S01.E03: Lifeboats

[scrb]

Quote

Kendall confronts a major crisis involving a secret bank debt as Waystar's stock plunges to dangerous lows; Kendall and Roman attend their first big meeting in their new roles; Kendall tries to convince Rava to give their marriage a second chance.

 

I thought the brothers were tools and we were suppose to laugh at them.

But the producers described what Logan did as a "pulling the rug" that is, not that Kendall deserved to be called a fucking idiot when he was feeling good about himself.

Certainly what Logan did to Shiv was definitely messing with her.  Shiv not so demanding after that little visit.

So the credit montage with the home movies from when the sibling were kids has a melancholy cast because the father wasn't emotionally reassuring, especially to Kendall.

Tom is really a despicable figure, probably feels like a fraud -- his only qualification for the high position he got was that he was dating Shiv -- but loves to bully Greg.

There's got to be a lot of resentment at that company that the kids were given so much power.  But so far, no sign of it and Carolina and the Commish appear to be loyal.

[Arcey]

Wow, no comments after the show, and only one since. Not a good sign for an HBO show. I'm not sure I'll be watching many more eps of this series. I don't care about even one of these people. I guess the "mystery" factor that's been added about Marcia might be a hook. But probably not.

[Maurina]

22 minutes ago, Arcey said:

I don't care about even one of these people.

Yeah I just don't know what the audience is expected to do with these characters.  They're not even worthy of "love to hate" - they're just dreadful, and for over-the-top rich douchebags they are terribly dull.  I'm disappointed.  I really like this cast.  What a waste.

[RedDelicious]

I really, really could have done without the plate glass scene, but otherwise I've been enjoying the show.  I can't wait to find out the back story on Marcia. 

Also, Greg's dyed black hair just makes him even more of a weirdo.  He was much cuter in How to Be Single.

[sadie]

I’m enjoying this enough to keep watching for now. Other than the daughter (sort of and she has the strange fiancé, oh what has become of you Mr Darcy) why are all these kids such inept bafoons? I get the dad is the mastermind but it seems like these kids never spent a day working with the guy to learn anything? And the young kid (related somehow) acts like he’s never been to earth before. I get he’s a fish out of water but his mannerisms and such seem so stilted and weird. Why was the wife being such a bitch, just tell the kids to come back later in the day but the way she kept putting them off was just strange, I thought maybe he was actually dead. I think this isn’t compelling because no one in this bunch is sharp, there’s no one to root for. The guy jerking off in front of the window? I mean, really? 

Wait, why am I still watching this?

[RedDelicious]

@sadie My sister and I were talking about that very thing this morning - all the kids are total mess ups.  It must make us feel like better people or something (haha).  After Logan did the creepy thing with Shiv, I thought the stepmother holding them off might make sense i.e., she didn't want anyone, let alone his mess up children, to see him so horribly off.  I am completely intrigued by the shroud of mystery surrounding her back story, and I loved that she was several steps ahead of Shiv. 

[sheetmoss]

I'm not minding the series

I don't really care there's nobody likable to really root for. it's fun to watch the entitled douchebags in action.

I'm curious if Greg will get woke and become a stealth operator  w/manipulation and  working his way up.

Edited June 18, 2018 by sheetmoss

[minamurray78]

Marcia could have explained from the beginning how Logan was not at his best after taking the medicine, and tell them to come back later, rather than refusing to let the kids see him, and only half explaining after Shib went past her. Also, for her to find out someone's been sniffing around her past means there is people out there that know to get back at her when questions are being asked. She is making herself look more shady.

Also, Shib could have afforded to get this done by more professional, careful people than what appears to be an ex-lover/colleague, like, that's what lawyers are for and she must have pretty expensive ones. This family is not new to this world of billionaires, honey traps, schemes, corporate espionage, political leverage, etc, the kind of thing that makes you watch your back carefully. How could Connor be so naive about whether you can background check someone?

Is Greg gonna be the one who figures out something's afoot with the equity money guy and Furness, except no one will pay attention to him 'cause he's an inarticulate awkward idiot? It is very fortunate that he was both at the coffee shop and then at the park to see both meetings, but I wonder if he even knows who those people are to make the connection.

This show reminds me of Billions in that I can´t root for anyone, they are all assholes.

[BlackberryJam]

They are all assholes, and I want just one of them to be rootable. Hell, at this point I'm rooting for the Vaulter (sp?) guy. I can't recall his name. But apparently if you're somehow blood-related to Logan Roy, you're a complete idiot.

