining slivers of humanity and vulnerability in the characters. it's tough for me to imagine the next time i'll like a show this much.

i heard an interview w Alan Ruck on the succession podcast, and he had the greatest take on Connor

he said Connor doesnt read anything new that forces him to form an opinion. he would read old works of literature like Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past”, works are already accepted by others as being great, so he doesnt have to decide or do the work.

I found this highly amusing & otm

https://i.imgur.com/6JJrC0k.jpg

lmao accurate

lol

Okay, I haven't read the entire thread here, since I still have the last two episodes of Season 2 to watch, but I'm really surprised by how much I'm enjoying this. In a show full of embarrassing people doing awful things, Kendall's rap was amazingly awful. I kind of want a sitcom spin-off with Tom and Greg as roommates.

And for all of Roman's great lines, I don't know why this one killed me:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/71e62b7ea5c46fb1c4e0c51131c52b3a/58cdc6427a781182-19/s500x750/b8bfd6be753fb09d68fcca84cb1ba80ba928959c.jpg

"Excuse me, what are Greg sprinkles?"

Also, loved this little exchange:

Shiv: This. Oh. So you've been stewing on that?

Tom: Why yes, I have been stewing on it.

Kendall's rap was amazingly awful

The best part was you could see the cut to Greg being really into it a mile away but when they actually did it still paid in full.

otm!

J. Smith Cameron confirmed in the replies to this tweet that S3 is currently filming.

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/nB9sZlsg8S

— J. Smith-Cameron🇺🇸 (@j_smithcameron) November 22, 2020

yay!

yes finally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziBOCIgCaOk

:D

fuck off!

nearing self parody there but i am obviously on board

lmao at the jack & the beanstalk

Unfeasibly excited.

Lots of interesting details about Succession and Season 3 specifically in this profile of Jesse Armstrong. One to start with: there is no incorporation of the pandemic into the plot for season 3. https://t.co/ClMNecYLNS

— Succession updates (@SuccessionNews) August 23, 2021

thank god. real talk: the last thing i want from any of my favorite shows is for them to be in any way about or relatec to covid or the pandemic.

Starts in October! (No specific date yet)

:D

great article, thanks. I thought I knew plenty about Jesse Armstrong but had no idea he wrote the British version of That 70s Show, which I'm not sure I saw in the UK but possibly in South Africa? I was only young and was extremely confused when I later saw the US version, having only half remembered the UK one.

Starts this Sunday! I cannot wait. Two great interviews recently published:

Brian Cox:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/10/brian-cox-interview-kermode-succession-putting-rabbit-hat

Jeremy Strong:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/02/rage-pain-shame-all-mine-jeremy-strong-succession-kendall-roy

Really looking FWD to this returning, reading above, I think I wouldn't have minded if they added some pandemic stuff to the script, it's seems perfect fodder for all the 'Conheads' out there. Please, people, don't forget that Connor Roy was interested in politics from a very young age.

the juice is loose fyi

Was very mixed about the first two seasons, but tonight’s episode was so well done, just constantly moving in these unusual spaces. Much more jagged conversational rhythms and handheld camera work. Dug it.

i forgot how stressful this show is lol

Really glad they kept Tom and Greg separate for the whole episode. Tom’s hazing just felt like a redundant joke over a lot of episodes.

agree

plus i am now more interested in his private undeclared war w Shiv

*that 'the juice is loose' line was a jaw dropper from the person it came from, in the context. They really ramped up the worst sides of the Roy kids, completed with greasy Roman close ups, shiv snarling and smarming her way around, Kendell manic and maniacal...agree it's good Tom and Greg aren't an obvious sideshow again, but I love me some tom...and I really hope there's a fun storyline for the conheads.

this was a good greg ep

I think this show raises my blood pressure

oh god greg on twitter was killing me

i saw this yesterday & it made me lol, v good impression of Cousin Greg

cousin greg ordering coffee pic.twitter.com/vAEVqrxpoj

— Matt Buechele (@mattbooshell) December 11, 2019

I could object to this show on any number of counts, but it's so reliably entertaining.

While I was watching the Netflix reality show The Circle a few weeks ago, I realized that one of the things I like about it is all the Machiavellian jockeying for power -- forming alliances and making other strategic moves to gain trust and ultimately improve your standing in the game -- and that this is, in a way, no different from what drives the plot in Succession. When it's written well, that kind of thing is just really pleasurable to watch.

That stuff is a big part of what I enjoyed about wolf hall, and this show is weirdly similar in tones times too.

game of thrones, wolf hall and succession are the same show for me because of that, and I love all three

If this whole season moves at this new quasi real-time pace I might be OK with that. Watching them marinate was amazing.

