HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

couldn't find a thread, but i've finally gotten into this show over the past couple weeks and it's so good you guys. i've made it through ep 8 of s1 (the bachelor party) and that was the best episode yet.

succession-heads, succession-converts, or succession-curious, let's anticipate and discuss this acidic, mean-spirited, and addicting show,

FAM-LY THERA-PY!

Season 1 is incredible. I didn't clock it was created by one of the Peep Show writers till about halfway through, but it makes so much sense.

Yup s1 is great, didn’t know s2 was out

s2 starts sunday fyi

yea great show

Oh whoa wait, back up a tick...I'd pegged this as one of their lower-tier shows a la Ballers buuuut Peep Show writer, you say. Hmm.

oh not at all! Very very good! Watch it ASAP!

s1 was amazing but definitely peaked in the middle when it had less plot to deal with

Season finale was a knockout I thought.

finally finished season 1, the finale was mostly great, especially everything with tom. the chappaquiddick moment was a little on-the-nose imo, they could've maneuvered kendall back into the fold in a different way, but the payoff scene with logan and kendall was worth it.

agreed on every point there

fuck off!

loved this week's episode, seems like logan dangled the ceo position to shiv to get her to submit to him. what a terrible man.

really good ep, got chills at the end w kendalls monotone statement/threat to the takeover group, & the calm answer back of lets proceed w that then or w/e

ah, we have a thread now

yes, the final exchange was perfect

I'm assuming Shiv is getting played, given that we didn't see how Logan's conversations with any of the other kids concluded

I love the Arrested Development-ness of this show. I keep waiting for Brian Cox to mention the banana stand.

I saw their plan and dad's plan is better

"I'm looking for pussy like a techno Gatsby"

been thinking about this vaulter headline for 24 hours that’s just “is every taylor swift lyric secretly marxist?” pic.twitter.com/T7Mwey160j

— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) August 20, 2019

Because my father told me to

Did not realized the New Mexico brother is Cameron from Ferris Bueller!

i'll eat your sausage tom

"the doctors say he only has a week or two"

"remind me in a week or two"

fuck off

is this max on fire
https://i.imgur.com/Al77w6h.png

this show is so good.

this week's episode is out early btw

features an all-time Tom & Greg scene

i’m finishing season one

“I like your girlfriend”
“thanks, I met her at a sex party where she was giving a blowjob to the groom”
“you should marry her”

are you asking my PERMISSION to blackmail me?!?

prob the best show on tv right now? new cast additions are a joy. Holly Hunter! Zach Cherry!

hate all these people so much

like every moment of kendall on screen is anticipating how he’ll fuck up, while hoping he gets hit by a bus

Yep!

you don't hyper-decant ?!

Connor’s the most obvious representative of the hyper-moneyed class who never needed a particular ethos or organizing principle for their life (because: money) and constantly scrambles to find one because he’s deeply unconfident. But you don’t have to commit to anything or feel a real investment in efforts because, money!

I feel like they’re leaning into that directionless concept in season 2 with Roman attempting to learn the company

connor roy was interested in politics from a very young age

https://i.imgur.com/6wyaXiD.jpg

I'm kind of worried about his paid consort

we need a running tally of every time someone in the family treats a normal person like garbage, only to have a scene where one of their handlers is seen giving an envelope of money in return for a NDA signature in the background

another great episode goddamn. the cousin greg bit at the end was the cherry on top.

speaking of cherries, cherry jones was awesome, hopefully she wasn't just a one-off.

the maid shooting a knowing look at Kendall as he wandered by in the morning might be first first no-payoff-envelope scene where the whole family was present, but given the circumstances that probably isn't foreshadowing?

I think you mean cousin Gregory

yes, my apologies to the honorable gregory

Overjoyed to discover that hyper-decanting is actually real.

Are you an actress or a poetess or something

endless quotable episode but i partic liked
SPINNIE SPINNIE CHICKEN DINNIE

also "i think maybe the morgue is closing for the night"

i love this show but also i wonder if there's an audience of MBA dudes who view it as aspirational (a la Wall Street)

i mean when logan said "you want to hear my favorite shakespeare quote? take the fucking money" i was like "whoa badass" for a second

the pearce family are awful

https://i.imgur.com/BY46GXu.gif

I don't think the kids are fools! They all (except Connor) change and develop throughout the four seasons -- becoming more self-reflective, developing their moral compasses -- even Roman! Ultimately they don't get their shit together, because the totality of their upbringing has been too traumatic -- but they do all experience interesting internal struggles. Drama!!! I don't see how it's possible to watch all four seasons and still think they're unthinking comedy idiots.

