Finally finishing up Succession…

I wanted so much to like that show more than I did. It was one of those strange shows that actually had a great premise, but was soooo damn all over the place, it became annoying quickly. It would also have random great scenes interspersed amongst some very, very stupid ones.

I didn't like this show, and I couldn't stick with it past the first season.

Absolutely, R1!

I’ve worked in HUGE, Fortune 100s, & the leadership are HEARTLESS.

I guess there wouldn’t have ever been a show, had it shown how quickly these companies move, when any sort of trouble comes on the scene.

Did you watch the show, or did you use it to validate your experience?

? Logan Roy was not based on corporate titans. He was a media giant who clawed his way up from working class roots. Of course he was both cocky and unsure of himself.

None of his kids had his instincts, though they all thought they deserved to run the family business. The show walked through exactly why each of them would fail. It was one of the steeliest, unforgiving examinations of America I’ve seen.

If this show didn’t work for you, as it did for many audiences and critics, what shows do?

Love this show, second only to Mad Men in my heart. I rewatched it and loved it even more than initially though the characters are so toxic and self destructive that it was actually emotionally taxing on me.

R4 I just finished watching Two Broke Girls and I can't wait to rewatch the entire series!

Season 1 is very uneven. Season 2 is basically perfect but they didn’t know what to do after that.

I think Shiv was the only one of his kids who felt that she deserved the top job, r4. The two sons wanted it but they didn't feel as though it was their birthright.

R8 ??? Shiv and Ken were both equally entitled. I mean did you not see his freakout in the series finale? I'M THE ELDEST BOY!!!

Exactly, r9.

OP, ask Mark Burnett.

Try this one more time.

Also, wtf OP? We saw Logan several times just decide something without asking others. He decides to sell the freaking company on his own, for starters. But when he did ask its probably because he had very well versed intelligent people who knew their shit

r5/r9/r13 Unclench, sweetheart

R14 we're not even the same posters, dumb dumb

The score was everything

Jeremy Strong's character is eerily like Donald Trump, Jr. in just about every way.

In retrospect it was a terrible show with no likable characters. I watched for the scenery. I started watching “Mountainhead” and I quickly realized I am not going to spend any time watching these assholes.

R18 Mountainhead sucked, even Succession fans hated it. And I call bs that you watched an entire series for the "scenery" 🤣

I think many people watched Succession for the glimpses of the billionaire lifestyle. That’s what I mean by “scenery.”

Even so R20. Besides there are other ways.

Well, you know best why I watched the show.

Watching the series actually stressed me out & gave me genuine anxiety, at times.

ALL of them were SOOO stupid, & caught up in their own ego.

They were ALL DISGUSTING, HORRIBLE human beings!

I was and remain blown away at how normalized they were to their audience.

Their characters were and are the very worst of humanity, which is what the show resoundingly showed viewers, every week.

This is a masterpiece on how sociopaths operate, regularly.

It’s funny how so many don’t recognize how absolutely brutal their leaders are.

I appreciate how this show presents how nothing important, really matters.

You think ANYTHING matters?

It does NOT.

Well it was based on the Murdochs. So..........................................

It was a horror movie where the monster looked human. Logan Roy wasn’t asking for advice. He enjoyed seeing everyone jockeying for his good favor, his kids most of all, but he never thought they were worth a damn. Tom only ending up in the winning chair because Logan died unexpectedly.

R25 not sure that's true....Logan was already going to sell his company and focus on ATN. Him dying didn't make a bit of a difference.

I feel some need a rewatch or missed alot of stuff.

Loved it. And very realistic. Worked with lots of CEOs and billionaires - sociopathic with dysfunctional families. Nothing to envy. Complete absence of life awareness and channeling of neurosis and childhood damage into acquiring more money and power.

One thing I do take pleasure in, is how I coined and invented the term, “Fuck Face” here on DL, & it was used repeatedly on the show.

I’ve also had other crazy shit I’ve written here repeatedly, which I’m sure others here have, as well, pop up in other series or film.

Kinda cool to have an input in the Zeitgeist, ya?

Anyhow, I’m wrapping up the last season.

Might be back with thoughts… might not.

So you watched a show, found it didn't validate your experience with top notch corporate assholes but also gave you genuine anxiety for normalizing their brutality, which somehow seems a very different point, but at least they said Fuck Face a lot and you pretty much invented that.

Well, okay, then. Yes, please return with your clearly coherent thoughts.

Kendall has business sense. He’s not stupid. He lacks a lot of leadership qualities. He has poor impulse control. His father knows how to manipulate him. And, he’s a drug addict.

This scene was always my favorite. How Brian Cox didn't win an Emmy for his performance was criminal.

Interestingly. the OP is revealing his character much like the Roy children. He starts with a superficial, brash and loud opinion, only to reveal that he hasn’t actually watched the full series and clearly hasn’t understood much of it. And then we get him in full delusion, thinking he invented the phrase “Fuck Face” and that Succession’s writers lifted this brilliant bon mots from Datalounge.

You must be the eldest boy, OP.

Boar on the floor!

I imagine not. Some of the periphery characters just like in House of Cards have to be weaker than what they would be really in real life to move the plot along.

R31 "and give my best to her cancer" will always be on another level as far as insults lol

Reportedly it REALLY got under the Murdochs' skin, so I'm glad it was made, but like so many famous series like Mad Men and Breaking Bad and The Sopranos I wasn't tempted to watch. I had to spend too many years around shitty, amoral people irl to spend my leisure time with fictional ones.

OP is just finishing up The Mary Tyler Moore Show and ran here to dish about Mary’s outfit in the finale.

R4, I loved Six Feet Under, Mad Men, The West Wing, Severance. The Wire, The Americans, and more recently, Paradise.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Come on, Succession is waaay over the top, what with grown adults crawling around on the floor in some kind of idiot frat boy scrum while some sadist watches them. I mean, if it's supposed to be ironic, I get it. But it's still ridiculous.

If the show had been 2-3 seasons, it would've been great. I found that the middle seasons served little purpose; basically, the season would be going to some European locations, zingers thrown all around, and very little to move the main story arc other than to reset it at the end of the season. The first and the last season were excellent but there was a lot of being in holding pattern, granted with high production values, interesting characters, some sharp and witty dialogue, but also a whole lot of nothing much to in order to pad it out. In retrospect, it feels like the show had a great script for a couple of seasons but then the runners were pressured into stretching it out once the first season received all the acclaim and good ratings.

The second season was great. By the third and fourth there was lots of repetition. But when the show hit it was absolutely great. I love satire and there’s not enough of it around. But it probably should have ended after three seasons. How many times could Logan screw over his loser children?

Settings, characters, dialogue, acting, social relevance - it had it all. Fantastic show.