Roman fucking himself in real time was glorious and almost painful

wtf is that the red scare podcast woman talking to Greg

omg yes that scene w Roman calling Logan was so good. he talked himself into AND out of the ceo spot in the space of minutes. incredible

also

i loved kendall in full terrible embarrassing kendall mode at his ex’s house taking those meetings

i loved shiv having a full tantrum AT lisa arthur in her office when she realizes she’s fucked

drop a rapid reaction TEDx. shit like that.

staight cut chinos

The Shiv scene with Lisa Arthur was one of the best of the series. As with this whole episode, the characters didn’t have the advantage of being in a space where they belonged (their home, their office, a resort or as a guest of honor), and seeing her reactions to rejection was so, so good.

https://www.the-fence.com/online-only/how-british-is-succession

luv 2 sneer at the sincerity of a satire on the damaging density of capitalism and then boast that I am proud to ask you to invest in an NFT to fund my essay

wtf is that the red scare podcast woman talking to Greg

― mh, Monday, October 18, 2021 5:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yes, she is an actor

I've only just realised this is actually extremely good and gone deep into series 1.

Yeah I kinda wanted to hate it going in but it’s just so well done

I feel it should be a bad show on paper .. but then again I was very wrong!

I'm not surprised that Brian Cox's performance is rarely less than a+ though

i had to try it a couple of times, the hateability of everyone was so through the roof lol

they are so purely evil but also human enough to transcend that one dimensional caricature beloved of Iannucci and co. God knows what I'm driving at here but idk.. it's very good should suffice!

i think of the show’s premise on a whiteboard:
“every member of a family is a version of Richard III - GO”

they are so purely evil but also human enough to transcend that one dimensional caricature beloved of Iannucci and co. God knows what I'm driving at here but idk.. it's very good should suffice!

― calzino, Tuesday, October 19, 2021 4:29 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Jesse Armstrong wrote on both veep and the thick of it

yeah the dialogue is similar, but different. Not so wearing in this.

"the cunt of monte cristo"

"it was piss"

lol

Succession's season premiere, it's highest rated episode, came in as the 26th highest watched cable show on sunday night. 25th was something called Girl Meets Farm. 50 Cent's BMF's 4th episode was 33rd. pic.twitter.com/x48HHeyqgG

— Danny Gold (@DGisSERIOUS) October 19, 2021

That doesn't really mean anything though, how does it rank with other HBO shows? They're almost never going to have as many viewers as basic cable.

Yeah it still made me laugh though.

Worse than "Girl Meets Farm", slightly better than "Teenage Euthanasia"

idk what % of hbo watchers do it through some sort of max app now but it's gotta be more than live-watching on a cable feed

does it

i torrented it so i won't be in there to be fair

I feel it should be a bad show on paper ..

It's not on paper it's on television

"old bread" I think was the line that made me love this show.
(with the sourdough starter as the gift)

Right, we watched it through HBO Max and actually, by pure coincidence and luck on our end, started it about five minutes after it started airing anyway... but presumably that still doesn't get counted as live watch.

Likewise. We were actually refreshing the app, waiting for it to pop up.

i never watch anything at the time it airs anymore, I'm sure I'm not alone

I thought it started at 10 ET (I was in Michigan on Sunday night), so I rewatched the last episode of S2 at 9, and then watched the S3 premiere at 10, at which point I discovered that it had already been available for an hour.

turns out that 60% of viewers were watching on digital platforms - about 900,000, up from 300k for S2

still probably not enough of a turnaround for Max

it's popular enough that they rented helicopters, that means something

happy to see Peter Reigert pop up
…who now looks like…Bilbo Baggins lol

loved this ep - always down for Roy sibling time
their individual decision trees are like crazy red string diagrams. i love seeing all the distrust, jealousy, ambition & childhood/family archetypes all converge and be so blended that you cant fully tell what anyone’s true motivation is

roman doing kendall AND shiv impersonations was gold

and kendalls meltdown tantrums at the end
is amazing how completely he truly is always, inevitably charlie brown & his whole family are always either collectively or separately lucy with the football.

girls count double now

We flew back scheduled.

I love how they just keep creating buses for Connor to throw himself under.

Don't threaten me Gerri, I don't have time to jerk off

i feel like i know a lot of people that would like this show but they just don't watch it.

Stopped halfway through S1 episode 5 i think when Shiv’s husband guy asks Greg to go back to the apartment for him and do some nefarious shit

why on earth would u stop
keep going man!

the sibling round table in ken's daughter's bedroom felt like a real high point for the show. i love whenever all the siblings are in a room together.
"i'm like 98% sure those aren't poisoned"

Tonight's episode wasn't as strong as the first two for me, just as far as moment-to-moment credibility. Still, into it.

please buy me Kendall’s jacket it’s half off at $1,447.50 https://t.co/ljmjYmevP1

— choire (@Choire) November 1, 2021

Watching Kendall continually flame out is a little exhausting. But I liked the intimation that Roman of all of them actually kind of cares about the other ones. He's the only one with any real affection for all of them.

v disappointed in Kendall on this one. that letter was a gift if he'd swung instead of ducking.

