Twelfth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

POST NAMER TBC-- work harder, meme!

Welcome back, anyway! Chat fandom, media, creative things, weirdness from around the net, funny stuff, anything! Meme awaits!

(start a comment thread by replying to this post)

 

Comments

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

S1e5. I'm finding the characters in this show quite inconsistent, so far. Giving it time, because maybe more stuff will be explained, but it really feels like each ep has a different writer who sees the characters completely differently. I keep thinking "he wouldn't SAY that!', and I'm only 5 eps in , so something's off. Someone will be empathetic in one ep and psychopathic the next, or will be naive in one and then suddenly super shrewd. In this ep, Kendall's 100% right about all things business. In ep 2, he was 100% clueless. Huh?

For now I'm handwaving it as "he makes a good market analyst but not a good leader, and the minute he thinks 'what would dad want me to do?', he gets pulled away from his more sensible instincts and ends up with something stupid. Because he's not his dad and has none of his skills". But still. Bit contradictory. Greg's incosistency is also a bit odd (the "someone else must have smoked a joint in my car" guy is now a good liar?), but I'm treating it as a gag.

Idk that any of this counts as spoilers, but will hide it jic.

I'm confused about why Shiv is with Tom. He's so creepy. :p I assume she just likes any affection, being starved of friendliness in her weirdass family, but why *him*? I thiiink she suspects he's a golddigger but is hoping he isn't, because she wants to believe the patter, but she's been raised to always keep her guard up. So currently I'm assuming all the other golddiggers were more blatant and he's just a bit better at seeming honest and vulnerable, and she's lonely. But it's odd considering he's such an absolute fucking freak. I kinda feel like she's going to go "I know you're a golddigger, but I like knowing exactly what people are about, so I find it reassuring. At least you're not a mystery." or something like that. Also vaguely wondering if he's cover for a more inappropriate relationship she's in.

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

Also guess I'm a psychopath now because I laughed so fucking hard when Logan decked Kendall's kid. Also, wow, Vulture seriously struggles with understanding things it watches...

https://archive.is/33N36 (their episode recap)

Logan hit the kid on purpose! He was pissed that the kid was disobeying him earlier, and willing to humiliate him during the game, plus it's part of the power-struggle with Kendall and a threat-display. You can decide for yourself if he was annoyed at 'losing', with reduced impulse control from illness, or if the end reveal means he was bluffing the whole time, but either way the violence was 200% on purpose. How would anything else make sense NARRATIVELY? Do these people think TV shows are just collections of random events???

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

Gerri surprises Kendall by offering her own vote to him in confidence

That didn't happen. She kept it ambiguous, she just gave him the impression that was what she was implying. Personally, I read her words the opposite way, and thought she had decided Logan was compos mentis and he was treating his illness as an opportunity. So, since she's decided he's the stronger party, she's decided to seem like she's sympathetic to Kendall, to get information. I think also perhaps she wants the top job but knew that if she went in straight after Logan, she'd look bad and be blamed for the stock-drop, so she wanted to instead take the credit for turning things around once Kendall failed. Anyway, yeah, she was there for Kendall's bank-call; no way would she think he was up to the task.
Am also curious about Frank's angle.

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

There are 3 people who know about the debt: Logan, Frank, Gerri. So we know Frank and Gerri are scary and ambitious people (plus she helped cover up the cruise scandal (that also doubles as a way for Greg to have dirt on *her*, as it happens)). Gerri keeps the debt from Kendall until *after* he formally takes the job, then immediately tells him about it. No warning, even though his dad's just had a stroke and is in hospital; she waits until he's been put in a position to take the fall. You could say she's just being professional, but the cruises coverup contradicts that. So her story about not wanting a stressful job is a liiiie, imo; she knew it was cursed! She knows she needs to wait for the right moment.

I could get it all wrong. Maybe the writing will just be contradictory. But so far, Gerri looks like she's House Tyrelling around, to me.

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

Watched s1e6. Comments online continue to be bizarre; I feel like these people are watching a different show. "Kendall would make a great CEO!", whaaaaa? He has no leadership ability! He has no sales ability! He has no charisma! No presence! He would never, ever, ever make a good CEO. He'd make a good analyst. He seems to have all the skills his father lacks, and none of the skills his father has. He couldn't even manage to be in the room. This is the most BASIC stuff. If you want something to go your way, you have to be in the room. You don't leave it to chance. But Kendall is unable to succeed at things, because he just lacks an instinct for it. It's agonising (but also very funny) to watch. There isn't an open goal that Kendall can't miss. He gets his plan and all his pieces in place and then fails to execute, every time. "He who hesitates is lost"-- that is referring specifically to Kendall, who does nothing BUT hesitate.

Logan's the opposite. He can make anything happen, including the stupidest drive-the-business-off-a-cliff ideas, through sheer force of will. People follow him. Afaict, he still thinks he's in the 20th century. He runs a media company and he hasn't even noticed the existence of the internet. He has -1000 points in longterm strategy. He makes crappy snap decisions. He's a total bully and is suffering from brain damage. And he STILL comes across as a better bet than Kendall! :')

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

SD

It's honestly fascinating that these people look at Kendall and see competence. I see a mindbogglingly incompetent nepo baby. He is MARGINALLY less incompetent than his siblings. But he has no business running a company.

