HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

none of them do anything its one of the nice lil running jokes, first episode cousin greg gets fired from an entry level job at one of their theme parks, since then its been smooth sailing at the highest levels of the company

i should have added a maybe, i think he's smart and i don't sense nepotism would get him to that level, though maybe it has kept him there during trying times, with an assist from a well-executed bit of duplicity. i guess during that blowup Shiv backhandedly complimented him on being a survivor, after he did the same for her, so maybe that is his real skill....

i think Greg winding up on top is a bit too "Daenerys will become a villain", which is to say obvious and maybe dumb. i don't think this show is dumb.

feel like greg's gonna get shitcanned in the penultimate episode

then the last episode is the three kids playing raquetball for 90 minutes

speculating on the pre show timeline seems like tom prob got to some exec level pre shiv but marrying her got him in the room while the big man does his deals

not sure if he was head of cruises before they got together or not

didn't he take over from some old guy

yeah the nice guy who told him about the bad documents

we need a real psycho ending like Kendall at that press conference "Today my father's reign ends" and tearing up documents

not psycho just dramatic and ridiculous but also sad much like Kendall

she’s not as smart as she thinks she is

Wasn't that exactly how Rhea described her back in season 2?

yes but you're getting caught up in a parallel example, 'our future' isn't what kendall needs 'living+' to be, he needs it to be a thing people *believe* will be our future, and he successfully convinces them of it. The question is one of persuasion, not of some kind of concrete or 'authentic' business. He needs to convince people to invest in his vision for the company, and if he does, they will fund it

― xheugy eddy (D-40), Tuesday, May 9, 2023 10:12 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I agree on what Ken needs right now, but you gave the parallel to AI and our future, and that's where I disagree.

I don't date men but I would rate Tom as the most dateable man among the marriageable-age male characters on this show

low bar

Predicting this show is kind of like predicting where Veep ends up -- who even remembers? When it's all done, we'll rewatch Kendall's birthday and the wedding episodes rather than see it all as clues leading to the finish.

At this point, Tom feels very much like the kind of high-level executive who says a few words at a meeting once in a while, and leaves the rest of us office workers resenting that he's paid more than us combined without doing much.

Veep ended with Richard, the socially-awkward character who was a total policy wonk, escalating from a whimsical moment where he was named mayor of a small town (the previous mayor was a hog iirc) to governor of Iowa and then US president

I remember this for reasons (I wish he was actually the governor of Iowa)

yeah the final flash forward of veep was an excellent punchline for the show

Given that the show is 'Succession' the ending feels a little more important than the political purgatory in Veep, but I guess we'll see (I liked Veep's ending too).

Wasn't that exactly how Rhea described her back in season 2?

― nate woolls, Tuesday, May 9, 2023 11:14 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes i was directly quoting! rhea was right

but i mean every kid is kind of a reflection of some aspect of logan, just heavily degraded bc of years of abuse and subversion on his part. shiv is his tendency to play both sides to his advantage while remaining (at least on the surface) aloof. she is just goddamn terrible at it and everyone hates her

(this is incidentally why i love shiv) (also it's not a race but every time roman implied that she's way more fucked up than he is i was like "he's right")

(kendall is logan's ability to bluff his way through/into epic deals) (roman is his ability to be a completely unprofessional piece of shit to the people he works with to like pull the rug out from them and remind them who's big dick of fuck country)

when Shiv again said "you don't deserve me" to Tom I couldn't help want him to say "...you're right, I don't" and mic drop

(he does tho)

more importantly where was MONDALE

What all three of them lack is Logan's biggest weapon — confidence. He never doubted himself, even when he changed his mind. At any given point, he was always sure he was right and everyone else was a bunch of idiots. The kids all sort imitate different versions of the way he acted or reacted, but none of them actually has any self-confidence because they grew up with a dad who always made them feel like they were ... a bunch of idiots.

idk if it’s just down to confidence, but logan didn’t grow up insulated in a bubble of privilege so i assume a lot of his confidence/braggadocio developed as a necessity of survival, a hardness that set in early and protected him both from failure and intimacy; his attempts to cultivate the same instinct in his children, in an environment where there are no stakes bc they will survive no matter what, idk it just destroyed them and now they can’t do anything. (well i kinda think ken has finally figured something out in this last season maybe but it will ultimately just ruin his stupid life even more even if he thinks it’s winning)

it's true about the confidence, the siblings change their minds after like 2 seconds of advice from one of the others

Yeah, they never seem sure of anything and they're as likely (or more likely) to talk themselves into bad ideas as good ones.