I really liked this third episode, triggered kendoll, back in da house, shiv's political ambitions thwarted, Roman being between a rock and hard place, oh! Gerri, sidelined by the trapped big bull logan, tom trying hard to heroically fall on the sword, for the family he wanted to be born into, so badly. Greg used really well here, I like him dropped into background conversations....about his thin wrists, lol

as an awkward, lanky man with thin wrists I related when he was really happy at being told his wrists were normal.

I can't handle Kendall's face for much longer. I mean, it's excellent, but it makes me want to cry myself.

incredible depiction of a weird rich loser

i once tried to stage an intervention for my parents when i was a teenager: this show is the only thing i hqve willingly participated in that has made feel the same levels of anxiety, discomfort, terror & unpleasantness

i have to engage my whole core not to leave the room 25 times per episode

i love it so much

i really love this episode!
but i always like the insane pendulum swings w kendall
his full embarrassing hubris high after fucking up shiv’s town hall, barging in & bro-ing with the show writer 15 minutes before the show cut to
hiding in fetal position in the server room, like a little boy hiding from punishment

but also like Logan & Shiv in this ep, as much as Kendall, the whole family have such terrible kneejerk instincts to hurt each other personally, but everything vengeful thing they do to each other takes another jenga piece of the whole structure down.
steeples fingers: it’s truly ~fascinating~

I didn't totally understand whether it was somehow kendall or whether it was disgruntled employees who set up the speakers at the town hall

also i kind of loved how the host of "disruption" kind of sucked and was basically the resistance version of ATN

kendall sent his assistant the “shopping list” to buy the speakers, the empty speaker boxes were in his office
i dunno that he could get any employees onside in such a short window of time to help w that
it was totally kendalls own crew

and yeah the disruption was as earnest & weighted w meaning as kendall himself which made it stupid & lame & funny rather than the cultural overthrow he was aiming for lol

am surprised he didnt unfurl kendall-as-che banners from the ceiling

All I was thinking is server rooms are very loud and hot and that is probably not a comfortable environment in that corduroy bomber jacket.

I liked the good tweet, bad tweet game in the back of the limo, Kendall does slapped arse face so well, seeing him yo-yo between privileged mania and cold hard realisations that rock him into some past pain is powerful, I liked this episode way more than the first two, the characters felt more like themselves from previous seasons. That's said, Roman in mega awkward mode is more pronounced than ever, barely able to stop contorting himself, I loved the scene where he just walks out on a conversation, like he done that a million times where he's too insulated from the ennui of real interaction to ever have to stay put and deal with any conflict or uncomfortableness. His uncomfortableness around Logan and family drama being the only context he can't just flip the bird to or walk away from the responsibility, hence the agonising

The actor who plays Kendall is so good that just the way he walks communicates the entirety of the character

I can't think of an actor who is so good at making simple bodily movements so expressive, and yet remaining entirely naturalistic throughout

That long corridor walk was a great piece of acting, no dialogue, just Kendall, deep in his head, the palpable inner dialogue of him coaching himself into the Kendell he wants to be versus the Kendell he actually is....insecure, unsure and barely holding thing together, it is a really good performance. Liked the Shiv and Logan talk as well, again, Shiv, wild behind the eyes with her own machinations and inner dialogue, seeing her own ambitions crumbling into the inescapable, immovable void, her stone cold father.a

It's Mondale I feel sorriest for.

also i kind of loved how the host of "disruption" kind of sucked and was basically the resistance version of ATN

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, November 1, 2021 11:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I got a Full Frontal with Samantha Bee vibe from it, and Ziwe basically confirmed that:

How did they rewrite Sophie to better fit you?

Initially it was more a Sam Bee-type, I think. They adjusted the character to be Sophie Iwobi. That’s a Nigerian name, so it was adjusted for my personality, but I really had nothing to do with the writing. I got the script, I memorized it, showed up the day of. I improvised things, but I haven’t even seen the episode, so I can’t even tell you what made it.

kendall sent his assistant the “shopping list” to buy the speakers, the empty speaker boxes were in his office

Thanks, I totally missed all this

That scene actually did make me think "I wonder what the vibe is with just general mid-level employees at Waystar/Royco" but probably I would not actually enjoy it if the show went more this way.

that scene w Roman & Logan is so good. Culkins subtle movements are so tellin the way he lowers his head slightly, and without really doing much just somehow pulls himself ~inward~ ….but even with his gaze lowered, he’s constantly watching Logan like he’s on high alert waiting for a stray backhand

Roman’s deal will never been completely explicated but it feels less like a “who hurt you?” situation — obviously, the answer is that everyone in his family is just constantly trying to wear each other down — but “who never paid attention to you as a human, with needs” which is also everyone

the fact he repurposed a fishing story to give a dad anecdote, and it was fishing with Connor of all people, jesus christ

All I was thinking is server rooms are very loud and hot and that is probably not a comfortable environment in that corduroy bomber jacket.

