S03.E02: Mass in Time of War

[aghst]

5 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Maybe, but she seems to have a pretty good level of awareness. That scene where she was on the phone with Roman and she told him that there was no way that shareholders would let him or his idiot siblings run the company after Logan was gone, was really good.

 

31 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

Agree. It also points out the blindness that people who are in the thick of a situation can have. That statement from Gerri is so completely obvious that the only thing remarkable about it is that she actually had to say it. 1.4 million viewers could have told the children that. The only ones who can't see it are the four of them. And that's totally true to life.

I'm not sure though.  US has elected sons of former presidents more than once and family dynasties in politics are a thing because of name recognition.

I think it happens in other realms, like sports.  I wouldn't be surprised if board members, which are usually handpicked by the CEO, are easily swayed by family names.

If you look at some corporations, you see for instance the grandchildren or great grandchildren of Henry Ford have key roles in Ford the corporation over the years, even though it's a public company.

Of course Succession is loosely modeled on the Murdoch dynasty and Rupert's children have some key positions in the company, which again is public but they set it up in such a way or have so many shares that they could effectively keep family control.

Kendall clearly knows many of the board members, which probably can't be said for Shiv or maybe not even Roman, even though he was a corporate officer.

He also seems to know some of the big shareholders so it's a matter of whether he could convince them.  He could jargon them and come up with some vision for the company.  Whether that vision is prescient or just malarkey, the fact that he could spin a strategy might be enough to convince some shareholders.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by aghst

[laurakaye]

On 10/27/2021 at 11:44 PM, BrownBear2012 said:

It sounded like a 10 year old Shiv who was forced to apolgize to little brother Roman by their mother.

I usually hate it when a show spends considerable time jumping backwards to flesh out the characters' backstories so we know why they are the way they are (looking at you, Animal Kingdom).  I appreciate a show that lets the viewers fill in the blanks just by observing how the players interact with each other or the way they treat each other.

That said - these people are so twisted and damaged, I'm trying to decide if I would want Succession to go back in time or not.  I am always fascinated with a drama that does believable and complicated sibling relationships, so maybe I should be careful what I wish for?  I don't know......

[Kel Varnsen]

23 hours ago, aghst said:

think it happens in other realms, like sports.  I wouldn't be surprised if board members, which are usually handpicked by the CEO, are easily swayed by family names.

If you look at some corporations, you see for instance the grandchildren or great grandchildren of Henry Ford have key roles in Ford the corporation over the years, even though it's a public company.

Yea maybe. I am not sure about the Ford family but I did read a book about the Busch family who used to run Anheuser Busch. Running that company was passed down from one generation to the next until August Busch the Fourth who seemed to be kind of a fuck up became CEO and then the company got taken over. One thing I remember about that book was how before each son took over they had to at least kind of work their way up (as much as a CEOs son could) and start from the bottom and do every job in the brewery before becoming a manager. So at least in that case you could argue that an incoming CEO even if he got the job through nepotism had some level of experience. That is not really the same for the Roy's except maybe for Kendall, but he is a known drug addict (that is publicly known right?). If I was an investor it would be hard to convince me not to want someone else in charge. Especially when you figure with all the different divisions there have to be dozens of people at the same level as Tom, some who probably aren't as terrible.

[quirkygal]

On 10/27/2021 at 10:25 AM, RedDelicious said:

 Speaking of childhood abuse, wasn't there something about Roman being locked in a dog crate for punishment or was that a prank amongst the siblings?

He was also shipped off to military school - supposedly - as a way to toughen him up since he was the weak one who liked the dog cage.  It sounded like he was the only one who was sent away to school while the other kids lived at home with dear old dad.