Simon Boccanegra

Callbacks are never my favorite thing in comedy, and the Seinfeld finale is a good example of why. Besides what @Galileo908 pointed out, that many of the classic Seinfeld clips in the finale had already aired in the preceding clip show (besides the multiple times many of us had seen them in syndication), it was if the show was saying, "Hey, remember this funny thing?" rather than, you know, being funny again in the present. That's virtually an illustration of resting on one's laurels. Here in the Curb finale, I don't think the callbacks had to do as much of the heavy lifting. They were more of a garnish. And one subtle callback I liked: both this episode and episode 1, "The Pants Tent," have Larry meeting Richard's new girlfriend without knowing who she is, and the two of them taking an instant dislike to one another. The season 1 version, the woman who blocks the aisle of the movie theater, was played by Sofia Milos, who was having a good year on HBO's series. She was also the Italian mob boss Annalisa Zucca, with whom Tony bargained for Furio's services in season 2 of The Sopranos.

When Jerry came to the jail cell and got Larry sprung, shortly after we heard about Cynthia (Allison Janney) buying a gun and still having anger toward Larry, I was totally expecting a layering of the Seinfeld finale and the Sopranos finale, with an ambiguous death in the final scene. I'm relieved to have been wrong. I thought the finale was fan service done right—an improved remix of Seinfeld's finale, which I didn't like in 1998 and haven't liked on rewatches. About the series as a whole, I'll just say that while the 2017-2024 seasons (especially season 11) were a bit patchier than those of the glory days, I'm grateful for all the laughs and memories Curb has given me. It's not unusual for shows like 60 Minutes to keep going for decades, but I don't think I've ever watched an entertainment series that ran for 25 years (counting from the 1999 special/pilot), even with long hiatuses between seasons. "Thank you, Larry" (tm Greg the pre-gay kid from S8). Thank you, Jeff, Cheryl, Susie, Ted, JB, Richard and Bob (RIP x2), all the other recurring players and guest stars, directors and producers. Even the worst episode had some line or image that made me smile. I'm glad all 120 of them will be available for streaming in the years left to me.

It was somewhat surprising to me that Springsteen never tried acting when he was at his '80s commercial peak. He seemed to have an aptitude for it when he was playing characters in his videos, but those were brief bits. But he was a delightful surprise here. He really held his own with Larry, Jeff, and Susie.

I think that at its core, this is a Susie-and-Jeff problem that requires a Susie-and-Jeff solution. And, who better to do that than...Jeff and Susie! Susie and Jeff!

When you're really stumped, you can always fall back on physics.

I'm watching the episode a second time. I have to give it up to Nicholas Braun for his ability, even this far into the series, to make Greg's halting, fragmented speech sound so natural, not like actor shtick. He does this a lot when Greg is asking for something and is still trying to edit himself while speaking, to reword and "soften" whatever the request is.

Oh, absolutely. If the show were more directly about Ewan, and he didn't just drop in occasionally to throw truth bombs with regard to Logan, Greg, and the other main players, we'd probably hate him too. He's cold, priggish, withholding, smug, and he always looks as though he's just eaten fish with the bones still in it. He too was marked by his and Logan's shared miserable childhood. He just looks better by comparison. Cromwell is always great, though.

I don't think it's ever been discussed on the show, but Sophie apparently is adopted. Her portrayer, Swayam Bhatia, has talked about it in interviews. ("I think that storyline works a lot for an [Indian character]. I remember when I was auditioning for Succession, it was about a completely Irish family. If you look at me and then you look at the rest of the family, you’re like ‘where does she fit in?’ Showing that my character was adopted is how I think the industry is learning to cope with making casts more diverse.") https://www.khabar.com/magazine/features/rising-star-sways-success In universe, maybe Rava and Kendall were having trouble conceiving and they adopted, and then Iverson came as a surprise. Or maybe both children are adopted.

That was a notably murky scene. I was happy to see Natalie Gold as Rava again, and she and Jeremy Strong always act well against each other, but it played like a bad take, even taking into account that Rava herself was not entirely clear on all the ins and outs. Or maybe the fragmented dialogue was the problem? What I pieced together was that Sophie, who is of mixed race, was walking on the street with some friends. A man wearing a T-shirt identifying him as a fan of Ravenhead (the ATN personality from season 2 who had read Mein Kampf more than once and named his dog after Hitler's dog) pushed past her and made a racist comment. Sophie's friends at school are supportive of her and very anti-ATN, and they sympathize with her because of her family situation. But now she feels like the center of attention in a way she doesn't want to be, and their solicitousness is embarrassing to her, so she doesn't want to go to school. Which I totally get.

Over Zoom, I hope. Just telling Tom he wanted to have an "open business relationship" (translation: work under the supervision of someone else) got Greg pelted with water bottles!

