HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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

Oh wow Shiv fucked it. I think the one to watch now is probably Roman? In that he's actually doing the stuff that Shiv was too impatient to bother with, and if there's anyone to have as any ally/mentor it's probably Geri (leaving aside the deeply weird nature of that alliance).

Love how Kendall literally shat the bed and was the one who actually secured the crucial vote in the process.

but ultimately did shiv fuck it? was logan really going to name her as his successor? it feels like he has no intention to ever name anyone and is just toying with all of them like he has done through their whole lives. they're all going to get their turn as "front runner" (except connor probably) but he's never going to hand it over. that felt like the root of him being so obstinate in the pierce negotiations rather than him getting revenge on shiv.

love how logan always calls roman 'romulus,' maybe he is planning to make him king after all

appointing an heir is the one thing Logan has absolutely no certainty about

Shiv's the most competent but ideologically off. bringing her in is a test to see if she'd run things in a way he could reconcile with his ideas

Kendall's thirsty and can be ruthless but previously wanted it without his dad's blessing, and he's just too fucked up at this point. could see him being cultivated as a choice now that he's in-house, but he's too cowed to be really respected

Roman's the wild card. could be good, has no focus or seriousness and has all the mental baggage of growing up moneyed but, luckily, not purely hungry for power

I dunno I got the sense Logan was sincere about Shiv at first and then promptly regretted it, it was less a matter of ideology and more down to her impatience, reluctance to do the management training course and general bad judgement.

He's going to end up leaving everything to Greg.

otm

He's going to end up leaving everything to Greg.

*Gregory

Greg the Egg.

I always felt like part of that was related to the strategic unpredictableness of Logan roy. He changes his mind all the time, shifts alliances, and everybody else around him is just trying to keep up but they don't do it in the same thought out manner that comes from years of being steeped in the culture, they're all amateurs trying to play the same game.

I get the sense, from what we've seen, that part of the satire is the inability or unwillingness for even those able to totally separate themselves from such a monster. In a lot of what we've seen, Shiv has as purportedly separate life or different inclinations ... until the family/family money is at stake. Logan's brother is swimming in disdain, but he's not (yet) gotten rid of those shares. Frank is treated like shit, but he keeps coming back. Cousin Greg has on occasion explicitly pointed out things we, the viewer, see/(should) feel, but his obsequious allegiance to Logan is clear. It's very Bunuel/Sartre in this regard; no one can leave the dinner party, hell is other people, etc.. Right now, Kendall may be the most curious/complicated of the characters, because Logan has actual leverage over him, but they're all pretty fucked up in service of the Big Dad.

It's not the success of the company that drives the Roy kids and those in their orbit, it's the accumulation of wealth and power and jockeying to be in the position to get more; the company is just a means to an end

for Tom and Greg yes but for the kids this is exactly backwards (though even that is a simplified take; at various times it appears Kendall actually wants to destroy Royco)

This is otm. In fact this might be the shows entire thesis.

Frank being an object of disdain is funny because Frank and his ilk actually have the line to shareholders and whoever else

basically, every old rando in the orbit could be ejected due to Roy idiocy but as long as they aren’t, they wield more power than the Roys. the Roys are basically only there for negotiations and fake chess, they don’t actually participate in business despite all the posturing

it’s why kendall is ultimately as inessential as connor. they just do figurehead bullshit and don’t have jobs

Started watching S4 a few weeks ago, stopped after the second episode for close to a month. Just didn't feel like resuming. Finally did...I don't know what the general reaction above was, but E3 felt like it went on forever. Didn't like it at all, and--maybe I'm as monstrous as these people--felt nothing.

Finished up. There were better episodes ahead--I thought the election-night episode was best--and the resolution was satisfactory, even if I didn't always understand the motivations that led up to it. The show seemed to connect with a lot of people more than it did with me. The obsequiousness of Tom and Greg and Hugo could be really funny. Kendell, Shiv, and Roman: found all three performances rather affected.

We finished S2, which ends of a good cliffhanger that I found both surprising and ... exciting? It's still slow going for us, but we like having the show in our back pockets to dip into when we don't have anything else to watch.

The most unbingeable show since Oz, the Roys are all so revolting I'm not sure I can watch more than one a week.

clearly i’m a monster, i can happily binge this show like it’s my goddamn job lol

A new woman joined my badminton club last week who looks eerily like Shiv.

tell her i say hi

She'll just tell me to fuck off. I plan on stepping very lightly.

Kendall's (first?) attempted coup had a Jason Bourne vibe, just needed David Straitharn shouting about going mobile.

Dialing down Kieran Culkin's sadism from the first episode feels like the HBO version of Gossip Girl pretending that Chuck Bass isn't a rapist.

I didn’t realize Dasha is such a terrible actress.

Fun to browse this upcoming auction of Succession props and costumes.

If only Matsson's Needles mohair sweater was a size larger...

yeah love that

uhh the pants are a little long but otherwise you're tempting me on my upcoming wardrobe refresh

would be funny to dress completely in clothes from defunct tv shows

That same auction house had a good Frasier fit in their 80s Cheers auction.

The election and funeral episodes are the worst of the series.

Half agree--thought the funeral episode went on forever, but I liked the election episode.

mmm yes drama is terrible rmde

Funeral episode was great. election episode was even better imo.

It’s not very dramatic, though! The kids are all fools who will eventually be denied the one thing they care about. They don’t have the depth to make it interesting when they’re yelling at each other unless it’s funny and they all stopped being funny for the last few episodes.

Tom and Shiv on the balcony was a great scene, because Tom actually is a good dramatic character (and actor).

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."