Yeah, that bugged me too.

So glad I stuck it out with S1. Bachelor party in the club episode was great television . And what an epic closing to the season

:D

the greg/logan private meeting went exactly as I’d guessed it would. amazing to just spring that on us, as everything in life seems to just spring up at greg

“what do you want?”
“what can i get?”
logan, somehow not contorting in frustration:
“that is not how this works”

S2 e1 starts too fast
Ken doll decompressing in the infinity pool for less than two days ?

christ this episode

i keep thinking about the poor chef/caterer and all the wasted food for that fuckin cliff-top summit.

Kendall and Logan hugging #Succession #Successionhbo pic.twitter.com/NYycu88hrJ

— tommy1211 (@wehaveagronk) November 8, 2021

i keep thinking about the poor chef/caterer and all the wasted food for that fuckin cliff-top summit.

This! But also, Adrien Brody was perfectly cast for the type of rich dbag that would expect that. "We're not lost... YOU'RE LOST!"

I like the way there was just this whole unspoken thing of the Roys obviously not believing the kid was really sick and Aaronson knowing they didn't believe him but also knowing and enjoying that they couldn't say they didn't believe him

and rubbing it in their faces by going into the city right after

Also, as they got further and further from the house, Kendall and Logan each not being sure if they had been set up by the other.

I loved this episode for showing both Kendall AND Logan getting played for absolute fools at the same time. Obviously Logan knew it going in, so he was going to play along, no matter what - it's part of the territory for him. Watching it slowly dawn on Kendall was great tho.

the weighted silences in this episode were even more intense than normal, its wild to watch logan & kendall, and the brody character too, all gaming what they *think* should be said but no one really coming out and saying anything real for fear it will hurt their standing, power etc

even logan saying what he says about kendall, which while likely somewhat genuine is also the sharpest knife possible given all that kendall is giving up to hold his current position. saying THAT now, that is like the emotional soap in the sock beating and you can see in the moment how much he does AND doesnt want to acknowledge it without saying a word about it

seems like were headed for tom turning government witness

yeah it would seem thats coming

naw, he's going to jail and converting to Judaism

or that

Matthew Macfadyen is just light-years ahead of all the other actors in this show

i do v much want him to go to jail, primarily for reasons involving the production and imbibing of toilet wine

xpost but there are literally no bad actors in the main cast

i really felt it when he was talking about how good the cold wine is

xpost but there are literally no bad actors in the main cast

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, November 8, 2021 2:41 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That's the thing about this show, there are a million thinkpieces about "what makes it so compelling" and "do people like or hate these characters" or whatever but I think it is extremely simple, we are watching a bunch of actors who are extremely good at acting and that is inherently enjoyable.

hard disagree!

The funny part (which I hope continues to evolve) is that Tom is so anxious in a masochistic way to play his role and sacrifice himself, but no one around him really cares or wants to fit this desire into the family's strategies.

lol yeah theyre all in denial about the investigation, totally focused on their power struggle

Yeah, agree that the whole investigation is treated as a minor issue/collateral damage, something for the wage slave mortals to deal with, the godly Roy's are busy throwing thunderbolts at each other, from remote islands and helicopters in the sky. I think the acting has always been the draw here as the characters are often unpleasant, but weirdly fun. I wince at and yet adore the nastiness on show, in this corperate backstabathon...as mentioned Tom's unloved masochism, Connor's sneering conservatism, Roman vicious childish tongue, Shiv's cold, transactional demands, Kendell's vacant social media greasiness....it's 6d chess with the divil himself, Logan. I like that they revisited Logan's infirmness and ill health again, it's a key driver in the succession story, the clocks always ticking and the pieces are having to move accordingly

Greg meeting Logan was almost unwatchable, like I can't fathom them being in the same universe let alone Greg trying to casually have a drink with his uncle. It was sublime, obviously.

so good

i rewatched this ep at lunchtime & noticed the weird dynamic between kendall & logan when logan is clearly having difficulty but keeps refusing help and kendall keeps letting it go & making excuses -
but it’s not to put him under.
i think it’s instinctive, like he’s weirdly protecting his dad from any appearance of weakness. in their family the “caring” thing to do is to help keep up the charade

like brody takes all of that to mean the family dynamic is broken and as an outsider he’s right, but in the fucked up, upside down world of the Roys, if anything it shows that kendall still cares? lol. its so crazy.

the irl island mansion

Logan and Kendall visited this Wainscott, NY home on tonight’s episode of Succession. It was mostly recently listed for $49.5 million but was taken off the market.

