HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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.