It was only a grace note, but nothing is more quintessentially Succession than the conversation between Kendall and Roman about the Mencken people's request that Roman talk Connor into withdrawing. Kendall says, "I mean, fuck that guy, right?" Roman has to get clarification that he means Mencken, not their brother.

I wasn't bored, but this is probably my least favorite of season 4 (which has been the best season of Succession, in my opinion). It had highlights, such as the balcony argument for Tom and Shiv, but the material around those highlights was cluttered and strangely unclear. Not unclear in a tantalizing ambiguous way, but in a clumsy way. The scene on the sidewalk for Rava and Kendall was better in concept than in execution. The woman who plays Ebba, Eili Harboe, is really nailing a particular kind of exhaustion and justifiable bitterness, though. And Skarsgård is doing his job well: incrementally, he's managing to make Mattson more detestable than the combined Roys. Including the dead one. One thing the episode did very well was free-floating dread. I was not expecting Tom to go off the balcony per se, but I thought someone might. The pieces and the hostile atmosphere were in place. I thought Ebba might take Mattson out. Yeah, Shiv's "Any change?" (re: Connor's visits to Logan) was hilarious.

@Inquisitionist The first season's ending had some elements of the novel's ending (the remission of Hank's psychosomatic urological problem, the ousting of Dickie Pope), but it's very different. The novel ends with some other shake-ups in the university's administrative structure, a resolution for Julie and Russell, a different career outcome for Lily, a big revelation involving Hank's troublesome student (Leo/Bartow), Hank Sr. passing away, etc. Farrelly and company left themselves room for another season if this does get renewed. But the whole series has been a different animal: milder, less caustic and provocative in its satire. There are some plot elements I'm not surprised didn't make the transfer: the goose-killing (wrongly attributed to Hank for a time); Lily's ex-cop father who shoots a black teen who came to the door to collect newspaper money on his brother's behalf. There are other things they might have been holding back in case there are more seasons, such as the personal life and writing talent of Hank's secretary, Rachel. She's otherwise very much as she is in the book, upspeak and all. I thought the novel was fairly good (not my favorite by Richard Russo), but the series did not work for me. It has its moments, but it reminds me of something I'd have watched in the '90s out of inertia if there were nothing better on that night, or if it were on before or after something I liked better. Spin City would be a good comparison. I watched every episode of that until Michael J. Fox had to bow out, but I'll be damned if I can remember a single episode's plot or a line of dialogue. I just remember the actors and the premise.

There was a lot of verbal savagery in the episode, but for me, the most lethal line was Gerri's to Karl. "Look, I think you're a corporate legend. What you did in the '90s? With cable? Huge!" She made every word of that backhanded compliment count. Starting off with "I think" (so, others may not agree), then "legend" and "'90s" (Karl is old and has been coasting on laurels for a long time), and then "cable" as the cherry on the condescension sundae. Karl's big boasting point from 30 years ago didn't even concern something most people still care about! Some shows peak early, some late. Succession might be remembered above all as a great-last-season show.

Marcia has been a more sporadic presence since Logan's affair with the Holly Hunter character, Rhea, but she hasn't completely vanished. She was in four episodes last season, including a brief appearance in the finale.

Ha. That reminds me of the "Smart Line" host on The Simpsons saying, "And we have our first caller! And I mean ever because this is not a call-in show."

Even early in the episode, when I wasn't sure Logan was really going to die (he began the series by cheating death, after all), I was thinking that phone scene could be one of the iconic ones. It could be Succession's equivalent of Tony and Carmela's big marital argument in which he punches the wall, or D'Angelo yelling "Where's Wallace?" at Stringer, or the Red Wedding—one people think of when they hear the show's title. It was not only brilliantly executed but so informative about the characters. Roman says things like "You're going to be okay" with an upward inflection, a question mark at the end. He's on his firmest ground when he says he knows Logan will live because Logan is a monster, and he "just wins." Then he says some things we as viewers would find it hard to agree with: "You're a good man. You're a good dad." He cannot make them sound sincere, and he knows it. He has to hand off the phone at that point. Roman is the only one who does not say "I love you." Kendall does say "I love you," more than once, and it's very convincing. But he also says, "I can never forgive you for..." and trails off; there are too many wrongs to get into even if this were the proper time for it. And the lack of forgiveness also sounds convincing. Shiv has the hardest time getting going. She's the least composed of the three. She has practical concerns: she wants to make sure this is meaningful. She keeps asking if Logan can hear, if he's gone. Ultimately, she too manages to say she loves him, and she too alludes to unspecified terrible things he's done. Connor is the last to know, the afterthought. No phone-to-the-ear dramatics for him.

