HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

on the official hbo podcast jesse armstrong said all the scenes of tom/frank on the calls were genuine audio of them on the call in the moment, like mcfadyen was at home doing the call in the middle of the night or whatever -and i guess they had a thing through the whold series where that was the case, actors would make themselves available to each other etc

i thought that was cool & kinda above & beyond touch to lend immediacy

i would like to offer a hearty fuck off to the home page of ny times dot com which had just enough leading headlines this morning for me to know what this episode was going to be about

^ exactly

did anyone else think that Tom was fucking with them when they first got the call?

Completely, and actually one non-realistic thing was that the kids didn't seem to immediately think this too!

The moment where I thought this was when Tom said to Greg "Logan just died" and Greg pauses and takes it at face value, when Tom has been hazing him with joke exaggerations for four seasons now.

Also, from the first episode, I guessed that meek Greg will rise to the top by the end. We'll see.

So in the fight for succession is going to be a big deal that Gerry was technically fired? I imagine that will come up.

I mean, Gerry has her pick of the courts, the police, and the media at this point...

does anyone know other than Roman, who she can emotionally control with a glance?

still smashed by this ep 24hrs later - hungrily reading recaps and remembering small details - best tv experience since twin peaks s3e8 and before that i can’t even think

greglets

it feels like tom, and by extension greg, is fucked. tom screwed the siblings to get in favor with logan and greg has totally tied himself to tom. unless logan stipulated something re: tom in his will.

i think gerri is fine, roman didn't want to fire her and didn't get around to actually firing her and no one else knows about it, at least no one who cares.

i was thinking that the first two episodes of the season did a great job of faking us out about logan dying this early in the season by setting up a season arc for him, he was going to focus on ATN and rebuilding it in his image and maybe or maybe not reconciling with the kids.

Tom should know better that just deleting the folder "logistics" and then emptying the trash isn't enough.

lol yeah better than nothing i guess

man this episode. had to wait until last night because we got home too late Sunday night, managed to avoid the spoilers though managed to get the vibe that something big happened. just incredible performances from top to bottom, Jeremy Strong is a weirdo but goddamn his face at the end of the episode.

with my father-in-law having passed a few months ago, it hit even harder and the processing of grief was really, really hard to sit through at a few points. but the different reactions all felt so real and relatable, especially the dark humor and stubborn disbelief. this show is at its best when it makes you care so damn much about these awful, awful people.

also excellent Tom/Greg action with the whole "Greglets" conversation.

Haha I loved "logistics", storing incriminating data in a way that's so hapless as to be almost endearing.

does anyone know other than Roman, who she can emotionally control with a glance?

― Clay, Tuesday, April 11, 2023 12:34 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

kerry knows, whatever that's worth. it was probably her idea!

Tom should know better that just deleting the folder "logistics" and then emptying the trash isn't enough.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, April 11, 2023 9:20 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tom should know from experience that greg will prob save a copy as a contingency

logan dying on a plane flying away from his sons wedding while withholding the very knowledge of whether he was alive or dead was perfect

tom should know from experience that greg will prob save a copy as a contingency

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Tuesday, April 11, 2023 3:27 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

was gonna say

yeah that was a nice touch lol

Fisher Stevens knows about Jerri too right?

The moment where I thought this was when Tom said to Greg "Logan just died" and Greg pauses and takes it at face value, when Tom has been hazing him with joke exaggerations for four seasons now.

Yes, exactly this! He's so credulous!

it would be a pretty shitty joke, even for tom

If I was the kids, I would leave them to it from now on and just take the money. They have nothing to prove any more. There's nobody around to be disappointed in them now.

Well that would be the normal healthy thing to do. Unfortunately the kids are too psychologically damaged. Logan is dead but his ominous shadow is going to haunt the kids and in someways it's worse because they will never know if he would have finally finally given one or more his stamp of "you're a serious person" approval. I suspect it just gets worse from here.

