HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

Does she actually like him

I think so! What you gotta remember about Kendall is that he's *simultaneously* the biggest jerk of them all in some ways, but also THE ONLY ONE who seems capable of having an actual human relationship. Rava, a normal person, married him and stayed with him long enough for them to have two kids of different ages, and is on good enough terms with him to let him use her apartment. Kendall authentically loves his kids! Isn't it actually hard to imagine Connor, Shiv, or Roman as a parent? (Again -- the simultaneity is what gives this its power. Go back to Shiv's wedding party. Kendall is dancing with his kids, truly being a father in a way you can't imagine his own father doing, but also, he just, y'know, KILLED SOMEBODY and is in the process of covering it up.)

I love how every episode of succession has all of these various interweaving plot lines and agendas and small shifts in power and status and then it’s like “also Connor shows up and he has a big pot of spaghetti and there’s nowhere to put it down” or something like that

— Jon Blair (@okjonblair) November 29, 2021

xp now you aren't giving Connor credit for being the stand in dad for the other kids. his polling is approaching 1 percent!

Wedding Present song title as dialogue this week makes “moon on a stick” look even more deliberate

the fuckin chalice, the show maybe hates kendall too much this is getting obscene

― lag∞n, Monday, November 29, 2021 11:24 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it does sometimes feel like an acting challenge to jeremy strong: "let's see you try to make this titanic asshole sympathetic!"

JUst looked up the series creator Jesse Armstrong and he was also responsible for some of the writing for The Thick of It and Fresh meat. Funny i was thinking there were some similarities to Thick Of it but thought that was Armando Iannucci

as a person who fast forwarded through L to the OG, i enjoyed this episode once it became clear the song/crucifix skit wasn't going ahead.

what how could you

very sensitive to cringe

<i>Wedding Present song title as dialogue this week makes “moon on a stick” look even more deliberate

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Monday, November 29, 2021 9:27 AM (fifty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink</i>

Don't know how I feel about Kendall being a fan of the Wedding Present.

Oops. Bad formatting.

JUst looked up the series creator Jesse Armstrong and he was also responsible for some of the writing for The Thick of It and Fresh meat. Funny i was thinking there were some similarities to Thick Of it but thought that was Armando Iannucci

The Thick Of It pilot was written by Armstrong and Ianucci, and group-written thereafter, with Armstrong remaining through S3 and future Succession writer Tony Roche joining on the second pilot. Armstrong and Roche both also wrote on Ianucci’s Veep, Armstrong only on the first season.

kendall saying "this is the full fucking thing" recalls logan's "we'll go full fucking beast" in ep. 1 - not sure if it's the writers not doing a good enough job to hide their voices or if it's meant to show that kendall really is logan's son thru similar speech patterns

I think that's deliberate, Kendall more than any of the other kids has obviously tried to model himself on Logan. Also the way they both say "Uh-huh" in a totally nonresponsive way to bad news or ideas they don't like.

Ooh good call on that

If you’re into this kind of thing, @successionfashion shows what the characters are wearing, including Kendall’s birthday Gucci baseball jacket.

i love that jacket so much

ah perfect $600 plain blue baseball cap https://www.instagram.com/p/CVzQHpzvQaG/

My favourite of the season but fuck Kendall for not recognising 'Radio Babylon' as a banger

Failed Sibling Dies in Tragic Jerk-Off Accident

I know this is all I post itt but the Tom/Gregg happiness thing was v Peep-show-esque.

How much fun must they all have had deciding on wacky shit for the party? The compliments tunnel was A++++
Also the stuff with the He-Man lunchboxes on Ebay

Roman being a huge dick and Shiv saying 'what does that even MEAN?' was embodying either Mark Corrigan or me

Kendall's social media/PR duo expressing relief at him calling off his grand entrance, song, etc was fantastic, along the lines of his assistant's reaction to the rabbit getting ill in the previous episode

What's the app called - StarGo or something?
The Madison guy was the worst guy imo
Even worse than trolly little Nazi Roman

Almost wondered if someone was going to recover/hack Roman's piss-soaked phone.

Oh yeah, Skarsgard is excelling at playing terrible men.

