Succession - HBO
Anyone been watching this? I was cursing under my breath every time the promos came on for the last couple months because the premise seemed abhorrent to me, and I still don't really understand why this got made, in today's political climate. It's basically billionaire-white-privilege the show, but it's strangely compelling. I don't want to care about any of the protagonists, but it's so well-written that I do just want to see what happens next. I haven't even watched Westworld this week but I got excited about this. Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun, and Kieran Culkin bring some quality comedy that almost hits an Arrested Development tone, but in a much more serious setting. It's weird. The humor feels British. To make another comparison, it's a bit like Billions but less sensationalized, if that appeals to you. The first couple scenes of the first episode were pretty rough, but I do think it's worth a watch, and was kind of surprised not to see any discussion on it yet.
Comments
It does have an Arrested Development feel to it now that you mention it. It has the older matriarch, a (seemingly) conniving mom, a son poised to take over the company, a younger more brash son, a conniving daughter with a problematic male partner, and a bumbling nephew (I think?).
I also saw that after the second episode HBO had already renewed it. I was not surprised, but also happy to see it. With Game of Thrones ending they are probably holding onto their shows even if they are only moderately successful. Good stuff, and I highly recommend it. But I can easily see people not enjoying it just based on the demographic of characters that are being portrayed.
Matthew Macfadyen is killing it as a midwestern kid at the elite grownups table. He clings to Craig/Greg as a life raft of decency--decency, one suspects, that he recognizes from earlier days--at times abusing him and at others pulling him close. Seems like the way he alternately feels wistful for and yet above his humble midwestern roots. I think he's the most complicated character.
I though it was low key hilarious that they chose a song about Harlan Country with striking coal miners, scabs and the coal bosses to play at the end of Episode 6.
That said, the Shiv + Bernie Sanders campaign plot is one of the more interesting beats that has developed in the second half of the season so far. I think she's right in saying that Bernie stand-in candidate is going to need to pivot more to the middle from where he is once he has sufficiently rallied the base, although I don't think he will.
If a show was covering such things in a realistic way it would be boring as fuck. But no, none of those things are as preposterous as an airgapped laptop magically printing. That's about as smart writing as establishing that a car is completely out of gas and the engine has no oil, then at the end of the scene someone starts it up and roars away in it.
So far Tom is my favorite. Him being such a diva bridezilla was my favorite part of episode 9. The Saga of Greg is my second favorite part of the season. Of course the family and most of the major players as a whole are complete assholes and every negative pathological term you could throw out there, but the game of the power struggle is compelling and the depths of their asshole-ishness and fucked up family dynamic is somehow endearing to me. I don't like any of them as people on an individual level, aside from Greg and maybe Tom for different reasons, yet as a family I'm just eating them up on screen.
I think Mark Mylod says it best in this video (below) when he says "I'm excited for the audience to.. to perhaps do what I did, which was to fall in love with the family despite themselves"
Being on the verge of setting up a podcast on Napoleonic History with a considerable level of investment interest, that's nothing?????"
Still hate the show. Ha ha.
Comedy is easily the show's strong suit and I think it's getting better and better as the characters develop. I laughed out loud more in this last episode than in most comedies. It's also why Roman is my favorite character, he fully embraces his douchiness and amorality so Kieran Culkin can really have fun with the character. He's in many ways the opposite of Connor whom I find insufferable.
As much as I like the intro music to me it's way overused within the episodes, it's pretty distracting and at the top of my head I can't think of any other show that does this.
Overall still an enjoyable TV show, but not something I'd typically watch.
There are examples where it is used better than others, one of my favorites was in Granite State where at the climax of the episode the composer does a riff on the theme music that you don't know it is coming until your ears and brain put it together in a masterful way. The X-Files did the same thing at times beautifully. Here it was just was just the theme and seemed boring and lazy. With that said, this episode was miles ahead of the last episode, thankfully.