6 bd, 11 ba
11,000 sf
2.55 acreshttps://t.co/mcR6F9t16A pic.twitter.com/uzIAwVYUES

— Zillow Gone Wild (@zillowgonewild) November 8, 2021

love to spend 49.5 million dollars on a house that looks like a hospital

most of the $50m houses out there look like this https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/232-Gibson-Ln-Sagaponack-NY-11962/142505411_zpid/

they had to show you just how much of an asshole brody is

i have noticed with these mamsions there are often at least 2 bathrooms for every 1 bedroom, ratio wise. SO many bathrooms

mansions, even

rich people like to let their toilets rest a while after taking a shit in them

Why did they need to fly to the hamptons? Can’t a helicopter do that?

ever heard of an air transportation flex

the meeting scene was some crazy good acting and writing, I absolutely could not tell if Brody was lying about his kid being sick, could not tell if he and logan had colluded first, could not tell if logan was faking a heart attack (at first). amazing.

the three registers of Brody relationships we saw - to the supplicant (Kendall), to the serious-person-he-is-attempting-to-force-treat-as-a-peer (Logan), to the one he wants something from (Stewy) - were superbly done.

this show is somehow both sublime and totally trashy at the same time

the sweet spot

So the creator has talked about 1-2 more seasons and the fact that *someone* has to step up.

So who do we think is going to "succeed" Logan

*maybet Kendall? though there have been too many close ups this season of watching his face sink (closing shot this week, him walking down the hallway last week).
*Shiv got iced this week by Logan, though she gets shit done.
*Not Roman, right? It would almost be too funny.
*Same w/Greg
*I hope it's not some outsider. Gotta be one of the kids.

I almost think Shiv, though she's gonna have to get through Karl and Frank and that might be hilarious

Maybe it will be Kendall?

Also this season needs more Stewey because I hate him so much

greg will definitely be CEO in the last scene of the series - the opening of the series demands it

but i find it hard to justify a real plot arc around this, so most likely it's a last-minute lol at the end

narrative demands mean that Roman will get the chance to be CEO but will make "the wiser choice"

which leaves Shiv and Kendall, battling it out in the show's final episodes (after logan dies). probably shiv gets it but then ends up somehow being humiliated/defeated for her hubris?

and then, yeah, greg

Kendall also has that security guard who last week was all I know what you did in England at that wedding

Yeah what's the explanation for why Logan hasn't exposed Kendall as a murderer? Is the idea that it would kill their ability to survive Stewy? But if that's the reason, doesn't Kendall know he's dead meet once/if the Roys win the shareholder vote?

Yeah, I think it's just that a serious murder investigation will definitely trump *allegations*, which the Roy family thinks they can just handwave away and evade, as per usual. A murder investigation would almost certainly chase the shareholders away immediately.

The show does seem set up to tell Greg's ascent from nothing to the top, or at least Greg as the only one who carries on the family business at all.

I sometimes have trouble following the business machinations. What did Shiv do that was so bad? Just being pushy with Frank and Karl?

My take was that one of them whined to Logan about her micromanaging them.

Yeah what's the explanation for why Logan hasn't exposed Kendall as a murderer?

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, November 9, 2021 9:15 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

well logan was involved in the cover up

also just he wouldnt go that far

xp OK that is a good point

I sometimes have trouble following the business machinations. What did Shiv do that was so bad? Just being pushy with Frank and Karl?

― dan selzer, Tuesday, November 9, 2021 9:59 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

shes just walking around like a big baby shes got no finesse no sense for the people shes working with what the power dynamics are what shes knows and doesnt know, like in that scene she just needs to let frank and karl do their work not have a lil tantrum about how shes supposed to be the boss or whatever

pretty good depiction of inexperience, shes has ideas of how things should work but she doesnt really know

amazing ep. small things i enjoyed:
roman saying "after me" as he barges through the door someone else is holding open
greg ordering and then chugging a rum and coke before opining about the '60s
connor (sp?) shifting from passive doofus to assertive doofus

the entire greg & tom scene was amazing, there hasn't been enough greg & tom yet this season

btw mansions have two bathrooms per bedroom because you need an extra bathroom to make your toilet wine

when does connor get to run the company

poor connor lol

roman saying "after me" as he barges through the door someone else is holding open

yes, I loved this.

connor v raisin primary gonna be lit

feel like we're getting bang for our buck with tom and greg this season--i like it. That scene last night was amazing.

Just figured out now they call the President the Raisin. Somehow missed that.

This season has been exceptionally good except for the second episode. I'll be watching it and think "I can't wait to rewatch this"

That scene with Tom and Greg was actually painful, I knew so many guys in high school that would pull that, "let's fight, c'mon let's fight"... "what the fuck? I was joking dude, what's wrong with you" shit.

tom is so obsessed with greg

urgh, yeh, that tom and Greg stuff is, as Roman would probably put it, 'some bully betacuck shit', painful to watch, I love how loathesome tom is.

as said above, the actor playing Tom is amazing. I think all the acting is great but this week he def. felt like a man *burdened* by his future but it also seems like he's gonna fuck some shit up on his way out the door

there's a bullying aspect but i do think on some level he also wants to protect/mentor greg

Yeah he seems conflicted. Like wants to help Greg but doesn't know what Greg's angle is.

