HBO's Succession - Season 2 and Beyond

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."