Succession [spoilers]

[Ran]

Enjoyed the episode but it wasn't as good as the previous. OTOH, Greg was not so overdone, and actually I laughed when his new attorney brought out textbook academic vocab like "reified".

I think the most interesting turn at the end was how Logan switched from talking about Shiv becoming president of some department to get her "in" to then talking about Gerri as being Shiv's protection from the fallout.. which seems to imply he means to have Gerri take a fall. I don't know that she's going to take that one lying down.

 

[Mark Antony]

1 minute ago, Ran said:

think the most interesting turn at the end was how Logan switched from talking about Shiv becoming president of some department to get her "in" to then talking about Gerri as being Shiv's protection from the fallout.. which seems to imply he means to have Gerri take a fall. I don't know that she's going to take that one lying down.

 

That could lead to Roman finally standing up to Logan. 

[Ran]

14 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

That could lead to Roman finally standing up to Logan. 

Yep. I'm not sure anyone is really aware of what's going on there, precisely, between them. Will be very interesting to see.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Also, Gerri is pretty much the one person he could put there that's just smart enough to maybe avoid becoming a scapegoat.

And all the talk about Connor not being wanted and not being important seems to indicate he's going to do something important, if only to prove everyone else wrong.

[Mark Antony]

Conheads will love that!

[RumHam]

Officially renewed for season four.

I know they've said they only plan to go four or five seasons. 

[Zorral]

Do all of these characters suffer from ADD?  Their incessant facial tics and hand wringing, the vacuity of their speech -- no wonder the world is so effed, because these are the ones running it. And none of them is even close to average intelligence.  They're not even cunning.  Gerry maybe, but she's not one of them. And then Tom -- gads he even sounds like Zuck pathetically shilling Meta -- not FB!  See it here!  

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/28/business/facebook-meta-name-change-reaction/index.html

 

 

[Ran]

Another good episode, but holy cow, Kendall is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown which he tries to mask with fake indifference to the slings and arrows and literally throws himself into the lion's maw just to prove that he's okay. Getting Shiv'ed did not help, but at least he skipped that lame talk show where he was going to be completely humiliated and eviscerated in person.

Logan's belittling of Roman for going out and doing the softball interview that's supposed to put a shine on him and his "family values" illusion was so absolutely Logan.  

His cornering the chief of staff at the studio leading to the FBI rolling in was a dumb mistake by Logan, though it did finally get him to back down on his resistance to cooperating.

Finally, Greg and the watch ... pretty sure that was a Rolex Deep Sea, and if so, the "hook up" dealer charged him twice what the watch was worth. And it's broken to boot. 

[RumHam]

Greg is so fucked, does he even understand what Ewin and that lawyer with awesome hair want to do? Tom also seems fucked, though I though last season on the boat they decided he wouldn't work as a fall guy. Kendall is just cringe personified. I love that he hired all the best lawyers and PR people so he could ignore them.

Also if that PR woman is dating Greg I'm going to need an entire "Inside the episode" explaining why.

[Winterfell is Burning]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Tom talking to the Feds and getting that deal Kendall is angling for.

I also liked that, for all his provocation, Logan recognized Roman was smart to not sign the letter.

[Mark Antony]

Yeah toms definitely ratting right? He was testing shiv and she failed miserably. Also damn Shiv really reacted strongly to Kendal’s Nirvana stunt. Was glad to see Roman and Connor didn’t go along with it. 

[Ran]

Yeah, agreed, Tom is preparing his exit strategy if they try and pin it on him, reaching out to an independent law firm. Very canny of him.

Such a nest of vipers, and so damned fun to watch.

[RumHam]

Hey I wonder what happened to Roman's quasi-girlfriend? The one he was only interested in because she snowballed Tom. I liked her and I don't recall them breaking up.

I'd be so curious to read the part of the show "bible" about Roman and why he is the way he is. Beyond just his daddy issues and that stuff with the dog cage. I was hoping they'd follow up on his hostage trauma induced self-reflection too.

[Ran]

7 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Hey I wonder what happened to Roman's quasi-girlfriend? The one he was only interested in because she snowballed Tom. I liked her and I don't recall them breaking up.

Tabitha. Google tells me that there's no signs she was involved in filming this season. I don't know if they'll explain it by a compressed and focused timeline for this season, such that she's around but just not hanging around for all these business-related meetings. Or alternatively we're to take it that Roman's Gerri thing just led him to quietly calling that off.