The dude playing Greg is good too, but Greg is kinda one note, as much as I hate to admit it. But it's a good note.

greg’s whole vibe with greg is very private school prefect & i enjoy it v much

Greg had some good Greg reaction faces this week, yeah, I agree there's a conflict for tom with Greg, I wouldn't say mentoring so much as inculcating and alliance forming tho. Tom eats so much shit everywhere else, he needs his egg, but the egg is already part of the family and not easily tied down, tom floundering and clearly in crisis is a loose cannon in the mix, for sure. the laminated prison folder stuff was so funny.

I think on some level, Tom really wants to be friends with Greg as they share this outsider status, but Tom is just too fucked up/brainwashed by the family to establish an adult friendship. LOL also feels like Tom is prepping himself for life in prison so he's using Greg as a punching bag for his alpha tough guy persona. And pushing over the coat rack was great foreshadowing.

lol tom in prison jostling some 60 year old account in there for tax fraud around making weird passive aggressive threats

i think it's interesting that this show is about how shitty rich people are without presenting a corresponding character like a working-class maid for us to identify with. it probably works better the way it is, where instead of seeing the lives of the people who have to somehow set up a lobster and clam bake on the beach of a private island, you just see the fruits of their labor and have to imagine what that's like.

Offering a "nice" character for you to identify with would be a copout. I think it's closer to right to say that you are supposed to identify with the Roys, and reflect that, were you in their situation, you would behave as they do (or, at least, as one of them does, since there's some variation.)

that's kind of Greg's role, no?

Yeah, and he's turning into a Roy as we watch!

Important not to forget that already from the outset Greg is a guy expecting a 250 million inheritance or thereabouts

biggest lol for me was Tom stressing about toilet wine

i love how every time Tom talks to Shiv about prison you can almost see her mentally calculating when he’ll actualy go to prison so she doesnt have to deal w him anymore

https://tenor.com/rS1d.gif

http://www.runningwithattitude.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PhineasFerb_calendar.jpg

also wanna say seeing all that food set out and Logan and Kendall didn't touch it made me super anxious as well but its so hilarious in the cold light of day. the rich just set out a bunch of lobster for set decoration! Don't even eat it

also

the fuckin RABBIT cam

i was dying. the amount of shit that functionaries are forced to eat and/or willingly eat in this show is horrifying and darkly/weirdly funny

Kendall also has that security guard who last week was all I know what you did in England at that wedding

I completely missed that that was what he was referring to

I think the idea that *someone* needs to step up is a red herring

all of the siblings are in this moneyed corporate purgatory where it’s just this grind of family/corporate bullshit where nothing really changes, and very little of their lives has anything to do whatsoever with the actual business the corporations are doing

I could see the final episode being some left field thing where Disney buys their entire company and tosses Connor into a token role to show that they’re committed to “maintaining brand independence” or whatever

dumping the entire perceived importance of these characters and their struggles into a garbage can at the last moment would be on point imo

yeah i think the title of the show def makes ppl focus on like, “well that HAS to happen at some point surely”

i think its a red herring too

also does anyone really care who ends up in charge at the end?

i’m sure there’s some corner of the viewers who are making #teamshiv hashtags or whatever but, no, I could not care less

omg totally forgot about the rabbit cam

i care for sure, i'm invested in the show and I hope it has a good*/funny/believeable ending

*pretty wide definition of good here.

I just don't want it to end like the Sopranos

dont stop believin

... starts playing as the door slowly opens to the boardroom, before revealing the new Waystar Royco CEO to be... *CUT TO BLACK*

it pains me to say that adrien brody was good in this

he really melted into the character. I forgot it was him after a few minutes onscreen.

he was great

I could see the final episode being some left field thing where Disney buys their entire company and tosses Connor into a token role to show that they’re committed to “maintaining brand independence” or whatever

― mh, Tuesday, November 9, 2021 2:36 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol love this

Just like The Thick of It (and In the Loop, a bit) this is at its best when everything is collapsing about the heads of the still-dangerous-but-quickly-losing-power.

Am expecting the ending if one comes to be determinedly low-key and revert to BAU equilibrium except new characters. No real closure (again a bit like In The Loop): the business will roll on and the waters will close over the Roys. Still rich, still dysfunctional, just not the centre of a corporate psychodrama anymore

Was really hoping Greg would just pop Tom in the chin with a right hook and put him on the floor, then immediately feel bad and act all apologetic babbling non sequitur Greg about it

Nancy Meyers approves:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWBgcPAvuBU/

scenes where Tom is trying to act “in charge” that doesn’t just involve sitting at a meeting table, especially any time he’s trying to be the alpha dog opposite Greg, might top the awkwardness scale. more awkward than Greg!

like what kind of aggressive posture is he taking, imitating the worst bullies from the water polo team from the boarding school he went to as a kid?

