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Succession in the Media

ElectricBoogaloo

By ElectricBoogaloo
in Succession

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Ms Blue Jay
Ms Blue Jay

Everyone (Anne Hathaway is the latest) coming to Jeremy Strong's defense as if he's been burned at the cross is really making me roll my eyes.  He had a New Yorker profile written about him.  Most act

Ms Blue Jay
Ms Blue Jay

There were many posts defending Jeremy besides them.  I just picked the most famous example at the time.  There are more; I didn't make them up, but I'm not going to link every single one. Here's

sistermagpie
sistermagpie

I don't think the point is that it's a real threat. It's that as the writers they're the ones that create the shows people are hooked on and don't want spoiled. Too much money goes to CEOs and not the

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scrb

scrb

Not really strong reviews.  Well acted they say but sounds like these characters don't impress.  Maybe the similarity to Murdoch isn't well-received by reviewers.

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scrb

scrb

Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan discuss this show at length in The Ringer's The Watch podcast.

They rave about the acting of the Roy children and McFadden, particularly Jeremy Strong as Kendall.

They say Kendall is laughable in the board room but has some self awareness and shows vulnerability in private moments.  But the character is chnneling Donald Trump Jr.

Chris Ryan says the formal innovation of the show is that it doesn't care if it's a drama or comedy, tragic or satire.  Also doesn't care if any of the characters are likeable, which is a heretic approach to take with a show.  Ryan says if not likeable, the characters can still be interesting.  Greenwald says he still may not care and may resent having to watch these princes and princesses of the city who it turns out are rich assholes with daddy issues, who can't do anything right.

Ryan says episodes 3 and 4 have some of the strongest moments for him on TV that he's seen in a long time.

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scrb

scrb

Article about the composer of the theme which plays over the opening credits.

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The story of an aging media mogul, Logan Roy, struggling to cope with the prospect of his messed-up kids messing up his empire, Succession is a study in contrasts, by turns a parochial family dramedy and a sweeping social commentary, as though Six Feet Under met up with Veep to binge-watch Rome. Its characters brood and banter and threaten and wink, flying off the handle over too-cold butter and botching sloppy attempts at corporate subterfuge. (The show’s entire ethos at times seems filtered directly into Kieran Culkin’s Roman Roy, Logan’s youngest son, who uses his riches to taunt the help’s kid, defiles a floor-to-ceiling skyscraper window, and is sickly charming when he says things like: “People like me. I look like a matador and everyone wants to fuck me.”) “I was trying to create a kind of musical mythology for the Roy family and their world,” says Britell, who, in doing so, wound up creating music that is so essential to the story that it feels like another lead character. “I wanted it to have a sense of old-world gravitas,” Britell says, “while also feeling strange and—at times—absurd.” The same can be said for Succession itself. 

 

https://www.theringer.com/features/2018/7/13/17567674/composer-nicholas-britell-succession-the-big-short-moonlight

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scrb

scrb

The Ringer is now recapping Succession on their Recappables podcast, starting with episode 9, Pre-Nuptial.

They are one of the few consistency championing the show, which hasn't caught on as broadly as other premium cable shows, including Billions.

Maybe more momentum going into second season.

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Eyes High

Eyes High

57 minutes ago, scrb said:

The Ringer is now recapping Succession on their Recappables podcast, starting with episode 9, Pre-Nuptial.

They are one of the few consistency championing the show, which hasn't caught on as broadly as other premium cable shows, including Billions.

Maybe more momentum going into second season.

There are virtually no recaps of this show, but it got enough buzz to be renewed, so maybe there will be more interest in Season 2. (You'd think Vulture would be doing recaps, but no.)

 

On 6/19/2018 at 12:56 AM, scrb said:

Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan discuss this show at length in The Ringer's The Watch podcast.

They rave about the acting of the Roy children and McFadden, particularly Jeremy Strong as Kendall.

McFadyen is the best in a very strong cast, in my opinion.

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scrb

scrb

BTW, I browsed one of the articles on The Ringer and they have a disclaimer that HBO was an initial investor in The Ringer.

