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Succession -- HBO


Patrick Bateman

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Wheeeewwww. Started watching this a few days ago and binged all 3 seasons. My head hurts. This thread is on page 6 btw.

A few thoughts that mostly agree with you all:

Tom is the break-out star. Hilarious and just fantastic all around. I think the showrunners probably fell in love with him like we all did and based on the algos and feedback decided this guy needs a bigger role. His rise could probably be charted with Shiv's descent where they intersect at the end of Season 2. Tom's response to Greg talking about California Pizza Kitchen and then eating Ortolan was the best of the 3 seasons. 

If it weren't for Greg's chemistry with Tom, which Tom has to drag out of him most of the time ("You are so hard to riff with! big obstacle to your career!"), Greg would suck. I guess the show is trying to not be ableist or anti-neurodivergent, but I've never met anyone, autistic or otherwise, who was as constantly stilted and weak in every single speaking situation ever. It's weird because he's the anti-Grandpa Ewan who uses 10-dollar Thesauruses words in equally jarring and unrealistic ways to illuminate some sort of disorder.

Roman is a weird character because he's always on. All acidic bite and clever snark, all the time, 24/7. It's exhausting as a viewer. It's like death by chocolate and it just wears you out when you binge the 3 seasons. I'm guessing when you wait week over week it's fine-if-still-unrealistic. I guess you could say the same thing about Tom, but I just think he gives his hilarious dialogue in doses and in patterns and situations that make sense (e.g. not in the board meetings, etc.) that it works better. That said, he has issues and someone mentioned he was probably molested by Lester which makes sense, and that's sad and informs his character study, but what I find interesting is that he isn't a heavy drug user. You'd think he would be based on his careless and impulsive nature (and obvious emotional and psychological issues).

Ken is the worst of the kids for me because it's hard to watch him be emasculated and castrated. Good acting to turn it off most of season 2, but the amount of "right right, yea no, I get it, sure. okay, right. yea. yea. for sure." became annoying. I thought the show abandoned his visible drug use / habit / problem pretty abruptly too. There were times he was needing his "straightener" just to get through the 8 hour work day and then nothing really shown (I guess the implication is he's still a daily abuser?).

 

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13 hours ago, MeerkatBong said:

Wheeeewwww. Started watching this a few days ago and binged all 3 seasons. My head hurts. This thread is on page 6 btw.

A few thoughts that mostly agree with you all:

Tom is the break-out star. Hilarious and just fantastic all around. I think the showrunners probably fell in love with him like we all did and based on the algos and feedback decided this guy needs a bigger role. His rise could probably be charted with Shiv's descent where they intersect at the end of Season 2. Tom's response to Greg talking about California Pizza Kitchen and then eating Ortolan was the best of the 3 seasons. 

If it weren't for Greg's chemistry with Tom, which Tom has to drag out of him most of the time ("You are so hard to riff with! big obstacle to your career!"), Greg would suck. I guess the show is trying to not be ableist or anti-neurodivergent, but I've never met anyone, autistic or otherwise, who was as constantly stilted and weak in every single speaking situation ever. It's weird because he's the anti-Grandpa Ewan who uses 10-dollar Thesauruses words in equally jarring and unrealistic ways to illuminate some sort of disorder.

Roman is a weird character because he's always on. All acidic bite and clever snark, all the time, 24/7. It's exhausting as a viewer. It's like death by chocolate and it just wears you out when you binge the 3 seasons. I'm guessing when you wait week over week it's fine-if-still-unrealistic. I guess you could say the same thing about Tom, but I just think he gives his hilarious dialogue in doses and in patterns and situations that make sense (e.g. not in the board meetings, etc.) that it works better. That said, he has issues and someone mentioned he was probably molested by Lester which makes sense, and that's sad and informs his character study, but what I find interesting is that he isn't a heavy drug user. You'd think he would be based on his careless and impulsive nature (and obvious emotional and psychological issues).

Ken is the worst of the kids for me because it's hard to watch him be emasculated and castrated. Good acting to turn it off most of season 2, but the amount of "right right, yea no, I get it, sure. okay, right. yea. yea. for sure." became annoying. I thought the show abandoned his visible drug use / habit / problem pretty abruptly too. There were times he was needing his "straightener" just to get through the 8 hour work day and then nothing really shown (I guess the implication is he's still a daily abuser?).

 

Even in weekly doses, for me, Roman's non-stop crap is beyond exhausting. It got boring in a hurry.  

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1 hour ago, Augustus said:

Even in weekly doses, for me, Roman's non-stop crap is beyond exhausting. It got boring in a hurry.  

Interesting. You'd think having a character with 95% of his dialogue that sounds like it was written in a room by a team of funny writers would be too on the nose, but maybe its meta or something. I like the character okay but would love the character if it was dosed properly.

