HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

I'm 2/3 of the way through season 4 and am disappointed that these are all going to be movie-length episodes

they aren't? the last episode is like 90 minutes, the rest are about an hour

in addition to the awful zoom-ins, the show regularly violates the 180 degree rule

― Dan S, Friday, June 2, 2023 9:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i noticed this (for the first time in all four seasons) in the matsson/tom seen in the final episode.

Many xp but the fake India numbers storyline was sewn up. The mistake was made public and any hit to Gojo's stock would have baked into the half stock deal. If anything, it made the deal better for the board. More stock to cover the purchase price.

of all the lines idk why this dumb one sticks w me

pic.twitter.com/36oPh5S1Zq

— no context succession (@nocontextroyco) May 23, 2023

Good interview here about the finale and the whole series with Jesse Armstrong (and Frank Rich). Yes it’s Terry Gross, but if you read the transcript you don’t have to hear her voice if she bothers you.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/05/1179595456/jesse-armstrong-succession-interview

in addition to the awful zoom-ins, the show regularly violates the 180 degree rule

Another influence Mark Mylod mentioned in directing it: Altman, specifically Gosford Park.

read somewhere the idea of never telling the actors where the camera might be?

I think Armstrong or Mylod mentioned that with respect to the funeral episode, in which the camera occasionally zoomed in on a specific person in the pews for a reaction shot. Apparently they used more cameras than usual for that episode, stationing them at various places around the church.

I read somewhere that they also had Cox there in the church during filming, so people wouldn't jump to conclusions about whose funeral it was.

Late as usual, just finished last night. Beautiful ending. So much psychological truth running through the veins of this show. I feel a little bit sorry for those who thought they were actually watching ballers ball for four seasons and were just waiting for the inevitable big W at the end.

Two lines that seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle:
'Uh, the colors go well.'
(upon being confronted with a prior confession to murder) '...Which?' (Mark Strong is sooooo goooood at capturing the affect of a wounded four-year-old, in this case muttering a confusedly guilty response as if someone had finally discovered that he was the one who broke the lamp)

That ending seems more perfect the longer I contemplate it, a crystalized moment of the show's tendency to present its characters as simultaneously abhorrent and pitiable.

I also just finished a few days ago. Kendall's fate gave me big Vic Mackey at the end of The Shield vibes. Of course both were haunted and eventually undone by crimes committed early in their show's run.

Took me a while trying to think which character Mark Strong had played in Succession…

He's so method that he physically transformed into an entirely different actor.

I finally finished it, and agree with Old Lunch and Moodles.

As much as I didn't love the filming, the final storyline ended up being way more complex and nuanced than I thought it would be, and the acting in the last few episodes was pretty great.

This is quite brilliant https://t.co/h9HW3Sr5jt

— J. Smith-Cameron💙 (@j_smithcameron) July 13, 2023

I stalled out in the middle of season 2, and I just started watching again. I was really hooked by the end of the season but I started Season 3 and that Red Scare Eva Braun woman showed up. Repulsive.

don't get too attached to her

thinking of asking her to be my kids' godmother

With my women.@annakhachiyan and @nobody_stop_me are also now officially the godmothers of my children.❤️🥳 pic.twitter.com/BRKn2EogBs

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 17, 2023

I wish I never learned who these dumb ladies are

fortunately, if you aren't into her, comfrey remains a D-list character through and through.

less remembered than Cousin's Greg's girlfriend with the ludicrously capacious bag.

The amount of Jeremy Strong interview memes I still continue to see is amazing

https://www.curbed.com/2023/09/jeremy-strong-is-selling-his-south-williamsburg-condo.html

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/2b4/92f/0f6a6d518cefa8c24db7aef92facbd4051-jeremy-strong-1.2x.rvertical.w330.jpg

this guy!

good detective work

he has small children, no way in hell those are actually stored there

right! he got them out for the realtor's photographer?!

whoa whoa are you folks really implying that noted actor Jeremy Strong might be just a little bit of a showoff?

We are very slowly creeping our way through this show, probably hovering around the end of the second season. We've done a really good job avoiding spoilers (as much as what is so far basically just a billionaire asshole version of "Entourage" needs spoilers) but ... I'm having trouble figuring out Tom and Cousin Greg. Like, both characters seem objectively useless, and while I think they're fun as characters and definitely provide (imo) a disproportionate amount of narrative fodder and facile satire, I just find it kinda implausible that they would be inner circle fixtures, let alone married to one of the main characters.

its prob better to not watch it like a dvd recapper

idgi

do you mean, don't watch it like a serial and watch it more like an episode to episode sitcom?

tom and greg don't seem much worse adjusted/functional than the rest of the offspring so i don't really see the gatekeeping that would remove them from the story

That dissonance becomes part of the story in the last two seasons, especially for Tom

but there is more background that unfurls later in the series, certainly re: tom, that explains better his connection with shiv

xp

gotcha!

trying not to spoiler you but have faith because it is all very well done imo

Tom and Greg are both defined by the fact that neither really fits in with the Roys and they are trying to find a foothold, which is what draws them together.

It's not that they are any worse than the Roy kids, just that they seem more expendable, or at least, less deserving of loyalty or a place at the table. Good to know it pays off!

I don't think the show implies that Tom or Greg's claims are on an equal footing to the four siblings

sure, I just don't see why they'd be put in charge of anything important. unless the joke is that nothing is important.

I don't think it's a joke, just the reality that sometimes dumb and/or unqualified people get put in important positions because nepotism.

TBF, in a final season episode Roman mentions Tom is in fact good at his job.

Lol, I don't know if I would trust Roman's assessment!

post Oh, I assume that is the joke/satire, just imo Tom in particular is depicted as even more flailing and desperate and incompetent than the genetic kids. Like, we just saw the episode where he testifies in front of Congress. What did they expect would happen? Unless he was a strategic sacrifice, in which case I missed that detail.

of course, if the payoff is that Tom is really good at his job, or Greg for that matter, I can get with that, that's kind of funny.

No offense, but I think you're missing a bunch. Tom wasn't just a strategic sacrifice, he offered to be a strategic sacrifice, which the family gladly accepted.

feel like a lot of people are luke warm on this show through the first couple seasons, which is sad they couldve just been enjoying it the whole time instead of wanting things "to make sense" and so forth

xpost Pretty sure his name came up and, put on the spot, he agrees. Not that he was in a position to say no.

Bill was supposed to be the sacrifice, but Tom was unable to successfully shift the blame.