The most confident one is obv Connor; misguided as he is, he believes in himself (and also has someone who encourages him to believe in himself.)

Not nearly as crippled by the need for approval

maybe so but it took connor about 2 seconds to swap his 3, 4, 5% in alaska for a compound in oman, and then another two seconds for willa to talk him out of it

he learned a long time ago he wasn't going to get Logan's approval, although he keeps attempting to chart his way to notoriety and accomplishment and definitely had his moments of "hey dad, isn't this cool?"

big conn-head here, i will forever be haunted by the first thing connor said after he learned his dad died: "he never even liked me"

tfw you're the result of the marriage your dad pretends didn't happen

he's as loopy as the rest but in a more benign way now that logan is gone. what does he say? "it's comforting how much he's not there"?

connor has a different perspective cause he doesnt have a board seat

nobody expects anything from him! it's beautiful

He seems like the only one of the siblings who would be fine taking his billion and just living life.

idk he is running for president

I do want to know how Tom and Shiv got together. Didn't Shiv make reference to 'TK' and 'being at her lowest point'? Did Tom give her some old bread?

https://preview.redd.it/from-the-bitey-scene-do-we-know-who-tk-is-v0-wtkxikd2mexa1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=72cd72505734b9e163faad02958f83f28575db70

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ct-ZnVdWIAAxhQw?format=jpg&name=900x900

lol

Not nearly as crippled by the need for approval

It's not just a need for approval. Logan was a psycho who lost the fucking plot if people did or said the wrong thing around him. How could you have any confidence in yourself around someone like that.

think people underestimating shiv here, she might be messing up in this instance (mattson obv not her and tom's relationship coz whoo boy on that one)

but she did seem to build a successful career in politics outside of family biz - not sure if ken or roman could or did manage the same

think getting back sucked into family dynamics (and still searching for logan's approval) is where she gets fucked up but def the umm more stable of them with some level of self awareness

I always assumed that her career in politics was based solely on her name and contacts list, but that might not be true.

Definitely not, she was working for a progressive candidate, her name wouldn’t have been an advantage there.

oh contact list hugely important of course, she's not coming in as young upstart but iirc wasn't she a chief of staff or campaign manager back in s1 for a pretty major campaign?

contact list aside - the kinds of meltdowns kendall and roman regularly have wouldn't work outside the insulation of the company - still cant remember if ken or rom have had any successes outside or logan orbit (feel like kendall's solo failures mentioned in s1)

think seeing them all as per show's name in logan's orbit skews things - gerri seems competent obv, the olds generlly assume you must have some competence to get to that level (even if just in corporate politic), tom reached senior exec level before hooking up with shiv so again some level there

stewy? maybe just havent seen enough to see his failures but obv dont feel like would ever hit kendall roy levels of crack up over a deal

business-wise stewy is the opposite of the roy kids, he's a "serious person". an operator who'd cut your nuts off and hand them to you

oh absolutely, stewy def more capable of surviving in that world and seems way more together
just tryin not to assign brilliance to investors/hedge fund managers etc - but taking them on their own value - maybewhy

enjoyed matsson's line in last ep re meeting the elite folx at tailgate party 'thought this would be harder but its just money and gossip'

matsson's toxic relationship with his head of PR was v disturbing. i hope she's turning it to her advantage somehow but she may not be cut from the same cloth as the rest of these vipers

I think it's possible that Matsson is playing the Roys with the "second India" numbers stuff and with the relationship with his head of comms, though to what end is difficult to say, maybe just for the fun of seeing them squirm

looked pretty real to me