 

[Zorral]

they all suffer from particularly acute, scaley exzema. This discomfort even shows in their clothing choices, which are never right, dowdy colors, ill-fitting in the way a very rich person’s bespokes fit to perfection never are, even when carrying a figure like shoggoth’s.*  [Shoggoth is referenced several times throughout this episode, though never by name, only by title -- and by his characteristic behavior, of cutting loose the guy and his company that supported him throughout -- one more betrayal in an episode of betrayals.] 

These schlumpy figures are a television version of the Fox News, FB, etc. These are the people who are running the world, who are fabulously wealthy, stealing the country blind and running every institution the nation has into the ground, while utterly oblivious and ignorant of EVERYTHING. Lame is their name, and so's their game. Tom, attempting to not say anything, got the intonation and tone of Zuckerberg down perfectly in the 2nd ep. No normal person would be capable of being in the company of one of them, any of them, for a minute. Unless very very very well paid . . . .

The riding in the limo scene in the 3^rd ep., Kendall and Greg amid a crowd of paid sycophant girls, is a portrait of clueless, tone-deaf aspirational twitdumb to the max. The gag of Kendall fooling Greg into thinking he’s getting a gift watch when, in reality Kendall brought in a watch broker [my gawdessa is that even a real thing, though at those prices, maybe?] to sell Greg a $10,000 -- some say $30,000, some say it carried a tag of 40.000. while I thought I'd heard $1,000  --defective watch, what was that about?  It is a beneath-trivial activity even for a Kendall whose idea of a witty game is “good twitter, bad twitter”, deciding among twits, each more fatuous and lame than the previous one. 

Sure nuff, too, having walked the red carpet made so famous by Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Met Gala for the Costume Institute, once inside the reception for the Committee for the Protection and Welfare of Journalists [a joke if there ever was one in the days of Fox, FB, etc.], sure ‘nuff, out of Kendall’s mouth. comes, “I attend every year.”  That’s a joke NYers will get. The Met Gala is the hottest ticket every year. To get one, one must be invited by the committee to fork over $40,000. Like the Trumps, the Roys never would be invited to buy into Anna Wintour's annual bash.

This series refutes the bromide: “Rich = Smart”. What they are is squirmy, spasmy, repulsive, repellant and icky and corrupt to the core. All of them. There is no tragedy here because there never was a rise from where any of them could fall.

