@@Aditya-lz6yb Matsson needs the content too bad, he's got to pay big. ATN buying Vaulter was to "revolutionize", which was dumb. What Matsson's doing actually makes sense
"already rich." this is the first time we see Ken (or any of them) admit it so bluntly. The whole series makes comments (and fun of) their wealth and disconnect with society, as they gamble millions of dollars on corporate deals while enjoying a really wealthy lifestyle, but it's the first time it's realized verbally. Hearing it here being used as a way to tackle Mattson's "i want to make you rich" pitch, It sort of feels like breaking a 4th wall.
"Parts shop", "Tribute band", "already rich". "ok Popeye". The writing on this show was so staggeringly incredible. They served up these perfectly crafted lines to such perfectly well suited actors and it worked so damned well.
How do you think a human is able to write stuff like this. An Ai will be able to do this and better. A computer can watch more movies read more scripts and do things at a pace no human can. It will sadly be better but i still believe a writer will have to be somehow involved in the process proofreading or something of that sort.
@@TheFlowerofSpades Ok my argument still stands why do you think an Ai can't do whatever a great writer can. FYI it's not like i look forward for Ai to take over creative work, but the truth is whatever you think a writer needs to do to get good at screenwriting a computer can do just as well and over time better.
After clapping eyes on Cousin Greg and learning who he is, Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) says, in English: “There’s more of them? Wait, are you all related?” before switching into Swedish with his colleagues. “We’ve ended up at one big incestuous family convention!” he says, then the bearded guy quips that Greg is “two-metres of nepotism” and “the Habsburg giant”, a reference, FYI, to the 15th Century royal family of Austria, who were such fans of inbreeding that their offspring became increasingly deformed.
@@21lacla Fella, of course she knew the discussion was falling apart, she was right there. "Is there a problem" was a rhetorical question, she was telling them all to chill out
Bro, Ken was such a big brother here protecting Greg. Even when in this entire season they show us that the siblings actually treat Greg horrible. And a minute ago in this same scene they ignored him. But the second Mattson ask who's Greg, Kendall jumps and answer. He wasn't having it with the other guys making fun of his cousin. Ken is the Patriarch of the family
It baffles me that people still want to see Kendall as the protagonist or hero and a good person. He’s shown time and time again that he doesn’t give a shit about Greg. He jumps in to protect him because he’s protecting his own ego. Matson and co mocking Greg is the same as them mocking Kendall, because Kendall is right there. It’s a macho dominance display, ‘look, I can tease your people right here in front of you because I think youre all a joke’. Kendall is all about himself and his own ego for the most part, althouvh he loves and looks out for his siblings sometimes. Only one episode ago he betrayed Roman and Shiv by betraying their wishes and publicly ruining his dads name. I dont think that act itself is inherently wrong, his dad was a prick. But cutting his siblings out of it after they all just agreed to take over as a team? He’s the same asshole he’s always been
@flippalovell It baffles me that people can't realize two things can be true at once. Kendall is an asshole, and he also has a natural big brother instinct that kicks in from years of abuse from their old man. He has shown time and time again that while he is capable of treating members of his family like shit (because he's simply doing what he was taught) he also exhibits clear love for them.
@@trevorgerardfrederick I agree entirely, but we’ve only seen it with Roman and Shiv, because they gree up together. Greg didn’t go through that with them, and I can’t recall any times Kendall has exhibited that protective instinct with Greg.
@@relaxletgo7105 he’s not protecting him, he’s protecting himself and his ego. By publicly humiliating Greg these guys are humiliating Kendall and his whole family. Kendall isn’t doing this because he cares for Greg. His whole character, the whole show really, is about how he only cares for himself and his own fragile ego. If someone pisses on your little brother right in front of you, they’re sending a message to you. A good person worries about their brother when they snap back. A person like Kendall just worries about how it makes him look.