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I just finished season 1. When this show first started, I thought it looked okay but that it would probably not have any characters I like or find myself able to root for. I passed on it until recently when I ran out of other shows and I noticed Succession got a lot of Emmy hype and figured it was worth trying.

I think my initial assessment was mostly correct. I hate everyone except Greg and Tom. Some of their scenes are pure gold but I’m not sure they are enough of a bright spot to keep me watching for 2 more seasons. The entire Roy family is insufferable.

Kendall is the guy I wanted to root for but he’s a stammering buffoon who steps on his own dick every chance he gets, when he’s not busy killing people. He doesn’t seem fit to run a major company so I can’t root for him to achieve that. “I..uh…want to be CEO…to uh…save the company..and…uh…do…good things.” He has no charisma or leadership abilities, can’t stand up to his dad, can’t stand up to his own siblings.

Logan is a sociopath asshole who only cares about himself and his company, and who seems incompetent at times (pissing on the rug, buying outdated business assets, driving the company into massive debt), but then at other times seems completely in control. The writing of his character seems disjointed to me. You could blame some of that on the stroke, but the massive debt would suggest he was losing his touch prior to the stroke.

Roman is a jackass and what I imagine many guys are like who are born into a family with fuck-you money. He has some funny one liners, and I appreciate that he will call people out for their bullshit, but he’s a cowering pussy around his dad and he’s incompetent when he’s given anything of importance to do (the satellite explosion).

Shiv is awful so far. Mainly I just don’t like watching her cheat on Tom, especially with that cheeseball Nate, who seems like he should be on a CW show. And she looks like Todd from Breaking Bad. And her boss, Senator Gil is the least charismatic politician who appears to be running for president on a platform of “I want to destroy a media conglomerate, vote for me.”

Connor is annoying as hell, but at least he had the right idea to get far away from the family business and chase young ass, even if he has to pay for it. Team Willa.

Not sure I should keep watching unless there is a dramatic improvement. I would like to believe the whole company crumbles, stock goes to zero, Logan dies of a heart attack, Kendall goes to jail for manslaughter, Roman dies of monkeypox, Tom leaves Shiv, and somehow Tom and Greg make out with a little money and start their own amusement park where Willa writes and performs in her own plays. Probably not getting that outcome.

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  • 1 month later...

I finished the first 3 seasons. Pretty mixed feelings. There are times when it is great, but times when it is awful and feels like a chore to continue watching.

Tom and Greg are easily the best part of the show. So many great scenes with the 2 of them on screen together, but the best part was Tom sticking the knife in Shiv's back in the finale. I was probably ready to check out until that moment, but I may keep watching to support #freeTom. 

The narrative absolutely sucks. Company in huge debt, let's find a billionair "friend" to fix it. Then there's a bear hug and proxy vote that lasts multiple seasons and goes nowhere. Then they suddenly have extra money to buy Pierce except that Pierce doesn't want to be bought. Then they want to buy Mattson except that their company sucks again and Mattson wants to buy them. It's an endless cycle of almost takeovers and mergers that always turn out the same. Cruises are kind of a huge problem except not really problem at all. Someone has to go to jail, no wait nevermind no one needs to go to jail. Boring and entirely predictable.

The Roy kids are all insufferable. Roman is probably the worst because his dialogue is like listening to 13 year old Seth Rogan hurl insults at everyone around him. Continually. Shiv is a horrible person. Kendall is probably bipolar or has some other severe psychiatric issues, compounded by substance abuse and a history of killing someone, and it's just hard to watch him on screen.

I think some of the flaws were tolerable for 1-2 seasons, but to keep adding seasons with essentially the same content will get tiresome.

I predict there will be some technicalities in season 4 that prevent Mattson from doing a clean takeover, so that will drag on for most of the season and eventually they will be back to square one with Logan in charge and each Roy sibling fighting for the CEO position that will never come.

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1 hour ago, wild_turkey said:

I finished the first 3 seasons. Pretty mixed feelings. There are times when it is great, but times when it is awful and feels like a chore to continue watching.

Tom and Greg are easily the best part of the show. So many great scenes with the 2 of them on screen together, but the best part was Tom sticking the knife in Shiv's back in the finale. I was probably ready to check out until that moment, but I may keep watching to support #freeTom. 

The narrative absolutely sucks. Company in huge debt, let's find a billionair "friend" to fix it. Then there's a bear hug and proxy vote that lasts multiple seasons and goes nowhere. Then they suddenly have extra money to buy Pierce except that Pierce doesn't want to be bought. Then they want to buy Mattson except that their company sucks again and Mattson wants to buy them. It's an endless cycle of almost takeovers and mergers that always turn out the same. Cruises are kind of a huge problem except not really problem at all. Someone has to go to jail, no wait nevermind no one needs to go to jail. Boring and entirely predictable.

