HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

and i just finished s3. what can you say, everybody just nails it

this write-up is pretty good:
https://www.vox.com/culture/22831645/succession-finale-season-3-recap-review-all-the-bells-say-kendall-roman-shiv-tom

it seems like logan was ready to bring roman in and cut out ken and shiv, but it may have only seemed that way, as part of a plot to turn them against each other once he saw they were uniting (with roman being the traditionally weak link) - although by that point he already knew he didn’t need them… so who knows

anyway by the end i was pretty much hating our everyman greg and wanted him to fall flat on his fucking face

yeah, agree that it was great the show didn't lean too much into Greg being this one dimensional comedic light relief but showed his lower stakes yet equally loathsome grifting and scheming. He drifts between a relatable witness to all drama for the viewer early on and being his own brand of untrustworthy, ego driven slimeball. He is family, after all.

Sorry, I'm always going to be behind (and trying to avert my eyes from posts related to later episodes)...In the S2 season opener, Kendall's "I saw their plan, and my Dad's plan is better" mantra made me think of "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life" from The Manchurian Candidate.

children of Brits might come out with some bits of britspeak. Not much excuse for Rhea though.

― symsymsym, Friday, February 18, 2022 1:44 PM (three days ago)

I can attest that this is true, especially when it comes to insults and especially within the family. So "twat" makes sense, "sand pit" not so much. Not sure if it was the writing or Hunter or both, but I found Rhea an ill-fitting character in general—it may well have been her southern-ness didn't really work with the dialogue.

i really identified with tom.as monstrous of a bully as he is to everyone beneath his station, tom's unbelievably sweet with shiv and it feels real. i've been in relationships where i felt out of my league, out of my depth, where it seemed like something was wanted of me that i couldn't provide, like a certain callousness or coolness that just wasn't in my bag of tricks. when he finally just yells I'M NOT A HIPPIE at her i was like oh man i feel you tom.

In one way--one way only--Logan reminds me of Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Taylor: "Alright, now go on, get the hell out of my office." Logan: "Alright, now go on, fuck off."

i’m not sure what it says about me that the two shows i have binged this hard in recent memory are SUCCESSION and SQUID GAME. both about horrible people being horrible to each other.

'boar on the floor' certainly seems like a game you'd play in england's public schools, or is that off base?

did they mention where the kids went to school/university?

Joe Posnanski on the baseball lockout:

What I did not see coming was that the owners would simply refuse to engage until the threat of losing Opening Day was very real. That’s on me: I simply had not watched enough episodes of “Succession” back then.

"It's complicated. It was a different time."
"It wasn’t a time before they invented laws."

Lol

There are so many incredible lines that go by in the blink of an eye

Watched the big Roy-Pierce get-together last night--thought it was the high point of the series so far, especially the climactic showdown between the patriarch and the matriarch (I've seen Cherry Jones in many films, not sure if there's one thing in particular I associate her with).

watched that whole dinner from behind my fingers

when they reboot succession in 2035, i hope cherry jones gets to play the matriarch roy

The big who's-taking-the-fall? dinner near the end of S2 was a comic highlight: "Greg sprinkles," and especially Logan's reaction when Connor offers himself as the secret power behind the family's reign of terror. Also liked the trace of a smile in the last shot of Logan after Kendall's press conference, the implicit admiration for the fact that he was wrong, Kendall's a killer.

I'm not sure that you can chronicle all these horrible people and then expect a scene like Tom airing his anger and misgivings to Shiv about the marriage to be as emotional as it aspires to be.

the tom/shiv scenes are probably my favourite scenes tbh

I think they're great together when they're funny, I'm just not sure you can suddenly turn their marriage into a source of great tragedy.

their marriage is farcical and pathetic like pretty much everything else in the show. but despite their exalted social status a lot of the dynamics are p relatable imo

Two episodes into S3. I always look forward to Connor's weirdness--Greg's weirdness seems a little studied, whereas Connor strikes me as a original creation.

One thing I'm starting to find a little repetitive--and I know how silly this sounds, seeing as it's the premise of the whole show--are these critical moments where Logan has to pick his successor. It feels like the fourth time around already, but every time, all the kids start speculating in earnest on who it will be. If this were a Seinfeld episode, someone would speak up and say "Haven't we had this conversation before?"

