HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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

Agree, extremely sad character and even in an episode full of despair he’s telling you about how Scrooge was a wealth creator

"they never tell you that"

"how convenient"

he’s fucking heavily delayed

― LaMDA barry-stanners (||||||||)

hooted out loud at this

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

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, April 11, 2023 6:18 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's a character that could have gone wrong so many times and ruck just sticks the landing scene after scene after scene

from a Brian Cox interview:

There’s intentional vagueness about the timeline of Logan’s death in this episode. Do you think he heard Roman’s final “Fuck you” voice-mail?

No, it was too late.

Yeah I didn’t think that mattered so much as how a Roman felt about it

Yeah he's clearly pretty ruined by it

Roffle

🧵 “Hall and Murdoch finalized their divorce two months later. (One of the terms of the settlement was that Hall couldn’t give story ideas to the writers on Succession.) Hall told friends she had to move everything out of the Bel Air estate within 30 days and show receipts… https://t.co/ZsiQnl4rLA

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) April 12, 2023

Wow, what a loser.

unfortunately this was spoiled for me by news outlets before I got a chance to watch, but wow what a ride.

my favorite part was kendall on the phone to his assistant asking for a conference call to be organized with the airplane medicine expert and the best heart doctor in america, and he wants the invite out in the next 2 minutes. 100% chance his assistant was in fact able to organize a call for later that day, and 100% chance that kendall just ignores it.

^^otm

also otm

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

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, April 11, 2023 11:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

you cant talk to the pilot son hes flying the plane

well just make sure he does it right

season 1 feels like a billion years ago, easy to forget that kendall and frank have (had?) an actual mentor/mentee relationship and that frank backed kendall during his takeover attempt

Love when Frank punched the wall of the airplane after Kendall asked to speak to the pilot

there's also this bit when connor first enters the war room where roman awkwardly takes connor's hand to comfort him, it almost looks like roman tripped or something. felt like a really pitch perfect expression of roman feeling guilty that they hadn't told connor until now and trying to overcompensate by being the compassionate brother he never was

Also Roman being skeeved out by physical contact with another human being.

the way Frank talks to/handles Kendall in that gentle fatherly way is so good, knowing that Frank is simultaneously ready to strangle hom

wonder how much of Roman's reactions came from the horror of his final words to Logan being that voicemail.

the horror of realizing that Logan will not, in fact, see you next Tuesday

I wonder if it took time for Armstrong et al to decide whether or not Roman would be on the flight (as Logan had requested of him) rather than be with the siblings at the wedding.

Nice touch that Shiv had been sent some time before to tell Connor that Logan wasn't coming to the wedding but she was just out there making small talk with randoms instead.

Lip balm Tom Wam

I'm on twin track.

Solid episode, hard to follow up the previous one. Kendall up to his same old rhythms