HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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

Shiv's reference to her "lowest ebb" I think we saw in the first season, right? Tom proposed to her at the hospital while Logan still hadn't woken up after his stroke. Which was pretty opportunistic of Tom, for sure.

we’re an episode out from it but i’d be remiss to point out that living+ is clearly a wework reference, real estate play masquerading as tech with a lot of woo woo thrown on top

really enjoyed tom’s interaction with the bald guy at his party… “asshole!”

lowest ebba

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

A friend was espousing this theory last night, with the idea that it would embarrass them in front of the board or make them look bad in the end. Idk, seems like it could easily backfire and doesn't feel very Succession-y?

i hope she's turning it to her advantage somehow

she's been keeping all the blood

its like they say if youve got the blood youve got the power

re upthread is shiv smart i dont think is exactly the issue her big problem is that she never worked at the company and so doesnt really understand it, also since shes been in the mix she hasnt tried to understand it, "shes not as smart as she thinks" idk if smart is really the most precise word here shes overconfident and hasnt put in the leg work, shes getting in the mix scuffling for power and so forth but doesnt understand the lay of the land

exactly

running a media company and working for a candidate/poltician are 2 diff things

shes married to a guy who has all the info she needs but never bothered to ask

mattson probably isn’t running a long game with this india thing, think the point is that kendall is using fraud to game this gojo thing but… so is mattson, it’s just fraud all the way down

yup

just like so many fake it til you make it companies we see these days

wonder if the kids are still on the hook to buy pierce. do they even remember they did that?

xp haha yeah that's probably it, whether there is a "second India" is immaterial, Mattson just needs to keep moving forward, like some kind of tech business shark

overstating your subscriber numbers by 2x in one country doesnt seem like that big of a deal especially in a mid income country like india, but i guess we dont really know what the deal with gojo is generally

granted india does contain many people

maybe he lost the premiere cricket league streaming contract

they are wild for their cricket over there

india is a nice touch, feel like it’s been a ‘growth area’ for a lot of tech companies as the tech industry matures in general and the lines on the charts do not go up as sharply anymore

it’s not very believable but neither is waystar’s stock growing b/c of a vaporware product launch either, they’re good plot devices tho if only for birthing the phrase ‘reverse viking’

one of the most perverse business moves

like apple has already sold iphones to pretty much every single person in the western world so they are now focusing on india (except their phones are too expensive for india) https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-stakes-future-growth-emerging-markets-starting-with-india-2023-05-05/

Also this

recall reading a while ago that phones with huge batteries were popular in india because many people dont have reliable access to electricity, obvs not the segment apple is going for but an interesting sociological nugget nevertheless

speaking of iphones, there was a comment upthread about shiv using a normal ipad instead of an ipad pro… agreed i thought that was weird, there’s so much apple product placement in this show all the roys are using iphone pros with the 3 cameras, tom is using an android iirc to show he’s a hick… i’m betting it was shiv’s assistants ipad she cant be bothered to actually carry one around, it was funny tho that shot of her huge desk with a tiny ipad and keyboard on it

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2020/2/26/21154151/apple-bad-guys-movies-iphones-product-placement

we’re an episode out from it but i’d be remiss to point out that living+ is clearly a wework reference, real estate play masquerading as tech with a lot of woo woo thrown on top

Mayyyyybe but it's a direct reference to the "storytelling living by Disney" project in Florida. That's why Matteson used the Mickey stand in when tweeting about it.

https://www.storylivingbydisney.com

Look at this shit

Jfc

hahah wow, you’re absolutely right. i just sort of assumed the writers invented living+, but truth is stranger than fiction right?

Just always remember Waystar is a lil Disney and a lil Fox

yes, living+ cruise roots are also disney

I think it's correct to read some Adam Neumann in Ken's launch, though

I think I saw one of the writers somewhere mention Microsoft announcements as inspo? Hoping for a full on Steve Balmer moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CVucnt46ww

disney should hire jeremy strong to redo this video, as a joke (to show they’re in on it)

that video is something i'd expect to see in the first half an hour of a horror flick where the theme is something crawls out of the lagoon and devours the town

nobody’s said “full nut nut” for awhile, i miss full nut nut

disney is a wild company lol

theyre totally abusing the term lagoon there btw

Man what a hellscape

I find I don't enjoy this show nearly as much without Logan in it. Sort of glad it's at its end.