The Roy kids are all insufferable. Roman is probably the worst because his dialogue is like listening to 13 year old Seth Rogan hurl insults at everyone around him. Continually. Shiv is a horrible person. Kendall is probably bipolar or has some other severe psychiatric issues, compounded by substance abuse and a history of killing someone, and it's just hard to watch him on screen.

I think some of the flaws were tolerable for 1-2 seasons, but to keep adding seasons with essentially the same content will get tiresome.

I predict there will be some technicalities in season 4 that prevent Mattson from doing a clean takeover, so that will drag on for most of the season and eventually they will be back to square one with Logan in charge and each Roy sibling fighting for the CEO position that will never come.

always curious.. sincere question.. do you think your criticism would be different if you consumed the show for an hour a week for 10 weeks - once a year over a 3 year period?

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always curious.. sincere question.. do you think your criticism would be different if you consumed the show for an hour a week for 10 weeks - once a year over a 3 year period?

I definitely think it would be better to watch it weekly rather than to binge it. It would help to have a break between Roman’s endless diatribes and Logan’s endless fuck offs.
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always curious.. sincere question.. do you think your criticism would be different if you consumed the show for an hour a week for 10 weeks - once a year over a 3 year period?

I definitely think it would be better to watch it weekly rather than to binge it. It would help to have a break between Roman’s endless diatribes and Logan’s endless fuck offs.
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4 hours ago, yoladu said:

always curious.. sincere question.. do you think your criticism would be different if you consumed the show for an hour a week for 10 weeks - once a year over a 3 year period?

Much better as a weekly viewer. The jokes while hilarious, are a bit repetitive. A break is welcome. 

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6 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Tom and Greg are easily the best part of the show. So many great scenes with the 2 of them on screen together, but the best part was Tom sticking the knife in Shiv's back in the finale. I was probably ready to check out until that moment, but I may keep watching to support #freeTom. 

The narrative absolutely sucks. Company in huge debt, let's find a billionair "friend" to fix it. Then there's a bear hug and proxy vote that lasts multiple seasons and goes nowhere. Then they suddenly have extra money to buy Pierce except that Pierce doesn't want to be bought. Then they want to buy Mattson except that their company sucks again and Mattson wants to buy them. It's an endless cycle of almost takeovers and mergers that always turn out the same. Cruises are kind of a huge problem except not really problem at all. Someone has to go to jail, no wait nevermind no one needs to go to jail. Boring and entirely predictable.

The Roy kids are all insufferable. Roman is probably the worst because his dialogue is like listening to 13 year old Seth Rogan hurl insults at everyone around him. Continually. Shiv is a horrible person. Kendall is probably bipolar or has some other severe psychiatric issues, compounded by substance abuse and a history of killing someone, and it's just hard to watch him on screen.

I think some of the flaws were tolerable for 1-2 seasons, but to keep adding seasons with essentially the same content will get tiresome.

I predict there will be some technicalities in season 4 that prevent Mattson from doing a clean takeover, so that will drag on for most of the season and eventually they will be back to square one with Logan in charge and each Roy sibling fighting for the CEO position that will never come.

 

6 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Pretty mixed feelings.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) - Is He Though?

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On 11/18/2022 at 11:58 AM, wild_turkey said:

I finished the first 3 seasons. Pretty mixed feelings. There are times when it is great, but times when it is awful and feels like a chore to continue watching.

Tom and Greg are easily the best part of the show. So many great scenes with the 2 of them on screen together, but the best part was Tom sticking the knife in Shiv's back in the finale. I was probably ready to check out until that moment, but I may keep watching to support #freeTom. 

The narrative absolutely sucks. Company in huge debt, let's find a billionair "friend" to fix it. Then there's a bear hug and proxy vote that lasts multiple seasons and goes nowhere. Then they suddenly have extra money to buy Pierce except that Pierce doesn't want to be bought. Then they want to buy Mattson except that their company sucks again and Mattson wants to buy them. It's an endless cycle of almost takeovers and mergers that always turn out the same. Cruises are kind of a huge problem except not really problem at all. Someone has to go to jail, no wait nevermind no one needs to go to jail. Boring and entirely predictable.

The Roy kids are all insufferable. Roman is probably the worst because his dialogue is like listening to 13 year old Seth Rogan hurl insults at everyone around him. Continually. Shiv is a horrible person. Kendall is probably bipolar or has some other severe psychiatric issues, compounded by substance abuse and a history of killing someone, and it's just hard to watch him on screen.

I think some of the flaws were tolerable for 1-2 seasons, but to keep adding seasons with essentially the same content will get tiresome.

I predict there will be some technicalities in season 4 that prevent Mattson from doing a clean takeover, so that will drag on for most of the season and eventually they will be back to square one with Logan in charge and each Roy sibling fighting for the CEO position that will never come.