Pretty much the only knock I'd put on this excellent show is that it goes in circles a bit, so I feel your point there. Silicon Valley, another HBO show, also had that exact problem, and after a while it was hard to feel there were any stakes. Succession hasn't gotten there yet for me, but if it spins long enough, I can see it losing emotional stake

Though on the issue of Logan picking his successor, he has vested interest in NOT picking someone, and instead letting everyone fight against each other

yeah the groundhog day aspect of that is part of the point i think

I think I just want them to push back more, and in S2, they do: when Logan offers Shiv a newly created post as President, she kind of rolls her eyes and asks if that means mascot.

Not sure if Holly Hunter will be back, but, as always, she was great (she reminded me a bit of Patricia Clarkson on House of Cards, this shadowy intermediary). And I hope Marcia's role is expanded from here on out; her absence for a couple of episodes hurt.

And, uh, obviously Kendall pushes back.

no steaks on succession? i beg to differ

(i searched for a picture of them eating steak but couldnt find one)

Boars--rare, like an aristocrat.

the show is good but what couldve made it really great is if when they were playing boar on the floor logan said "the winner of this game will be the successor" and the successor then entered into a series of intrigues which were resolved by seasons end, and in the next season there are more intrigues

ive written a treatment for a serialized reimagining of antonionis red desert that works in a similar way

A show focused entirely on Romulas's sex life, that's the spin-off the world is waiting for.

I have a title: My So-Called Sex Life.

Kendall would totally do sloppy steaks

Took a break for a couple of weeks, finished S3 last night. About equal to S2, I think. I watch, I'm engaged, I like it, don't love it. Maybe I'm one of those rubes who needs someone to root for--if anything, I sometimes find myself rooting for Logan, who's at least authentic (and I like the ways--his smile, the tilt of his head--he keeps everything close to his vest). But I know he's awful, so "rooting" isn't exactly the right word. Found Kendall's breakdown in the finale moving (and wanted to throttle joke-machine Roman, but that's who he is too, anything else would be false). I actually missed the key point about Tom near the end of the finale until I read up afterwards. (One of my favourite things is when Tom and Shiv, working in tandem, clown around at someone's expense, usually Greg's. Tom, who's such a simp and a cipher at times, has a really funny, cutting sense of humour in those situations.)

I loved Roman in that scene - using his sociopathic wit to console Kendall and help someone else, for once.

Definitely quotable: "I guess I'm just trying to say, like, who's the real victim here? I waited three quarters of an hour for a gin and tonic." Even Kendall started to laugh...Also loved Tom's line about Greg potentially being Europe's weirdest monarch.

Yeah you can really see how Roman has become trapped by his armor of misanthropy, this is what being emotionally supportive looks like because he literally cant do those other supportive things people do, like console, hug, hold eye contact etc.

this *is* Roman being there for kendall

yes

that deflective joke was love

apparently kendall sitting on the ground was an improv move that ruined the continuity of every other take they'd done but it became the keeper

those angles, the bright day creating this deep focus that went for miles, roman standing in the background, it was like a fuckin.. idk giocametti sculpture or something

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ec/3e/1d/ec3e1dda916b0ca0b474df95fd288499.jpg

otm

I’m about halfway through s2 of this and I honestly love it??? I’m on the episode where they have protests about their Nazi news anchor and it’s so good. “I’m intellectually promiscuous but culturally conservative”. I love most of these awful people, but I have to be honest and say I love love love when anything bad happens to Tom. What a cunt.

you don't hyper-decant ?!

yeah but if it was that bad they wouldn't be around to suffer, like.

the hardest i've ever laughed at this show is when tom tried to say he'd never met greg and that cut to shiv losing her mind.

If it is to be said.

I've been watching Inventing Anna (against my better judgement) and Stewie and Tabitha from Succession are playing a married couple in it, it was confusing to me, if it is to be said.

I actually nearly died from the secondhand embarrassment here, he’s so awful 😭😭😭

succession clip kendall roy tells public relations consultant berry schneider “I’d like my twitter to be off the hook” and goes on to say he’s thinking about hitting up some “BoJack guys” for his feed, a thought which berry questions “like cool tweets to position you?” pic.twitter.com/MetrpSW9Z3

— succession clips and reaction videos (@successionreact) October 22, 2021

Watching s2 for the second time (not seen s3). Didn't catch Shiv referring to Connor as "the first pancake" before (in the Dundee episode, I think.) Oof, lol.