Yeah, children of domineering parents don't stop trying to please them or win their respect just because they're dead. Kendall especially seems likely to feel pressure to finally make something of himself now that he's clear of his dad, but his whole idea of making something of himself is still going to be shaped by Logan.

they want in the game baby its the only place to be if youre not in it what are you connor

One of the most skillful aspects of how this went down was due to the previous episode, which was heavy on the siblings going around behind each other's backs. Everything kind of prepared us for the upcoming drama being related to the deal being torpedoed by what one of them was doing and resultant drama arising from that, maybe some Connor wedding stuff, etc. The lack of foreshadowing was perfect.

otm

Also I read a bit about how they filmed on the boat by hiding some film magazines around so one camera could reload and they didn't have to cut, and I love that it was in the service of getting a performance and atmosphere and not to literally do an ostentatious "look ma no cuts" take.

it was a very effective choice

The episode did a great job of showing the relentless inhumanity of the world they (choose) to inhabit: the kids barely get a moment to consider their own emotions before having to subsume that to what "the markets" will think, above their own well-being. Succession (like Peep Show) is great with conversations where a character will make the vaguest possible principled stand, before talking themselves into actually doing the venal/scheming/selfish thing in the space of five minutes or so.

Tom’s been Logan’s punching bag so long even his torturing of Greg has no real bite in it. Remember the time he sent Greg repeated emails in the middle of the night and had those read by the select committee? That guy is dead, Logan’s right hand punchbag has been hollowed out from inside. Nobody’s going to protect him anymore so he’ll just try to latch onto Shiv again, cos this guy was made to follow.

i also kinda love that Connor & Willa end up having a makeshift ceremony with a few people. Carving out a little piece of happiness on their own terms, yknow? despite the rest of the day being an entire shitshow for both of them

yeah agreed while everyone else was getting sucked into the succession shitstorm they were out there living for love

So was the idea that they couldn't go ahead with the wedding because it would look bad later, ie if they knew Logan had died and just carried on? And they couldn't leak the explanation obviously, so they just told everyone to go home, and let them assume that Willa had backed out?

think maybe the word got out that logan died and everyone left there were still some stragglers there tho

There’s also the fact that Shiv told Connor in her very first sentence that Logan had been flying to Sweden

And yeah clearly everyone there has some kind of media connection and they want to be on dry land when the coffin drops

yeah i imagine the only hangers-on at the end would be maybe a few of willa’s own friends from the theater or whatever

and maybe a libertarian donor for Connor lol

https://t.co/wNXzjDCgSJ pic.twitter.com/kPehLKJ3DV

— Ross W Berman IV (4K+BLURAY+DIGITAL) (@RossWBermanIV) April 10, 2023

I thought they'd play up the insanity of Connor being more upset to learn that his father wasn't really intending on trying to come than he was that he was dead, but they didn't play that angle.

wonder how much of Roman's reactions came from the horror of his final words to Logan being that voicemail. does an irrational part of him even wonder if he killed him lol

oh he def does yeah

which is silly cause logan wouldve savored that voicemail lol

anyway I'm stoked for the toxicology report

the reading of the will is surely going to be wild

like he leaves everything to his dog or something

couldn’t get it up, cialis did his heart in, his removed shirt is covering a post mortem hardon

thanks for that unwanted image

absolutely wild how long it took anyone to tell con! shiv was giving ken and roman a hard time for how long it took them to tell her, but.... when anyone finally realises they need to tell con it's like an afterthought. he's not in the business so he doesn't count

and i love how totally incapable willa is of lying to him. she is impeccably honest

love that whole conversation between them, like even her little joke “well, not today anyway” about running away

there’s something about Con, the way Ruck plays him, that i just love so much
he has such a deep well of sadness in him, not even sadness, like, sorrow? melancholy? like charlie brown. but he tries very hard to disguise it & seem very surface & materialistic.
but you always can kind of see it.
i know as a character he’s often comic relief & in general just kind of weird but i think it’s his inherent sadness that i enjoy v much