HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

David Rasche, aka Karl, will always be Sledge Hammer! to me. One of the greats.

lol same

trust me, i know what i'm doing

many xps - thanks for the links to the locations jaymc, although it raises questions for me about where these are supposed to be narratively. idk i guess maybe the ultra-rich really would take a jet for what otherwise might be a 2-hour drive.

they would prob just take a helicopter

elon musk flew from san jose to sf once

they're all so unhappy aren't they? Loving it. Also loved Roman being the only one of the sibs who has any actual business nous, and even he got seduced into bidding for the dead media company that seems an even more bullshit idea than the substack-meets-the-new-yorker-meets website.

I genuinely wonder how many people watch this show aspirationally. Random comments I've seen around the nets suggest that it's kind of a lot.

That's depressing.

I mean, I'll cop to enjoying the peeks we get into these insanely expensive mansions and locales, but I can't imagine ever wanting to be anything like any of these people.

don't think i've irl loled at an ep so much before

Logan just so bored at his birthday party that he decides to make his kids fuck themselves out of ten billion dollars, to try and feel something

Loved the descriptions of Hundred--"an indispensable, bespoke media hub … one-stop info shop, high-calorie info snacks" because it sounds exactly like something Johnson from Peep Show would say.

"like clickbait, but for smart people"

it was honestly perfect & then even better for how quickly they ditch it for the pierce deal

kendall’s nonsense pitches are my whole life

“Info parcels...info parcels or info snacks?”

Extremely enjoyed how the first half of the episode was essentially an extended subtweet of the England and Wales Cricket Board by the show's English writers. Fuck The Hundred indeed lol

The deals and plotting are getting very byzantine even for this show, but totally worth it for Leonard Cohen karaoke.

kendall’s nonsense pitches are my whole life

"So my floaty kinda semi-pitch would be hardcore international news. From global-global to hyperlocal. Maybe focus on Africa. Every day. Like, 'What's happening in Africa?' Sub-Saharan east, Sub-Saharan west. I would watch that shit."

No you wouldn’t.

^^ pretty much what the Financial Times does

speaking of nonsensical word salad, tom's intro for logan was great. zero full sentences.

It's a network that teaches you how to watch it.

It's like Jaws if everyone worked for Jaws.

Man, that whole Kerry & Greg scene.

"The arms aren't right"

lol, I was just going to post that.
that whole bit with the guy having to open up his laptop

Yeah but obviously he would have just closed the window before connecting to the projector, I mean c'mon.

lol i thought the same thing. a rare miss.

"they're fucking jam smears on the highway"

so.. kendall wants to blow the deal up on purpose? matson told him point blank he'd walk away. what's he doing?

youre all needy love sponges…. and im a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me

I guess he wants to mess up Logan / get attention from Logan? Agree it was a little unclear but I feel we have established that Kendall’s daddy issues are capable of inspiring all sorts of self-defeating behaviour

matsen doesnt want to pay more $, why would he say anything other than ill walk whether or not its true?

Theorizing that he’s a canny observer of the family dynamic, similar to Nan Pierce, and he’s trying to obliquely create a situation in which he can drive Logan’s asking price down?

This is not a show that lends itself to following any specific predictions though to its credit.

he seems to have a major moment of realisation on the steps of the subway.

Good lines this whole ep but Roman's beatle simile was out of character. I guess he could have just watched get back on d+ but there's no way that dudes likes rock music.

i dont think the use of a beatles simile means anything other than roman knows the names of beatles

human

string

cheese

And this was a great line

pic.twitter.com/ZbeMJTULYl

— no context succession (@nocontextroyco) April 4, 2023

Yes

I loved the Beatles line. Can totally imagine Roman fruitlessly rubbing one out to a 200-hour Peter Jackson documentary in a hotel room somewhere

There's a sog factor

Ngl I don't really follow all the business stuff. So what do Sandy and Stewie want here?

Also Connor saying he'd seen karaoke in the movies but nobody ever wanted to do it was quite sad

It's like Jaws if everyone worked for Jaws.

This is one of my favourite lines of the whole show ever. Every description of Logan in that scene was gold. And his nickel and diming over pizza and people being too slow, OMG, I would be looking for another job so fast if I heard he was going to be doing that all the time (although I did notice that they buy Hammermill paper. They could definitely save some money by buying cheaper own-brand paper).

Loved how fast the kids, especially Roman, were able to shut down Kerry's anchoring ambitions. Sure, they had to throw in some Roy cruelty as well, but they got it done. Unlike Greg, who just made it worse.

Because unlike the kids he still needs to keep dad sweet!

The scene where Logan makes him mind-read him about Kerry was delicious. "Yes, uh, needs.... ahh? A little more time? Like...... years? Okay."

iirc Sandy and Stewie think Logan is selling to Matson/Gojo too cheaply. They want to form an alliance with the kids that will block the sale at board level unless they get Matson/Gojo to cough up more money. There may be some ulterior motive here that I don't understand but that does make sense on the face of it. If the deal blows up they make nothing, and they are investors, the whole point is to make money. For the kids that's NOT the point, even if Shiv keeps saying it is. The point is to keep fucking with Dad. To make him pay. Literally and figuratively. What I don't get with Kendall is that he seems to have proof that dad isn't lying when he says Matson will walk away if he's squeezed - yet he wants to go ahead with it anyway. ALl in an effort to get back at dad? But if the deal blows up... they can't buy Pierce! I mean yes all the kids are morons. But is Kendall THAT much of a moron?

Kendall wants to be seen as succeeding but as we have seen he is ultimately success-averse.

Because unlike the kids he still needs to keep dad sweet!

Right. For a second I wasn't sure why he handed it off to Greg, but of course it's so that when it goes wrong (which it was bound to), it's not his fault.

For the kids that's NOT the point, even if Shiv keeps saying it is.

I got the impression from all the lawyer talk that Shiv is worried about money. She's the only one of the kids going through a divorce at the same time that a massive block of money is about to come in, and she specifically mentioned that Logan shafted their mother with the exact lawyers he has now put at Tom's disposal. It seems unlikely, in the end, that Logan will allow Tom to take any of Shiv's money, but I guess neither Tom nor Shiv can be 100% sure that's the case?

Poor Tom wouldn't take a dime from Shiv imo. I just feel like with these kids it's not the money, it's what the money represents. In this case, making Dad pay. Although they do seem to say at one point that because they overpaid for Pierce they have to try this gambit.. but Kendall knows as well as anybody can know that it won't work. Not only will they fail to squeeze more juice from the lemon, they won't get the lemon at all.

what if ken goes full reject all money and worldly possessions mode? he's been talking very Buddhist lately. not that those things are totally connected but I could see that as one way forward for him

also the Ken and Shiv are so into SHINY OBJECTS it just floors me, and it kills me that Ken took one look at Stewie's #'s and decided to tank the deal. but maybe he's doing that intentionally? I dunno they all seem so dumb except Roman and Connor (who is dumb in other ways)