Sometimes the Winklevoss and Zuckerberg arrive in one package

was proud of roman for getting him out of his shell

phone pissing was a very believable tech bro story

Tom’s crazy leap from the floor to sit on top the filing cabinets in Greg’s office was awesome

Shivs carefree high af dancing made me feel v protective of her. Also I think she is all but ready to jump ship and or pull a Kendall

Kendall’s “I didnt want this to be an asshole’s birthday party”
sorrry buddy, thats kinda baked-in lol

Skarsgaard so good as deadeyed shark
Roman played it as well as he knew how but seems like Roman is playing Trouble & Skarsgaard is playing 3D chess

THE COMPLIMENT TUNNEL
god this party was a blessing

Kendall’s spiral reaction to not finding his kid’s birthday gift, just gutwrenching. I mean, the breakdow. is obv not just ~about~ that but def symtomatic
he’s so fucked & has so many problems but the fact that he clearly values the ~idea~ of being a good dad but at the same time can’t devote himself to it - he knows what the absence of that is like & doesn’t want that for his kids but still is doing a version of it… so tragic to watch

oh!

and the conversation between Kendall and Naomi at the beginning during rehearsal where he’s asking if it’s good or funny or whatever is so crazy, like everything she says is a non answer?

however, i do think she cares about him but maybe by the end has a full sense of exactly what she’s hitched her wagon to… like, that expression on her face to me is like, “my heart is breaking for you but omg fuck this mommy shit”
plus the way he was with her about the watch, sure she gave him something kinda meaningless, but she also maybe doesnt fully understand him & they havent been together that long & she thought they were still in the fun period? like thats when the scales start really falling from her eyes

dedicated to shiv & her dancing
may she dance freely without ridicule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNOagGTbO-A

shivs dancing was perfectly rendered

xpost: Kendell and Naomi: Agree her take is a mixture of empathic co dependent and dispassionate 'aintgottimeforthis'. The watch was a lame present meant to highlight their lack of intimacy?!?. gawd, Kendell is pretty awful this season, hollowed out. There seems to be a re-treading of old ground going on with the siblings, I wonder where the show is going, if there's a season 4, feel they need to develop peripheral characters to bounce off more, the sibling drama becoming very predictable

and the conversation between Kendall and Naomi at the beginning during rehearsal where he’s asking if it’s good or funny or whatever is so crazy, like everything she says is a non answer?

Yeah I loved this! I found it really unnerving, I can never tell what people aren't saying

There seems to be a re-treading of old ground going on with the siblings

I dunno, it feels like the nastiness and rivalry between them (especially Roman and Shiv) has gone up a few notches this season. I honestly thought Ken was going to hit Roman there, and I don't think anyone would blame him if he had.

anyone else think that Roman has completely over-played his hand and that Logan is going to go crazy when he hears about the terms Roman has proposed on the tech deal?

Wouldn't be surprised if that was the case

And you gotta hand it to Ken, his music choices for the party were pretty good

Can't see Greg and Comfrey's date going well. Kendall's right, she really is out of his league.

Some interesting suggestions in the Graun recap
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/29/succession-recap-series-three-episode-seven-kendalls-party-is-well-and-truly-pooped

I liked how the super cringe performance stuff (the song, flying harness, cross, etc lol) was just a fake-out to torture the viewer, in light of his daddy rap of yore.

― change display name (Jordan), Monday, November 29, 2021 3:58 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This was so brilliant, just the suggestion, the barest outline of what was going to happen. also wild to start the episode off with him singing honesty (pretty well!) to an empty room. shit was bleak. I keep thinking of George Costanza's saying "When you're bleak, you're bleak." Was a hard episode to laugh at b/s so much cringe. Thank God only two more episodes, I can't take much more of this. Preview for next week it looks like Ken has shaved his head!

also funny how Kerry was like "Fuck this guy, he's done one good piece of tech" and I was all "She doesn't know shit." But then Matsson shows up (in the treehouse FUCCCCCCCK) and he's an ass.

I think Kerry is going to take over.

Some interesting suggestions in the Graun recap

Holy crap. The last note/observation????? Wow.

Do we know anything about what might be in Logan's will? Has anything ever been said about that?

re: that last guardian comment…the arrested development parallels never stop!

oooh that’d be funny

especially after all the “who the fuck is..” comments

fwiw I think the venue was the Shed, the performing art space in Hudson Yards.

And the DJ was DJ Jubilee btw

yeah his apartments overlooks Hudson Yards xp

thats nice he could just walk home

Can't see Greg and Comfrey's date going well. Kendall's right, she really is out of his league.

definitely. Also, she seemed FUCKED during most of the party. the show is often really quite subtle about how much these people are gone on the drugzzz, but Comfrey just seemed to not be there at all at the party, and I don't really blame her.