I do think Marcia probably doesn't have the relationship where she can say to the kids, "you go see him and he might try to get you to give him a handjob." And Marcia also has a stake in not letting them have him declared incompetent just yet. I got why she was keeping them away. At least she seems to have a brain.

Why does Shiv give a flying fuck about Tom?

[scrb]

Think about it this way.  Are any of the characters in Veep sympathetic?

They're all very flawed people, but they got the art of the insult down.  The creator worked with Iannucci so maybe that was kind of what he was going for.

Kendall doesn't give clever insults, goes straight to f-bombs left and right.  But he did say he wanted a documentary on him as kind of a Gilgamesh story so there's sign of some education.

And we will see but I think Logan was messing with Shiv and the other kids, not so drugged out that he didn't know what he was doing.  He put both of them in their place, whether or not they accede to his demands for the trust.

Are we to believe that he loves Marcia more, trusts her more than the kids?

[nilyank]

How long has Marcia been married to Logan? I think Marcia knows that she has to put her foot down or else Shiv would take to take over and push her out like when she want to move Logan to another hospital. Marcia is his wife and he appointed her as her proxy. She hasn't done anything really too bad except limiting contact with him and the kids. Later, Kendall was able to see her dad, so maybe it was just about limiting the amount of visitors Logan gets.

 

I think for the little bit that we have seen of Logan, we can imagined that he doesn't want the kids see him if he was able to know what was going on. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Why did Logan tell Kendall that Kendall was an idiot?  Has anyone figured out what alternative strategy he would have used?  

[BlackberryJam]

If Logan hadn't been sick, the stock wouldn't have tanked and they wouldn't have needed to find any financing. So Logan didn't need to have a strategy. Calling Kendall an idiot was just a way to further beat down his kids. Not that Kendall isn't an idiot. He kind of is.

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, BlackberryJam said:

If Logan hadn't been sick, the stock wouldn't have tanked and they wouldn't have needed to find any financing. So Logan didn't need to have a strategy. Calling Kendall an idiot was just a way to further beat down his kids. Not that Kendall isn't an idiot. He kind of is.

I guess I was missing the obvious. 

[Lemons]

2 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

If Logan hadn't been sick, the stock wouldn't have tanked and they wouldn't have needed to find any financing. So Logan didn't need to have a strategy. Calling Kendall an idiot was just a way to further beat down his kids. Not that Kendall isn't an idiot. He kind of is.

He was a fucking idiot for trusting his douchebag friend.  They all but wrote it on his forehead that he was no good and not to be trusted.  Logan didn't appear to do any research or talk to anyone before he made his decision.  You don't appoint yourself CEO and make decisions like that after six days in office.  The old guy his father hated swooped right in and stole the company. 

[tennisgurl]

At this point, someone has to be questioning their parenting skills. 

[nilyank]

1 hour ago, Lemons said:

3 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

If Logan hadn't been sick, the stock wouldn't have tanked and they wouldn't have needed to find any financing. So Logan didn't need to have a strategy. Calling Kendall an idiot was just a way to further beat down his kids. Not that Kendall isn't an idiot. He kind of is.

He was a fucking idiot for trusting his douchebag friend.  They all but wrote it on his forehead that he was no good and not to be trusted.  Logan didn't appear to do any research or talk to anyone before he made his decision.  You don't appoint yourself CEO and make decisions like that after six days in office.  The old guy his father hated swooped right in and stole the company. 

True enough. Kendall was already fucked when he had the bad conference call with the original lender who was going to call in the loan the second their stock went below 130. However that mess was originally started when Logan secretly took that loan and leveraged the family stock with it.

Kendall had few options and they were all bad.

[Lemons]

18 minutes ago, nilyank said:

True enough. Kendall was already fucked when he had the bad conference call with the original lender who was going to call in the loan the second their stock went below 130. However that mess was originally started when Logan secretly took that loan and leveraged the family stock with it.

Kendall had few options and they were all bad.

He only had a few options that he knew about.  Someone with connections and years of experience and networking would probably have known what to do.  

[Maurina]

15 hours ago, scrb said:

Think about it this way.  Are any of the characters in Veep sympathetic?

That's a very good comparison - no they are really not sympathetic, but what they ARE is genuinely funny and entertaining - and occasionally, even relatable.  I don't need characters to be Pollyannas or to even to be sympathetic, but if they're utterly unredeemable AND idiots, it's hard to keep watching.

[Mindthinkr]

I’m still on board. I can understand why Kendall’s wife is wanting to go through with the divorce. She sees the sinking ship but she did get off on her husband’s lust for her (his erection when they initially hugged). Kendall needs her because she seems to be the only stability in his life and is determined to be a better father than his Dad was.