I think the acting has always been the draw here as the characters are often unpleasant, but weirdly fun.

I don't think there's anything weird about the fun-ness of the characters. It's meant to be a funny programme.

there's a bullying aspect but i do think on some level he also wants to protect/mentor greg

It's a class thing too, right? Tom is desperate to be a Roy. He even offered to change his last name to Roy when he and Shiv got married. He can't get over the fact that it was so easy for Greg to wander in to the family get together at the very beginning as a totally clueless, gawky rube, and now he's ended up being courted by Logan and Kendall, which is all Tom wants out of life and will never have.

Yeah, why are Logan and Kendall both so keen to get Greg on their side? I don't understand that.

Because he photocopied and stashed those papers about Cruises before he burned the originals. Also they think he has influence over Ewan, even though he doesn't really.

yeah, who exactly knows about Greg's stash - everyone? obviously Kendall and Tom know directly but did that all come out in the congress hearing?

dont think it came out

i think we have to infer logan knows obv

greg is the best, that convo w tom where hes like ~ ill ask to head operations of the buffalo theme park, perfect cuz he maybe means that ? but could just be trying to banter w tom

I love Greg's combination of cluelessness and basic survival instincts. The position of leverage he's in this season is all because he thought to make a copy of those documents in season 1. Like he's rarely sure what to do moment to moment, but he has an overall sense that he needs to look out for himself.

I feel like he’s often really sure what he should do (apart from maybe on the fundamental Logan/Ken q) but given his near-total lack of power and awkwardness has a hell of a time getting it. But he isn’t bad at it, in retrospect.

Like when he fobbed off the lawyer they sent around - he is quite good at flapping and shaking and yet still getting what he actually wants.

I'm not convinced that Greg has accepted Logan's offer anyway, his ability to hedge and be non-committal is a real asset. He might yet report back to his grandfather and stay with-yet-apart-from Kendall.

I don't think Logan knows the full depth of what Greg is privy to, he just knows he's important enough for Kendall to keep him around, which means he is at least an asset on some level and he can't let Kendall keep him.

maybe the show is called succession because at the end they all go to jail in quick…you know

I think it's called Succession because in the last episode some nimrod develops a cryptocoin called Succession, swiftly pyramid-schemes it into $6b of assets and hostile-takeovers the whole company

It’s implied Greg’s grandfather used to have something to do with the family business but is now completely divorced from the entire affair, correct? It feels like there’s still some ephemeral clout due to his lineage

"maybe the show is called succession because at the end they all go to jail in quick…you know"

this would be a great ending, no-one wins, last episodes are hard hitting individual stories of everyone realising the party is over and facing consequences. That said, it's unlikely, sadly. "Accountability....in this economy!!"

I think Ewan still has a decent share in the company? he turned up at that big meeting where Kendall was trying to overthrow Logan the first time (when Kendall couldn't get to the office in time)

Ewan pretends he's above it all but he's into it.

otm … he has a vested interest in seeing Logan get completely ratfucked

xp yeah, that was my impression? it’s been telegraphed in mixed ways, but I think he owns a portion but presumes he’s above it all by not ever showing up

James Cromwell playing the part like a delicious ingredient that’s best used sparingly and only on occasion

i kind of agree that we don't really "know" if Greg signed on w/Logan. unless we see first hand from Greg that it happened. Goes to show the level of trust I have in these characters

ewan voted to keep logan in charge during the last meeting. for all the airs ewan puts on, he doesn’t like to rock the boat

Yeah, I was going to say that Ewan's character is just another type of privilege being explored in this show and agree he isn't upsetting the apple cart, the critical, aloof position he seems to occupy gives him a false morality over Waystar activities when really he is just another pig at the trough

Speaking of Greg and Logan, the scene with the two of them and the rum and Coke was one of my favorites of the season so far.

I think the acting has always been the draw here as the characters are often unpleasant, but weirdly fun.

I don't think there's anything weird about the fun-ness of the characters. It's meant to be a funny programme.

xpost: I guess I didn't phrase it well enough but I meant that I find it weird that I'm enjoying / having fun with such unpleasant characters, it is a dramedy/satire more than an outright comedy to me, I think there is a genuine serious precision in the way it's trying to explore the personality types that do well in these corperate 'money over everything' environments and how the psychology is so fucked across many different people/personalities

How clothes reflect each of the characters is something that has gotten me through the weaker episodes in the first two seasons.

On that note, I liked what Adrien Brody had to say about his costuming:

What input did you have in the way Josh dressed?

Those were all based on the costume department and the creators being very collaborative with me. They had some initial musings about him being into foraging, and I loved that he was a much more present and youthful guy, in the sense that he’s very connected with the environment. He’s happy to wear a beanie, but it’s not just a fashion statement. He’s prepared for inclement weather in a way that they’re not prepared for and wouldn’t be prepared for, even if they knew they were going to go on a hike. He’s in his element, and I wanted that to be immediately tangible.