A lot of them misread Ewan, too. They're mistaking him for a good person because he hates Logan and talks a good game about hating corporate greed or whatever. Haha. Ewan is a joyless control freak, mirror image of Logan, who uses a pretense of caring about ethics as a stick to beat others. This is really, really obvious. I also don't believe he supports Logan in the vote out of love or loyalty; he did it so that he could sanctimoniously hold it over Logan. Now Logan is in his debt. That's going to burn worse than Ewan "betraying" him ever would. Ewan is the guy who wears a hairshirt and makes everyone else wear one too, "for the environment"; he can't bear to see anyone enjoying themselves in his presence. He's just been born in the wrong time and place to get big into puritanical religion, so he's stuck winding himself up about food waste, instead.

But reddit are convinced he's a nice guy. :")

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

SD

Reminds me of after ep1, when they were like "Connor seems nice!". He's the worst of the lot! From his very first appearance, he's been in crazed comic book villain territory! He's introduced boasting about how he's going to hoard all the water in the water wars!

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

SD

Frank continues to confuse me. Not sure if he's got some plan or if the writers just don't know what to do with him. Gets fired in ep 1, refuses to come back (saying he has no price), then comes back (unexplained!), and just... gets fired again. Huh?

Things I liked... the convo between Kendall and Stewie. I love how Stewie just says the subtext. "I can trust you, right?" "No." He continues in this fashion, while Kendall just hears what he wants to hear and presses on, telling him secrets. It's very funny and I don't think I've seen it done like that in a comedy drama before; it's closer to a Simpsons gag. :D

Also lol'd at Shiv in the scene where Tom's complaining about work and her mind's on her own stuff. Then he picks that moment to start talking about wedding admin. She's busy, Tom! You can see her wishing he had a mute button. Been there. She's my fave of the siblings and I'm annoyed at the cheaty direction the show is taking her. It's possible to want a dude to shush when you're working without there being anything nefarious afoot!

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

S1e7. It's a "the whole family goes to therapy" episode. Contrived, but much better than expected; this was my fave so far. And Shiv continues to be my fave, car scene aside. I like how she sees through Logan in no seconds flat. And tells Connor he's delusional for being taken in. I think she's the Roy kid with the most ability to get stuff done and lead. Kind of interesting that she won't go near the company; I think she knows Logan's never gonna let go of it, so there's no point going for it.

Cracked up at Logan furiously eating an apple, and at his outrage that he should take advice from someone who jumps in headfirst at the shallow end of the pool. Much metaphor in that for his situation in general, when people try to give him advice, I think. Why would he listen to them?

(Because they're correct, is why! But yeah, I assume it's hard for him to filter good advice from bad, bc from his pov it's all being delivered by failures whom he's best off ignoring.)

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

E8: Prague was even better; sharp script, had me laughing all the way through, new fave ep! Kendall plumbs new depths of uncool, almost salvages it, then gets worse. As always. I had loads to say about this ep, but left it too long and now can't be bothered. Much funnier than the earlier stuff, anyway; script was way more creative with the jokes, the characters felt lively and distinct, and I was like "oh okay the show has hit its stride now".

But it was followed by e9. Which was a mess, tbh. Inconsistent writing strikes again. This one feels like the writers have come up with (what they think are) funny lines that they've just given to characters at random. The humour is back to characters just saying "fuck" or "dick" a lot. Every scene feels like it's desperate to be gifed, so the characters just quip in OOC crude ways, all with the same edgetastic voice. Cringe.

I feel like there's no real point following the subterfuge because the characters just get rewritten from episode to episode, so there's not much point speculating on what they're going to do. Is Marcia suddenly openly acting super aggro to Shiv a plot point, or just inconsistent writing? Cannot tell. I think if a drama is gonna build up around characters who can double-cross each other, you can't have all the characters just doing things at random all the time. And I'd like more effort put into the jokes.

So, :( . Looked up the writer for the last ep; looks like that writer got only 1 ep per season. :((( Hoping the next episode is better.

Re: TV - Succession

[(Anonymous)]

E10. This ep was MUCH better! The comedy was great! The characters were the characters again!

So end of S1. I am so confused by this show. Why is the writing SO fucking variable. This episode would have been amazing if the previous ep hadn't been such an absolute shitshow. Instead, I got taken totally out of it for an episode riiight before the dramatic finale, then dropped back in when I'd detached. The finale went for as much drama as comedy, but the previous ep had slightly ruined all the characters and their arcs, delivering important plot points with about as much finesse as GoT s8, so I found it hard to turn on the deeper empathy again and got a lot more from the comedy side.

Ah well. I'd been going to give up on it tbh, but this ep was v good so may actually keep watching future seasons. Think I'm gonna watch some other shows, first, though. Haven't seen anything with such inconsistent quality since dr who. Guess I'd give it 7/10 overall. When it's good, it's very good, but I think I only found 3 out of 10 eps in the season to be up there. And every ep is 60 mins, so when they're middling you feel cheated of your evening. It's never terrible, but I was hoping for cleverer intrigue than it managed in this first season.

Great episode, though! 😂