Roman is off on his own power trip. Like he has windex and is going to completely get the evidence off of the window to the city. He seems slimy to me! He always looks like he needs a shower. 

I actually think I can root for Greg. I thought it was hysterical when he was appropriating cookies into the poop bags. He has an innocence that I hope this family doesn’t break or turn hard. I agree with @minamurray78 that Greg will put 2 and 2 together about seeing the guys on the bench getting ready to make a fool of Kendall. Nobody will believe him until he gets an audience with Logan...who will believe him and see how he son was duped yet again. I actually hope that Logan will take Greg under his wing and watch the siblings gasp in horror how this newcomer takes the power away from them. 

No sure what is happening with Logan’s wife Marcia but there’s room for a lot of intrigue. It just depends where the writers want to go with this. 

Shiv just looks so different than any of her siblings or Dad. I think she has genuinely tried to fit into the male dominated organization. Probably has the most of her Dads ‘go for it’ attitude. She wears the pants in her relationship with Tom who will always be a player pawn. 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Mindthinkr

[Moxie Cat]

On June 19, 2018 at 2:59 PM, Mindthinkr said:

I actually hope that Logan will take Greg under his wing and watch the siblings gasp in horror how this newcomer takes the power away from them. 

After the first episode, I guessed that by the end of the season, Logan will install Greg as his "successor" - and the kids will go batshit.

One thing I can't understand - Logan thinks Kendall is a fucking idiot, but lobbied hard for Roman (who IS a self-centered idiot, as far as we've seen) to become COO - and I also can't understand why he wanted Frank, who seems to be the definition of loyal and competent, to step down.

It makes me think he's playing a long game because of the debt, and is planning to set Roman (or maybe that switches to Greg) up to take a fall to save the company. And he moved Frank out of the way to save him. His change to the trust IRT Marcia may also have something to do with this.

On another note, I'm developing empathy for Kendall - he may have some terrible instincts, but he is trying. I was sad for him at the end. His only partner is abandoning him, his father demeans him, and his one good idea (his friend) is backstabbing him.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Moxie Cat

[TimWil]

On 6/18/2018 at 2:15 PM, RedDelicious said:

@sadie My sister and I were talking about that very thing this morning - all the kids are total mess ups.  It must make us feel like better people or something (haha).  After Logan did the creepy thing with Shiv, I thought the stepmother holding them off might make sense i.e., she didn't want anyone, let alone his mess up children, to see him so horribly off.  I am completely intrigued by the shroud of mystery surrounding her back story, and I loved that she was several steps ahead of Shiv. 

I don’t think she was several steps ahead of Shiv, though. It was clear that the chauffeur had heard Kendall, Shiv and Connor talking about what they’d learned from the PI and had relayed it to Marcia.

[RedDelicious]

13 minutes ago, TimWil said:

I don’t think she was several steps ahead of Shiv, though. It was clear that the chauffeur had heard Kendall, Shiv and Connor talking about what they’d learned from the PI and had relayed it to Marcia.

Ohhhh I missed that! Good catch.

[PRgal]

Watching this, I feel like Logan never properly "trained" the "kids" how to run the business - not even with them working there.  Yes, Kendall may have some innovative ideas, but his suggestions seem like they're only jumping on the bandwagon NOW, rather than a few years ago, thus being innovators.  They're like "oh no!  Digital/streaming is gonna bring us down, now what?"  I get that big media companies are often slow and they're being reflective of reality (and that there won't be a storyline if they weren't), but I feel that it can get boring.  I DO agree that the Greg kid (what's the deal with his flip phone, anyway?) might be the Taylor of this show (though Billions is a better show, IMHO).....and how tall is he, anyway?  Like 7'?

[TomGirl]

On 6/19/2018 at 2:59 PM, Mindthinkr said:

I actually think I can root for Greg

I think the actor who plays Greg is doing a fantastic job.  That bumbling naïveté would be so easy to overdo, but he’s making it seem genuine and even sweet.

I have to say, I love the music for this show!

[Milburn Stone]

On 6/18/2018 at 3:09 AM, scrb said:

I thought the brothers were tools and we were suppose to laugh at them.

But the producers described what Logan did as a "pulling the rug" that is, not that Kendall deserved to be called a fucking idiot when he was feeling good about himself.

Always a mistake to listen to what the producers (or anyone else connected with a show) say. The show is there for us to see and evaluate.

And I don't hate the kids, primarily because it's so clear that Logan effed them up completely with his authoritarian, unloving ways. They're miserable monsters--but they didn't self-generate.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Milburn Stone