HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

Greg doesn't seem capable of speaking on a stage

Greg can barely hold a real conversation together

not to be THAT GUY but the vibes have felt off last two episodes. I really thought Roman was going to die when he stepped into that crowd and kinda felt like something had been snatched away when he emerged ok. It just felt like it was building to something big and then nothing happened.

Still have high hopes for next week, but this week was a little too long also

Or maybe the deal goes through but with Kendall as CEO, reigning in hell under Mattson?

xp

I feel you but Roman dying would have been too melodramatic, it was shocking enough to see him dip into the real, uninsulated world

Greg would be the perfect Matsson puppet, not Shiv

Greg has no charisma and is not loyal

Kendall will make a play for sure, but I don't think anyone wants to deal with him. He at least accurately assessed the situation at the end of the episode, in re who had whose dick in their hands.

gonna say the same thing about greg's chances. I don't believe it, def too ridiculous, but they have spent enough time showing Greg trying to ingratiate himself to both Mencken and Mattson and that's one way for the fan favorite ending of Greg succeeding to make sense...Mencken and Mattson agreeing that Kendell and Shiv are both too big for their boots.

my big prediction is that none of the main characters are going to die in the finale. everyone seems obsessed with one of them killing themselves (usually ken) but i don't think it's going to happen. seems more like a cliched tv show thing than a succession thing. similar feelings about greg taking over. it's going to end with all of them being fucked but not in a big dramatic way.

james cromwell is such a great fucking actor.

if it ends with a big dramatic death i'm going to be at least mildly disappointed. if it ends with greg taking over i'm going to be very disappointed because that's just dumb and out of bounds with reality within the show.

xp that was a good hard take that he gave

they have spent enough time showing Greg trying to ingratiate himself to both Mencken and Mattson

Yeah Greg has been this persistent plot point all season, trying to find a way in — with Tom, the siblings, the Swedes — and always just bouncing off. But it has been a recurring theme that is going to pay off somehow in the last episode. And we're seeing each of the sibs' plots and plans derail and implode. Maybe Greg's not the CEO, but I still think he ends up higher in the hierarchy than the rest of them. (As Tom's boss, lol.)

My feeling is that Matsson gets in bed with Mencken, screws Shiv and appoints someone else as CEO (Gerri, for example), Greg is the only family member to retain a Waystar job, and if anybody dies it’ll be Tom

That said I’ve been pretty much wrong about everything so far

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recode-media/id1080467174?i=1000613973724

Succession — the HBO drama about a Murdoch-ish family of media moguls — feels authentic thanks, in part, to consultant Merissa Marr. Marr covered the Murdochs and other media titans for years at The Wall Street Journal, and she’s worked with the creative team behind Succession since the beginning. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to Marr about Succession’s obsession with getting tiny details about Big Media just right; which non-Murdoch moguls influence the show’s depiction of the Roy clan; what happens when art and reality clash — and, of course, some Elon Matsson talk.

Roman sure won that funeral

(the only person to cry properly...maybe he even did lol)

Listened to the show's official podcast (the Kara Swisher one) last week for the first time and enjoyed it more than expected. It focused on how the show researched and created the election-night events.

This week's ep (haven't listened yet) features an interview with the show's consultant on funeral planning.

For a second there I thought it might be somehow advantageous for the kids to show human emotion at Logan's funeral (when they were all comforting Roman/strategizing), silly me

xp

yeah I thought Roman may have won some compassion outside the company core - then the President elect mockingly called him a cry baby :o

And we learned that the video of him crying at the funeral was leaked and going viral, welp

Carl's innocence protest ha ha 'what, it's circulating!'

Greg is so fucking craven, I hate all the characters to a degree but perhaps him most of all.

Roman’s breakdown reminded me of Frank TJ Mackey’s in Magnolia.

Caroline’s “oh” when she first looks at Shiv is perfect.

lol @ Caroline introducing her to Logan’s former mistress at the same time as trying to spite Marcia.

Ewan’s speech was great.

loved every moment of his speech

Also no shit the fascist withdrew his verbal promise, fucking idiots

+1 hating Greg more than anyone else, he is repulsive

(Reading upthread about cousin Greg being a fan favourite)

If cousin Greg has 10000 haters I’m one of them,
If cousin Greg has 10 haters I’m one of them,
If cousin Greg has no haters I’m dead.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwviYRGWAAAkHdC?format=jpg&name=large

Also, loved Jess telling Kendall she literally couldn’t anymore.