 

That's the most outstanding and completely accurate summation of this series that I've read.

*except for the fact that Shiv is my absolute wheelhouse and I'd kill any of you to fuck her.  Also, this the kind of thing you say and people think you're just kidding around, but I never ate a redhead whose pussy didn't taste great.

True story.

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That's the most outstanding and completely accurate summation of this series that I've read.
*except for the fact that Shiv is my absolute wheelhouse and I'd kill any of you to fuck her.  Also, this the kind of thing you say and people think you're just kidding around, but I never ate a redhead whose pussy didn't taste great.
True story.
#UncleBoobs
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I was just reading the show's creator wants to do a sequel but that thus far HBO is uninterested. However, they were also uninterested in a GOT prequel until they weren't, so you never know.

image.png.b7db50792228ce2e21b271cd65ed19e3.png

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/25/end-of-the-dynasty-next-season-of-succession-will-be-the-last

Quote

Armstrong’s suggestion that he could go further with the show in a different format came after he revealed he was “conflicted” about his decision to terminate the seething machinations of the Roy family.

“I feel sad, and I have the circus-has-left-town feeling that everyone gets who works on a production that’s good, and this one particularly so,” he told The New Yorker last week. “I imagine I’ll be a little bit lonely, and wandering the streets of London in a funk.”

The writer, who established his talent in Britain as co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, said he had known where the story should end from around the second series, but admits it is, in some ways, a “perverse decision” to pull the plug on such a successful drama.

“I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind,” he said. “But the feeling there could be something else in an allied world, or allied characters, or some of the same characters – that’s also strong in me. Maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite?”

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
51 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Seems critics have been given a sneak peak at the first few episodes and are liking what they see ... 100% so far for Season 4 on Rotten Tomatoes after 35 reviews.

Sepinwall agrees https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/succession-season-4-review-hbo-final-brian-cox-jeremy-strong-sarah-snook-nicholas-braun-kieran-culkin-1234700309/

Quote

Logan knows the end is coming, and so does Succession. Without spoiling what happens in the episodes sent to critics, the way that events unfold, and the impact that they have on Logan and everyone else, never plays like a rehash of what’s come before. Significant choices are made, by both the characters and the creative team, that cannot be taken back. It is full steam ahead to the end. Much of what happens is shocking and/or shockingly poignant, especially since it is a show about the absolute worst human beings alive.

 

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Fucking fantastic start.

Stray thoughts:

  • The Tom/Greg stuff was gold as always.
  • That said, Greg is getting a little too cocky. Something bad’s gonna happen to him, outside of explaining to Logan about finger-banging the bridge-and-tunnel chick in his house.
  • Was fun to see the three sibling working together.
  • Shiv has basically treated Tom like shit since, well, the start of the show. And yet he clearly still loves her. That’s probably going to be Tom’s undoing at the end of the day.
  • The kids over-bidding for Pierce is gonna bite them in the ass, without question.
  • I have no idea what the end game is here, but it’s gonna be fun to find out how it goes.
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9 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Shiv has basically treated Tom like shit since, well, the start of the show. And yet he clearly still loves her. That’s probably going to be Tom’s undoing at the end of the day.

My wife caught this - in public (like when Tom was at the bar/on the phone with Shiv) he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. At home, he was.

Shows he's putting on a facade of honoring the "trial separation" in public, but in private he hasn't given up on the marriage.

Also, he called Shiv under the pretense of "honoring their agreement" to tell each other if they are seeing anyone, but in reality it was to tip off Shiv about the Pierce play. So he cares about her enough to give her the ability to make her own move (knowing how she feels about the election/democracy being under attack). 

He still wants to be with her. Remains to be seen if she ever comes around to wanting to be with him. 

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2 hours ago, hornian said:

My wife caught this - in public (like when Tom was at the bar/on the phone with Shiv) he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. At home, he was.

Shows he's putting on a facade of honoring the "trial separation" in public, but in private he hasn't given up on the marriage.

Also, he called Shiv under the pretense of "honoring their agreement" to tell each other if they are seeing anyone, but in reality it was to tip off Shiv about the Pierce play. So he cares about her enough to give her the ability to make her own move (knowing how she feels about the election/democracy being under attack). 

He still wants to be with her. Remains to be seen if she ever comes around to wanting to be with him. 

hmm, I didnt get that was a deliberate tip at the time, but you may be right. Cousin Greg's date and her social media posts also tipped off the gang of 3.

i am liking Roman's evolution, he was pretty unbearable in Season 1 - was dying laughing with his interactions with Nan. Shiv and Kendall know the game of course, so they placate to Nan, Roman just calls her BS at every turn.

The Roy kid's phone call with Kerry was brutal.

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