However, if you listen to the podcasts, I think their enthusiasm for the show is genuine.  They don't cover all the HBO shows and they really like Billions, which of course is on Showtime.

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scrb

scrb

Bill Simmons talked about the show on his podcast.  They speculated that there will be a death at some point, because this succession battle can’t go on more than two seasons.

Logan may or may not last since he’s the oldest character.  But with the presence Cox has, it would be smart to keep him around as long as possible.

They referenced some of the behind the scenes.  Jeremy Strong has a stage background and is intense in his scenes.  But he won’t rehearse scenes, which puzzled Cox, who wanted to rehearse.

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scrb

scrb

The Watch podcast from The Ringer has on Sam Esmail, creator of Mr. Robot, talking about their favorite shows of the year with hosts Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan.

 

https://www.theringer.com/2018/12/13/18138817/the-best-television-shows-of-2018-with-sam-esmail

 

They get into a heated discussion about Succession which is on both Ryan and Greenwald's top 10 lists but not on Esmail's.  It's about 55-60 minutes into a 80-minute podcast.

Esmail loved the performances, especially Jeremy Strong, and the satire aspect of the show but he says he can't care for any of the characters at all.

Greenwald says prestige TV is about these flawed characters like Tony Soprano and Don Draper who are still good at their work.  Esmail says Kendall is white and horrible at his job, a failure.  No sympathy for his addiction problems.  He says Kendall is basically Donald Trump Jr., whom he loathes.  So no way he can root for Kendall, whether or not the show runners intended the Roys to be the Trump family.

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scrb

scrb

#8 in Tim Goodman's top 32 TV shows of 2018:

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It's not the show (a tale of a family of 1 percenters) you think it is. It's way better than you might have imagined. It shape-shifts between drama and comedy. It surprises at every turn, most notably in the last three episodes. The writing is fantastic, the tone so exacting that the acting needs to be note-perfect, and is. A stunning piece of television.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywood-reporter-critic-tim-goodmans-10-best-tv-shows-2018-1169262/item/atlanta-tim-goodman-picks-2018-1169274

 

The other show about the 1 percent, Billions, is nowhere on this list.

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scrb

scrb

One of Emily Nussbaum's "Consistently Great - I'm Serious" shows of 2018:

 

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A nasty and delicious dark comedy about a Murdoch-ish, Trump-like, Mercer-esque family of powermongers, but also the rare drama that improved throughout Season 1, then nailed the landing. Yes, I know you’re not in the mood for more terrible men, but what if the performances were great and the show were paced perfectly and exactly the right length? Then you would watch.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2018-in-review/my-not-top-ten-television-list-2018-edition

Her full review of S1:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/successions-satisfyingly-nasty-family-ties

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northboundtrain

northboundtrain

(edited)

I hope this is the right place to post this: the S2 trailer dropped today. Focused primarily on Kendall and Logan, with a bit of Shiv and Roman. Only brief shots of Marcy, Tom/Greg and Connor. Announcement at the end that S2 will begin airing in August.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cbOmfo6HUQ

I have to say, as someone who was invested in Kendall last season and a bit worried about where the writers might take him after the accident, I'm pretty excited by the footage we've got here. He's a mess, and that's absolutely how it should be.

Edited by northboundtrain
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NutMeg

NutMeg

On 4/6/2019 at 8:57 PM, scrb said:

New York Times Magazine article about the Murdochs came out recently.

Slate writer compares some of the events described in that article with actual scenes from Succession.  She suggests if Succession hasn't rendered those real-life events already, they could in the future:

https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/murdoch-nyt-investigation-succession-hbo-plot-points.html

Thank you for the link - I followed the one at the beginning of the slate article to the 3 part NYT article which is a very interesting read.

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scrb

scrb

Lot of strong reviews for season 5 coming in now.