Like all the great old themes, it sounds banal when you boil it down, but "Established patterns are difficult to break" seems to be a major theme of the series. Kendall, Roman, and Shiv all have made a lot of noise at various times about new directions, independence, getting out from under their father's thumb. This time they're even united in their ambitions, more or less. But as with all the other times, everything they say and do reinforces that Logan is always in their heads. They can't outrun the pathology with which a lifetime of him (and their mother) has left them. They always seem pulled back to a version of the status quo. Kieran Culkin had a great episode, even by his standards. Roman's smart remarks cracked me up more than once, and it's the delivery as much as the words. I'm one of the cult of Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan's post-9/11 NYC epic that was released in a heavily cut version in 2011, later restored to its superior three-hour length), and I still love it that he and J. Smith-Cameron are in the same series and have scenes together. The main character's first sexual experience and her mom.

In any case, articles about the upcoming season (Variety, Hollywood Reporter) have this-time-we-mean-it quotations about season 12 being the end of the road. Every season of Curb since at least the middle years of seasons 5-6 has been structured in a way that the season finale could also be a satisfying series finale, in case Larry David felt he was done with these characters and this format. An unused ending of season 11, one learns, had Larry drowning definitively in that pool...which would be the second time we've seen him "die" in a finale. But LD's long-term deal with HBO expires this year, so if he creates anything else for them, he'll have to negotiate a new one. I think this factor (along with his own advancing age) will be the impetus for him to bring down the curtain on the Davids and the Greenes and their friends after nearly 25 years. New comedic ideas that occur to him afterward—which in the past may have gone into another Curb season—will go into other things he writes. I hope it's a great last lap. They have wrapped production, but Curb wasn't in the teaser trailer of returning series that HBO ran before Succession Sunday night.

I missed all the talk about "Interior Decorator," but I do have something relevant to add about it. Oscar Nuñez, who played the male parking attendant to whom Larry gives the money to pay back Joanna ("So this is you? You are the bald man with the glasses?") is in the starring cast of Bob Odenkirk's new series, Lucky Hank. He's the dean of the college. Not bad talent-spotting that episode, as Nia Vardalos, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Karen Maruyama all became better known in later years. And I see Rose Abdoo, who was so funny as Carmen, the titular interior director, once in a while. She was Valerie's wig wrangler on the second season of The Comeback. On the Garlin situation: Curb could go on without Marty or even Richard, but I really wouldn't want a Curb season without Jeff. Maybe it could turn into a story if they had him die, but the character is so close to the core of the show, and has been since the first scene of the 1999 special. I like Garlin's rapport with the other major players.

But Tom is from Minnesota, like the former VP. I think that was a factor in his naming. I believe he's Tom's dog more than Shiv's, in the sense that if they aren't sharing a space anymore, he'll be with Tom. And I agree, neither of them has been shown to be a great dog owner. The poor thing is always in the pen, even when they're both home.

And in the whole human history of reassurances, one would have to look hard to find a less reassuring one than that stony "If we're good, we're good." I feel as though there was a similar interaction between Tom and Logan in an earlier season, in which Tom hemmed and hawed trying to gauge the security of his long-term position. Logan eventually said something inscrutable that could sound reassuring if the listener really tried to make it that, and Tom acted like a starving man thrown a crumb. It's their dynamic. I'm happy to have the show back, and I thought it was a solid premiere.

Personally, I thought all of the major performances (and some of the minor ones) in Everything Everywhere All At Once were lit up with a mad inspiration that not just anyone could have brought to it. I know from things the Daniels have said that the actors added a lot to their characters, be it behaviors or dialogue improvisations or even clothing choices. It seemed to me a movie in which everyone involved really cared about the work, the vision, and the message. It just looks like the product of a very harmonious set. (Sometimes one can be fooled about those things, but I don't think so here.) I've been a Curtis fan since I saw the original Halloween much too young and really cared about what happened to this girl. It isn't surprising to me that she won for this over Stephanie Hsu. As pointed out above, she's a veteran in the business with a lot of friends and people she's worked with and for in the Academy. Fairly or not, that can be a factor when ballots are filled out. She's been in all kinds of films (usually doing distinguished work in them, even the bad ones), she hadn't won an Oscar, and she had a colorful, funny role with more to it than appears at the start to be the case. For Hsu, probably the thinking was that the nomination itself was quite a feather in her cap. She's been acting a while, but she's still in her early thirties and a lot of her credits are, you know, "Protestor" in one episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Now she's Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu, who was a major player in one of the year's most lauded films. She probably won't be playing unnamed characters much now.

Just to prolong the Carter Burwell lovefest a bit, how about this beautiful piece? This Coens film has one of his lightest scores, in the sense that there isn't a lot of original music in it. Most of what we hear is '40s pop songs and Beethoven sonatas (Scarlett Johansson's character is an amateur pianist). But when they gave him an opportunity, he made the most of it. Lead actor Billy Bob Thornton said he can't hear this without tearing up. Which reminds me that I have an Inland Empire Criterion Blu-ray waiting for me.

Here is another "score-marking" event in fairly recent music history. Early 21st century, at least. I looked for a non-paywalled link. https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/nation-world/2001/04/22/giuseppe-sinopoli-italian-conductor-dies/50359679007/