*Somehow Logan Roy’s bespokes do fit him perfectly though. No one else’s do.

~~~~~~~

6 minutes ago, Ran said:

Roman's Gerri thing just led him to quietly calling that off.

Yah wanna make book Roman ghosted her?  

[Ran]

Yes, luxury watches are a thriving grey market. The guy definitely said $40,000, IMO, whereas a Deep Sea tends to retail between $13k and $17k in the secondary market. Maybe it has a Tiffany dial or something else that could explain it. Or COMEX, though those usually push the watch into the 6 figures.

I think the costuming on the show is terrific and very aware of the characters and their class and roles.

Most of the  men, per interviews, are wearing tailored suits and they look it. Logan's suits are from a well-known British expat who makes suits for Scorsese and Spielberg, among others, and Tom's for example are from high-end Italian designers (too high end, he's a poseur who's overdoing it). Kendall tries to do an upscale take on hipster way too often, which is all about his insecurity, but his suits are on point (and also Italian, mostly). Siobhan has changed from her first season look the most, shifting from political PR person to a more business-oriented power look and generally drabber palette . It's really noticeable if you compare her looks across the series. Though that said I'm not sure I was a fan of her blue evening gown this episode.

[RumHam]

25 minutes ago, Ran said:

Tabitha. Google tells me that there's no signs she was involved in filming this season. I don't know if they'll explain it by a compressed and focused timeline for this season, such that she's around but just not hanging around for all these business-related meetings. Or alternatively we're to take it that Roman's Gerri thing just led him to quietly calling that off.

 

I wonder if that was her choice, maybe another Covid thing, or if the writers just decided the story had left her character behind. 

[Zorral]

Her clothes are the worst; nothing fits right -- the colors are vomitous.  That baby poo colored pants suit -- the tailoring -- there was none, see: the butt, the legs.  The velvet dress was cut too small across the chest. And etc.  All her clothes are like this, with the single exception of her wedding dress.

 

[Cashless Society]

First off, Fuck Nate. I wish Tom had been there just so he could order some people to break his legs.

That security guard whispering "I know you" to Kendall . I had my suspicion as to what it was about so I watched the season 1 finale, and low and behold it's the same guard who was present when Logan briefed Kendall about the car accident. I wonder if and when Logan is going to use that to get back at Kendall.

What made the DoJ/FBI get more aggressive? Was it the president himself having a pissing with Logan? Or did they find out that a quid pro quo had taken place between the two? Or did Tom already contact them and they now have enough reason to raid their offices? Tom did seem way too calm when he was informed about it.

Speaking of Tom, I'm of the opinion that he's only seeking outside counsel because he can no longer bully Greg into being the scapegoat. 

16 hours ago, RumHam said:

Tom also seems fucked, though I though last season on the boat they decided he wouldn't work as a fall guy.

Actually, it was still up in the air as to who should take the fall. Logan doesn't take Tom off the list until Shiv begs him to do so. Which is why I'm a little confused on with @Mark Antony's view that she failed Tom's test. At first she tells him not to do it, but he seems pretty dismissive of her. So she then tries to do some reverse psychology on him, but then he appears to be interested in taking the fall, so she reverts to telling him not to do it implying that her father is not worth it.

14 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

Also damn Shiv really reacted strongly to Kendal’s Nirvana stunt. Was glad to see Roman and Connor didn’t go along with it. 

Think about it from Shiv's perspective. The Roy siblings have this sort of agreement that they'll only ever attack each other in private. What Kendall has done just broke that sacred agreement between them and she can no longer trust him and so she retaliates the way she does. I'm pretty sure Roman and Conner would've done the same had it been them on the receiving end of Kendall’s attack. 

10 hours ago, Ran said:

Though that said I'm not sure I was a fan of her blue evening gown this episode.

I took it as a double meaning that shows that she's so far removed from caring about journalistic integrity and also how she's not the right fit to be Logan's replacement.

[Ran]

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

Her clothes are the worst; nothing fits right -- the colors are vomitous. 

Mileage definitely varies -- there's like a hundred articles about Shiv the fashion queen in sites like Glamour, Vogue, The Vulture, etc. To me what you're saying fits more her S1 looks where she was cosplaying as a political hack and then started shifting to media magnate chic.

One of those reminded me that in S1 or S2 she had a popular backless blue knit dress that people loved, so the gown she wore this last episode was referring to that one, I think. 

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

The velvet dress was cut too small across the chest.

This, I'll grant. Hard not to notice. Worked better from behind, but I guess they had limited options in the time frame they were working in to restructure it.

1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

First off, Fuck Nate. I wish Tom had been there just so he could order some people to break his legs.

That security guard whispering "I know you" to Kendall . I had my suspicion as to what it was about so I watched the season 1 finale, and low and behold it's the same guard who was present when Logan briefed Kendall about the car accident. I wonder if and when Logan is going to use that to get back at Kendall.

Good call. I had a feeling that's what was going on, but didn't know where to look for the guy. It really rattled Kendall.

1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

What made the DoJ/FBI get more aggressive?

I'll buy the fact that it's because Logan was there at his studio waiting to pounce on Michelle, senior aide to the president, and that that contact ended up triggering the action. A little like when Clinton went to chat to Loretta Lynch on the tarmac and she ended up throwing decision-making to the FBI to avoid impropriety.

1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

Speaking of Tom, I'm of the opinion that he's only seeking outside counsel because he can no longer bully Greg into being the scapegoat. 

I do believe that's a large part of why he was struggling to keep Greg in the fold.

1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

Actually, it was still up in the air as to who should take the fall. Logan doesn't take Tom off the list until Shiv begs him to do so. Which is why I'm a little confused on with @Mark Antony's view that she failed Tom's test. At first she tells him not to do it, but he seems pretty dismissive of her. So she then tries to do some reverse psychology on him, but then he appears to be interested in taking the fall, so she reverts to telling him not to do it implying that her father is not worth it.

The fact that Shiv even voiced the whole "it's smart" thing is the failure, I think, because in his mind if she's even willing to contemplate it it means that it won't take much for Logan to push her to go for it.

1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

Think about it from Shiv's perspective. The Roy siblings have this sort of agreement that they'll only ever attack each other in private. What Kendall has done just broke that sacred agreement between them

I think Kendall saw his disruption as not a personal attack but just a statement hijacking a corporate event -- he wasn't launching it at Shiv directly. Yes, she felt furious to the point of tears over it because it embarrassed her at the moment she went up to speak, but she was just spouting corporate nothings anyways -- it wasn't really her  that was the target.

Shiv's letter, OTOH, is a real break from their informal agreement. Connor and Roman were right to shy away from going that far. They all have dirt on one another, after all.