Tim Goodman on Season 2:

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There are so many brutally funny jokes and wince-inducing let-them-eat-cake moments from the unruly Roys that it becomes almost like a magic trick that Armstrong uses to lure the audience away from the series' most compelling trait — that they are so much better-drawn and more varied than first assumptions registered, and you don't see the darker, more dramatic and emotionally powerful parts winging at your head. Making this family not only interesting beyond comic limitations but also a group of people whose hurt you'll actually feel despite loathing them so sincerely is a real artistic accomplishment.

Over and over the audience is left to wonder, amid all the laughs and the machinations and the 1-percenter amorality and lack of empathy, how in the world that construct can be flipped over so convincingly. But it happened with aplomb in season one and halfway through the second season, despite the scathing Veep-esque laughter (no shocker that there's a connection all the way back to The Thick of It for both shows), the emotional stakes are very clearly being raised.

Awful people have feelings, too, apparently.

Beyond that adroit feat, the thing to embrace and appreciate with Succession in this second season is just how superbly and seemingly effortlessly structured it is with its grandiose plotting; other than making us care about the Roys, that's the next-level miracle.

The Emmys did recognize Succession but not nearly enough, by the way. This series is doing something special and the rich rewards will be coming.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/succession-review-1229280
 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/succession/s02/reviews?type=top_critics

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car54

car54

Oh my, I was just thinking about that last night--that the show started out very slow and pretty dark --and I fully expected the old man to die soon--and let the heirs fight it out--and after a few episodes, they seem to hit their stride and it got so much better--I can't imagine it now if Logan wasn't there torturing them all.

So glad to hear the music won--the opening theme gets in my head and I can't get it out.  Best theme song in a long time.

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scrb

scrb

Interview with Kieran Culkin, not exactly what I expected, seems to be into the interview, pretty self-aware, which is not what you'd expect Roman to be.

There's also an interview with Nicholas Braun on the same Youtube channel.

He's 6-7!

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Eyes High

Eyes High

(edited)
11 hours ago, scrb said:

Interview with Kieran Culkin, not exactly what I expected, seems to be into the interview, pretty self-aware, which is not what you'd expect Roman to be.

Kenneth Lonergan (aka Gerri's real life husband) wrote a lovely little tribute to Kieran Culkin, whom he has directed (in This Is Our Youth), and this tidbit sounds very, very Roman:

Quote

As for his aggravating qualities as a friend, they’re fairly insubstantial — he’s a bad arguer, he’d rather get on your nerves than make his point, he’s never seen a movie pre-1980 and constantly accuses me of only pretending to like them to show off, etc., etc. 

Hee.

Quote

There's also an interview with Nicholas Braun on the same Youtube channel.

He's 6-7!

Nicholas Braun has talked about losing out on roles because of his height. Being too tall really can be a disadvantage for screen, since your scene partners have to stand on boxes and such to be in the same frame. Braun told an anecdote about filming a scene with his love interest where they're supposed to walk together on the sidewalk, and the production set up a line of apple crates for the actress to walk on.

There are several actors who have had illustrious careers despite their height--the great James Cromwell, who plays Ewan, for one, and the Rock doesn't seem to be hurting for work, either--but yeah, it can be tough.

Edited by Eyes High
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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(edited)

Golden Globe nominations!

Best Television Series – Drama
Brian Cox: Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Kieran Culkin: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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scrb

scrb

Conor was whining about how expensive the sand he bought for Willa's play "Sands" was costing him.

It turns out sand has become a precious commodity in some places.  Because of the building boom in China and India, a lot of sand was being dredged up from rivers to make into concrete.

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand

So Chinese govt. put limits on sand which could be dredged up from rivers and the coastlines near big cities.  For whatever reason, sand from deserts aren't useful for making concrete but sand from bodies of water is.

A black market has developed, with entrepreneurs stealing sand from river beds in the middle of the night.

 

 

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xaxat

xaxat

(edited)

Not Succession specific, but Bob Iger, the head of Disney, the most powerful media company in the world, stepped down from his CEO duties this week. The person who will be taking over? The guy in charge of parks.

As soon as I saw that news, I immediately thought of Tom.

(Edited because yeah, I meant Tom.)

Edited by xaxat
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