When Josh invites Kendall and Logan out on their walk, did he intentionally plan for Logan to get so exhausted?

I don’t think the extent of a medical incident was an intentional thing, but I do think creating challenges and exhausting them physically is a tactical move. Josh is far more prepared for the day’s activity than they are. That’s intentional: wearing multiple layers, having hiking boots, bringing two guys in suits expecting to sit down for a cup of coffee. He is ratcheting up the pressure. As for Logan’s condition, he’s looking to see how Kendall reacts to that and whether he’s caring for his father or not. He knows where things are headed and wants to know if there’s unity there or not. Logan not taking the smart decision for his own well-being, out of pride, provides insight into the potential self-destructive nature and blind spots by his ego or his need to project a sense of strength, even if he’s not feeling it. I think Josh is privy to all of that.

oh god, elderly guy with a uti is real and could be an entire genre judging from things I’ve personally witnessed

just complete brain vacation, magical when antibiotics kick in and everything snaps back to normal. hopefully Logan doesn’t get sepsis

piss mad lmao

I like the way this episode really leaned into how fucking boring it must be to be a very rich person who has to attend shareholder meetings like that.

UTI trigger warning, yikes.
i learned via my father inlaw how much damage they can do, it’s crazy. like everything from causing those exact kind of episodes (and worse if they have dementia already) and can even cause strokes & heart attacks

anyway, as always here i am saying omg this episode, but, omg this episode . I actually yelled at the tv for Kendall to get off the stage

pretty funny how absolutely no one believes kendalls bullshit

Do Shiv and Kendall seem to be running parallel arcs this season - one from within the company, and one outside it? Neither one is getting any closer to what they want, because Logan and his wake (human or otherwise) keep sweeping them away. I know the show's title means the major theme is movement in a power structure, but their respective stories this season seem really closely aligned, more so than loyalist Roman or disruptoConnor.

How much did Gregg just lose? It was in the hundreds of millions, right?

The actors on this show just continue to get better and better. Not a flat performance from top to bottom.

$250m

Greg's delivery on "would it be in any way possible to sue someone.... affectionately?" was all-time

grandpa has rescinded greg inheritance like three times already

doesnt seem like it was ever really in the bag

Greg's crush on kendall's pr/social media/whatever expert woman makes me sad, I hope they end up together.

I got around to watching the movie Zola last week, and Braun pretty much plays a variation of Greg in that one. Not a whole lot of screen time, though.

it's hard for me to imagine that dude acting in a different manner, in a different mode, but he really nails it. love how chaotic this was, how it was almost like a bottle episode w/characters getting to take occasional breaks in other areas.

in some ways greg's grandpa is just as much of a fuckstick as logan

He definitely is - at least Logan knows he's a venal bastard.

I actually sat there mumbling “Greenpeace? GREENPEACE?!”

no way that asshole is not donating all his money

Tom and Greg are comic gold!
I’m in the middle of S2…the bit about the ATN “we’re listening” speech had me in stitches

we hear... for you
is all time
there was an Apprentice episode where one fuckstick came up with a diet catfood with the tagline "see they're light" which has the same energy.

also good old romulus did pretty good with The Raisin!

the bar was admittingly low for him there though

This show nails a good balance between drama and comedy

yea it’ll be interesting if logan digs at roman @ all for the prez convo in comparison to his clearly berating shiv for her actions while he was piss mad (shiv “well what would you have done?” logan “not that”)

shiv's impressive the last few episodes. kendall is such a dumb dipshit.

yet another episode ending with kendall *crushed* --that shot of him in the terrible office, man oh man, and realizing his dad isn't coming

when ewan tells greg he’s donating his fortune and greg says “even my part?” and ewan says “yours was the first part”

*chef’s kiss*

that’ll teach greg for messing with roger pugh, ewan’s close personal friend!

i'm kinda glad i'm not binging this show i love savoring it the whole week but i will prolly go back and binge the whole season over a few days once it's done

like i miss so much b/c it's so dense. i forgot about Tom's "but he isn't even wearing a tie" until I read a recap.

also the doctor checking out the bagel rabbit!!!!!!

if he can do people, he can do rabbits

that rabbit is doomed

when jess in the background pinching the bridge of her nose like “what is my life”

connor re the president was brilliant too

lol @ shiv’s reaction to “Dad said I get European Cable”

fave thing this week was the frank/karl/gerri interplay as they keep trying to stall the shareholder meeting, karl is such a POS

and Karl finally wanting to go out when there was good news, to which frank threw his hands in the air.

this season is not as good as the first two

ha, i think it's the best one so far

yes all the vamping stuff was so funny! karl leaving frank in the lurch literally on-stage was amazing

i enjoyed "moon on a stick". presumably that was armstrong.

me too! obviously

(obvious if you know me, i mean)

I presumed the same