(In the same way that e.g. Mark and Jeremy from Peep Show never change.)

funeral episode is prob the most humanizing for everyone aside from their hangout in the last episode. makes sense ppl who watch this show thinking the mains are stupid depthless assholes wouldn’t like it i guess. but i think the kids have tremendous depth, an endless well just in their relationship with their dad. think about roman losing it at the podium constantly. he pre-grieved

They're idiots but I mean fools in the sense that there was never a way the series ends with any of them attaining their father's love or his power - or escaping it. That could make them doomed tragic figures, but they're ridiculous and that's played for laughs for 90% of the episodes. (And a good tragic figure has some dimensionality to them - some part that could bloom if they weren't doomed.)

I don't know about developing moral compasses - given the chance, Kendall and Roman revert directly to who they were in episode 1 (though Roman's a walking 4Chan meme instead of a guy who emotionally abuses the children of manual laborers). Given an inability to either change or win, their dramatic arcs are just flat. And they're dummies so when they were arguing in a conference room about Trump vs. Gore it was just a snooze.

(And a good tragic figure has some dimensionality to them - some part that could bloom if they weren't doomed.)

that’s the show tho!!!!

Seriously

I think they consistently show an ability to change and win, but self-sabotage gets in the way of the former, and cruel Thomas Hardyesque fate gets in the way of the latter.

I didn't find the last episode very satisfying - for me, it wasn't like something that organically clicked into place, it was more like Jesse Armstrong thinking "hmmm, unhappy ending, bittersweet ending or happy ending? let's go with unhappy". But that's about the sometimes heavy-handed plotting, not the characters/performances.

We're currently hovering somewhere in the third season. We just saw the shareholders meeting episode, which is as close as this show has come to "Veep."

Just finished the show. Nothing new to add but fuck what a ride. As ever, having this thread on hand to read after was total gold.

Goes without saying but gyac, ivy & vege otm all the way through.

:D

Thinking today about how *right* the ending was - how it grounded and gave legitimacy to the entire series. It *had* to be about character in the end, and particularly about the compulsion to repeat. In a weird way, it could have ended at almost any point because nothing is going to change. The whole is in every part. These people are trapped in a hell of traumatic relationships - to power, to parents, to each other - that anything other than a character-driven finale (and such a bleak one) would have been a lie.

otm

"I was reading Mies Van Der Rohe At Work by Peter Carter and there is a quote by Van Der Rohe where he says: "A Sugarbaker never gives in". I think about that a lot." (6)

(6) Mr. Strong is actually paraphrasing a line given by Delta Burke's character Suzanne Sugarbaker in the CBS television series Designing Women and written by series creator Susan Bloodworth-Thomason in the season 2 episode "High Rollers". The full quote as spoken by Ms. Burke is "A Sugarbaker will never give in."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/10/magazine/jeremy-strong-interview.html

I think he's pretty self aware when he talks about how empty he is--he's a walking Bartlett's dictionary of quotes. Good profile

Finally finished this. Objectively well written and acted, subjectively mostly good. Kind of like a cross between "Godfather Part II" and "Entourage."

A new woman joined my badminton club last week who looks eerily like Shiv.
― clemenza, Saturday, November 18, 2023 11:58 AM (seven months ago)

tell her i say hi
― lag∞n, Saturday, November 18, 2023 12:10 PM (seven months ago)

She'll just tell me to fuck off. I plan on stepping very lightly.
― clemenza, Saturday, November 18, 2023 3:47 PM (seven months ago)

She was in the coffee shop this morning! I asked her if she was in badminton (she stopped going after a couple of times); yes. When I was seated, I looked over and said "You know how I remember you?" I showed her a photo of Sarah Snook on the laptop. She did not tell me to fuck off, so a very successful encounter. (Forgot to say hi from you, though.)

Kind of like a cross between "Godfather Part II" and "Entourage."

Interesting, since Mark Mylod directed many Succession episodes and also many Entourage episodes.

Why II instead of I, though? Michael's head the family start-to-finish in II; I is partly about whether Sonny or Michael will succeed the Don--and Tom to an extent, although not being Sicilian or a blood Corleone, probably not possible. (Fredo's a non-starter; Connie doesn't have any power till a bit at the end of II and more in III.)

