HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

maybe tom appreciates the finer things cause he didnt grow up with them, tho trying to recall whats been said about his background hes from the midwest right, kendall said hes from away or whatever in the last ep trying to big time him lol didnt work

St Paul, I think, is where Tom is from

do we know anything about his class/cultural affiliations, seems like he grew up well off but not roy rich

I don't know that we know for sure, I always assumed upper middle class - like nowhere near in the league or the Roys, but probably considered "rich" by whatever city/town he's from standards.

there are references to his mother being a bigtime lawyer… in St Paul

ah yeah that's right!!!

i kinda love Tom's story this season, like a lot, probably my favorite

i kinda love Tom's story this season, like a lot, probably my favorite

dang i must like it a lot

agreed, and matthew macfayden has always been good but it feels like he's really working hard for his emmy this year

shiv having no interpersonal skills and not caring about tom going to prison is pretty rough

her impassive “why are you still talking about this” was such a gut punch. But also such a Roy thing, like they all have that innate sociopathic view of everyone who’s NOT them, like Kendall with Greg, “theres no he said she said” ie “stfu we’re burning you stop whining”, Roman in the baseball game stiffing the kid, or Logan’s boar on the floor which is the ultimate metaphor

Tom was enjoying the display of them being in the position to eat it/ being in the VIP section etc but I don't think he was getting any actual pleasure from eating the food, experiencing the music etc

Oh, you're right, that's true.

msot commentary on this show rightly points out that every time the roys are in a place where they're surrounded by opulence and comfort, they seem to find no enjoyment in it whatsoever

"this is water"

What a murky episode, douche levels have been turned up so much this season, great comments above... 'Greg window, minimised' was my fav quip, his eternal family position. Really loving Tom's story line, McFadyen bringing some beaut traumatised faces and gestures....he not going to end it all, is he?? His takedown of Kendall was some brutalised yet calm shizz. Roman as fashist sympathiser rather than just the joker, as mentioned above, is a great reminder about his character. Every time I see him now, I can't help think about the whole 'accelerating the space launch and causing a disaster' story he obviously, as a Roy, just completely moves on from without a second glance. I enjoy the lofty distance they occupy, away from all the 'real' carnage their business practices and personal whims create, it tells the story about the insulating effect of extreme wealth with such economy. Give 'em a break, eh,I mean, they've got presidents to choose...

I liked this Slate article:

The show has been stuck in low-stakes reshufflings for two and a half seasons now. The plot—will the Roys lose some control of their company?—is fundamentally and amusingly frivolous. Billionaires can’t meaningfully lose, so these shifts function as proxy battles for more interesting questions about ego and childhood trauma and hubris and mortality. The fate of Waystar–Royco, as a fictional corporate juggernaut, is little more than a MacGuffin.

But “What It Takes” introduces something Succession has (in its capacity as a sitcom, anyway) studiously avoided: stakes that extend beyond its hermetic corporate world.

Tiny, tiny, subatomic-sized violins: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/22/therapist-super-rich-succession-billionaires

Thanks for sharing. I can see how it could be hard to find sympathy for real-life versions of the Roys but I can honestly say that I can't think of a billionaire who I'd want to swap places with

I also can't think of a single character in the show whose life I would want. None of them seemed happy or satisfied with their lives, even before the legal problems

if someone is unhappy being a billionaire, it would be pretty easy for them to not be one anymore

I also can't think of a single character in the show whose life I would want. None of them seemed happy or satisfied with their lives, even before the legal problems

idk Adrien Brody's character seemed liked he had stuff pretty figured out

honestly, connor doesn't seem too troubled by his lot in life. he's a nationally-ridiculed buffoon, but he has no self awareness, so why should he care?

he did have to fly scheduled that one time

Stewie's also pretty self-satisfied

if someone is unhappy being a billionaire, it would be pretty easy for them to not be one anymore

Although I'm pretty sure that by the time you are a billionaire, you are surrounded by people with a vested interest in making sure you stay a billionaire, at all costs. Not to excuse the awfulness, but it's easy to see why this becomes such a vicious spiral of awfulness propped further by awful hangers-on.

https://www.gq.com/story/nicholas-braun-cousin-greg-succession-profile

Greg goes to Coney Island on a solo mish

Stewie's also pretty self-satisfied

― symsymsym, Wednesday, November 24, 2021 11:02 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there hasn't been enough of him this season as far as i'm concerned

honestly, connor doesn't seem too troubled by his lot in life. he's a nationally-ridiculed buffoon, but he has no self awareness, so why should he care?

I wonder (but not to the extent that I want a bottle episode about it or anything) how much responsibility Willa feels for his decision to run for president. Wasn't it some offhand remark of hers about him doing nothing for a living that made him want to do it in the first place?

probably a little regret there

she really doesn’t seem to give a shit about her place in this as anything other than transactional, although her patience on the deal seems to be wearing thin

since it’s this show, she’ll linger indefinitely because no one ever really shrugs off their reins

in that vein, I fully expect Tom to try to negotiate with the feds, the family gets the case dropped, and he remains in his job knowing what he’s done and few being the wiser

I'm finally up to date with this and can open the thread. Let's see how strong your takes are

My personal Take is that there's an inside joke on the writing team to reference as many Shakespeare plays EXCEPT King Lear as possible

I also think they might end the entire thing with a King Lear quote. Works for me either way

My other take is that S3E5 (last-but-one) is the best episode yet

My other other take is that somehow Greg is the one I hate the most. Gramps otm

I saw chatter on twitter last week that people were worried Tom might take his own life. That might be the only thing that would stop me watching the show. Tom is, by such a distance, my MVP.

yeah Tom's plight stopped being funny and started tugging the heart strings in that last episode, particularly his agreement with Greg and him telling Kendall where to go.

he's a rat up a pipe, all right. so do we reckon ken sent shiv the photo?

that would be the kind of cruel needling that the state of the relationship between Shiv and Kendall has reached

yeah i bet he totally did

thinking tom is going to off himself feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of what this show is

Yeah, it's tonally incorrect

yeah this is the Most Stressful Comedy

THAT SAID they have darkly hinted at Kendall's suicidal thoughts before

I just can’t feel that bad about any of them, including Tom, going to white collar federal prison

Oh no, minimum security lock-up? If their news station is anything like the real world analogues, they’ve railroaded a bunch of less guilty people in the public eye a million times

all of the “this is what prison is like” dialogue consists of the jokes that people who never see themselves as criminal tell to differentiate themselves from those people

Tom would more likely botch a suicide attempt and have to hide/explain a shiner to everyone at some big event.

od on laxatives

prison brownies

At this point (s3 e4) feels like I’m watching old person entourage