Ewan's speech was amazing but you just knew Kendall would pull one out of the bag too

Caroline is the best character in anything

The whole conversation between Shiv and her mom was amazing

Jeremy Strong’s face during the whole speech was incredible.

did Connor just say “pan-Habsburg, american-led, EU alternative?”

this might be close to peak Conhead hour

That NYT piece actually mentions Darwin's temporary blindness / the wasabi incident v nice

cousin Greg being a fan favourite

I think the reference was not so much to Greg being a fan favorite as the "Greg ends up on top" being a favorite fan theory, pretty much since Season 1. Not necessarily that people are rooting for him, but it's been speculated since the start. I never gave it much credence until basically last night.

It just seemed natural from the way he was shat on from the beginning as being lowest on the totem pole, and a viewer wanting the main characters to get some comeuppance.

Greg was so entertaining to watch for most of this series but I feel like his character in s4 has been underwritten. Part of why he feels so unlikeable, to me, is that he's become 2-dimensional.

I am trying not to predict the "winner" of Succession... but I kinda think Mattson is going to make Tom the US CEO. Mattson seemed sold on the idea when Shiv framed it as being a "puppet" position (which Kendall would not go for); and I think Mencken will want to reward Tom for making the call on election night. Those two desires together = Tom.

It just seemed natural from the way he was shat on from the beginning as being lowest on the totem pole, and a viewer wanting the main characters to get some comeuppance.

xp but Tom ruins everything he touches?

s1 greg coming out on top would’ve had some ironic juice but now he’s just as much a POS as everyone else. so I’m not sure what the “point” of him emerging victorious would be, narratively

It begins with the words.
Nothing happens without them. Sometimes, the writing achieves transcendence, but, in every case, it’s seminal. I got to a give a brilliant speech recently, which not only explicated my and my brother’s characters, it illuminated an entire narrative. 1/3

— James Cromwell 🐷 (@jamesocromwell) May 22, 2023

This is what great writers do. And they need to be compensated in accordance with their contribution. At the very least, they need to be able to provide for themselves and their families. 2/3

— James Cromwell 🐷 (@jamesocromwell) May 22, 2023

In this era of corporate greed and union busting, management seems to hold all the cards. Except for the most important ones: Unity; Solidarity; Fraternity. All of us win when the writers win. And we will win. Union! Strike! #wgastrike #UnionStrong #Succession @jessearmstrong1

— James Cromwell 🐷 (@jamesocromwell) May 22, 2023

👑

Caroline rallying the wives and mistresses and Marcia taking Kerry’s hand and her reaction was my favorite moment of the series

me too. also found the bit where marcia squeezed kett's hand weirdly moving, in a way this show rarely is.

and Cromwell's speech was astonishing, such brilliant writing.

Cromwell is on the official podcast and p much saying how he feels the same as Ewan politically. One of the better Cromwells!

Wouldn’t be hard.

I’m not sure what the “point” of him emerging victorious would be, narratively

I don't think this show has ever been about good guys winning tbf

Quote from director Mark Mylod:

Mylod previously mentioned "What I do is completely copy Robert Altman. If you watch Gosford Park, which is a huge influence for me, Altman was a master at those, and his way of shooting with Gosford Park was not telling the actors where the camera was"

— Anand Chamarthy (@AChamarthy) May 22, 2023

so many incredible performances in this ep, exquisite writing but shiv’s line & sarah snook’s delivery of “goodbye my dear, dear world of a father” was so perfect
i love that line

greg sucks bcuz this show is at its best when its played straight and this mofo is always being goofy af with his sub-ucb bad comedy acting.

i kind of agree but i think although his schtick wears thin now, the show would be too much without his extra-ness. like he provides a weird ballast somehow

When Shiv was talking to Frank and Karl at the mausoleum, there was a fraction of second when she says "yeah?" after Karl says "What you saw was what you got", where Sarah Snook had an expression on her face that was so much like Brian Cox as Logan that I thought a bit of subtle CGI had been used. I've rewatched and I'm fairly certain there's no CGI but she was so like him for a moment.