_A new woman joined my badminton club last week who looks eerily like Shiv.
― clemenza, Saturday, November 18, 2023 11:58 AM (seven months ago)

tell her i say hi
― lag∞n, Saturday, November 18, 2023 12:10 PM (seven months ago)

She'll just tell me to fuck off. I plan on stepping very lightly.
― clemenza, Saturday, November 18, 2023 3:47 PM (seven months ago)_

She was in the coffee shop this morning! I asked her if she was in badminton (she stopped going after a couple of times); yes. When I was seated, I looked over and said "You know how I remember you?" I showed her a photo of Sarah Snook on the laptop. She did not tell me to fuck off, so a very successful encounter. (Forgot to say hi from you, though.)

I'm glad that in real life people aren't as easily creeped out as you seem to be. What exactly is so creepy about telling someone they look like a famous actress? She did not seem to mind in the least. Jesus.

it is prob best that you didnt say hi from an internet poster tho

You see? I knew exactly where to draw the line.

never ever ever tell someone they look like a celeb. ever. not being mean - im helping you by giving this advice.

Still mad at the friend who told me I looked like the singer of Eve 6 in the fall of 1999.

(xpost) I've led a charmed life--62 years and never an issue with this (men included), not even once. Unless I've left a trail of misery and resentment, but my celebrity lookalikes were (see previous post) too traumatized and/or polite to speak up.

ime being told i look like a celebrity has always been neutral to flattering, however being told i look like some random non-famous person they know sucks. "you look like my friend greg" great, do not care, and no i don't

half of the Shiv Roy online fandom is posts about her butt. not sure if that's the best one to share with strangers but ymmv!

There were a few year of my life about ten years ago where strangers would come up and say I looked like Jason Schwartzman about once a month, if not more. Some woman at a show even wanted a photo with me, even though she knew I wasn't actually him. It was always awkward because I never knew what to say when people mentioned it--thanks? I mean, I had nothing to do with it. It's not quite a compliment, more of an observation. If anything, I was surprised he was well-known enough for that number of folks to comment on it, though maybe living in a hip neighborhood of Chicago skewed the results.

ime being told i look like a celebrity has always been neutral to flattering, however being told i look like some random non-famous person they know sucks. "you look like my friend greg" great, do not care, and no i don't

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, June 20, 2024 3:07 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

comments like this where people just have to tell you something that you have no context for are funny like show me a picture give me some info just a crumb anything

(xposts) Didn't know that, but rest assured the photo I called up was just a nice publicity shot on one of the non-English Wikipedia pages. (Can't seem to find it right now.) She seemed genuinely intrigued, hadn't seen Succession, said people have told her she looks like one of the actresses from Game of Thrones or Queen's Gambit or one of those shows, and looking at the photo, all she said was "She's gorgeous." And again, for what it's worth, she wasn't a random stranger; we're in the same badminton club.

Honestly, if the resemblance is there, I do not see the big deal. My mom would tell me I looked like Paul Splittorff (won't mean anything to most people) when I was in middle school. If someone tells me tomorrow I look like Brad Pitt or Walter Matthau or Old Man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life, I'll be fine with that.

Shiv sent many a tweeter to horny jail

rip the shiv roy dump truck ass fancam. never seen succession only that edit!

— e 🇵🇸 (@gloomstalker) February 20, 2021

I've gotten Mark Ruffalo, Billy Zane, and Ethan Suplee (wasn't happy about that last comparison at first because I've always been a bit self-conscious about my fluctuating weight). Usually from friends though. It risks being offensive because it could highlight an undesirable trait in oneself. I stick with "your hair looks great"

in *the other person*

the other day a guy came to deliver a vibrating plate compactor and i swear to god he looked exactly like don cheadle. i could not help telling him this; he had no idea who don cheadle was

maybe it was don cheadle prepping for a new movie?

i hope not because one of the ways i tried to ID cheadle for him was by telling him he was in ocean's 11 with a "terrible british accent"

xpost - late to the discussion, but one of the reasons (not at all the main reason, but up there!) I grew facial hair in the first place was because I got tired of hearing comparisons to the same actor all the damn time. used to get it from random strangers about 2-3 times a year, but never again once I grew my beard!

which actor

are we really still talking about this

yeah

rmde

i want to know what actors people look like

I look like Alan Ruck

thank you

and i look like jeremy strong, so

i look like brad pitt

i also look like brad pitt

i look like yr mom

i’m serious!! and it’s so much so that when i was watching this show even i kind of got the heebie jeebies when strong would turn his head a certain way in profile