Thanks to this comment I finally learned the guy’s name haha. Between this and the Boar on the Floor scene, I’ve never felt so much hatred for a character with so little screen time
IMO Roman and Kendall are actually a power team. Kendall can use the lingo and keep things semi-professional while Roman just chimes in with blunt truths to apply pressure. Kind of like good cop bad cop but both of them can play either role depending on the context
@@JackieSchofueld I must agree. Look at Roman's meeting with the LA studio head. Petulant, indulgent, disrespectful, damaging a critical industry relationship. I worked in the corporate world a couple of decades. Both of them would go nowhere based on skill. At least Ken has brief moments of cogent thinking. Yes, incompetent. As to then being a power team, yes by accident they can through their belligerence and weird behaviors act together to intimidate someone in a way that serves their interests. But they are stunted privileged bullies.
@@arabwaluigi5248 no they aren't. all of them are competent in various ways, and have flaws. shiv is probably the worst because she's like Cersei and thinks she's smarter than she is
At the end of the day, Ken knows the business well and he’s got a head on his shoulders with negotiations. The fact the Old Guard said you can’t read him is proof in itself. I’m glad he’s getting a chance to show he isn’t the goof Logan portrayed him to be. Logan kept Ken down the most of all the kids. He did that because Ken was the one who threatened Logan’s NPD the most. Logan’s ego was what started this when he saw the cover story in S1EP1 about Ken taking over.
Except in this very episode he and Roman were completely exposed as goofs by Mattson. Neither of them had any clue how to negotiate and Mattson sniffed it out immediately and completely outclassed both of them. So much so that he exposed Romans tendency to get overly emotional and Kendall's insecurity and lack of confidence. Kendall and Roman continually showed uncertainty and froze or reacted poorly any time Mattson threw even the slightest curveball at them. Both of them together blundered their way through the negotiations and revealed to him what they truly want and he responded by taking that away.
@@10hopalongcassidy10 I don’t think Kendall did a bad job negotiating at all. We see he wants to say a lot but can’t because he has to consult a co-CEO. We see very clearly it’s Roman who don’t have the negotiation skills because he lets it be known very clearly how he feels
Gotta love Kendall somewhat in this scene. He protects Greg and Greg whimpers “Thanks, Ken” Being protective of Greg for the first time in a way Logan would.
"I dont care what you think, you're a tribute band." Kendall's face. I felt my blood boiling on his behalf with that jab. Phenomenal writing and acting.
Notice the expression on mattsons face when ken calls him out to negotiate right on the table. As ballsy as mattson might seem and having authoritative body language/phrases, at the end of the day, he’s still an outsider, he can buy waystar but he’ll never be a roy, the grandeur comes with the name, the Roy name holds power in the US, he’s new money trying to lock horns with one of the most powerful families in the US and he knows he cant afford to mess up because the acquisition is his ticket to the power circle in the US. This is why despite their weak approach to the negotiations, the roys have generational power behind them, which at the end of the day will always work for them.
Logan Roy is everything you mentioned, not the kids. Mattson was 100% right when he called them a tribute band. As much as I despise Trump, his family would be a great example. No one (truly) respects his children. If DJT were to perish, his children would be in the same predicament. They aren't respected, and have done little-to-nothing in that world. Stock prices sank after Logan died, and the kids have little power whether it be political or elsewhere. Notice how Logan actually respected Mattson. He built that shit himself, similar to Logan. And, obviously, he's a killer. Logan Roy was not "old money." He did the same exact thing that Mattson has done. The guy's family was poor as a child. I know the show tends to make you sympathetic towards the kids, but they are a joke.
This isn't 19th century Europe dude. Money itself is all that's required to become a part of the ruling class, even to enter its inner sanctum. You're telling me some random old-money American family who's been rich for 200 years has more sway than Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Howard Marks? Please.
@@EJD339 they are basically everywhere in the world. Maximiliano de Hamsburgo was the only emperor to rule in México, but was executed three years later.
Mattson is saying alot of the stuff Kendall said in the pilot, surprisingly Mattson is wrong about ATN and doesn't understand America's relationship with news media, Kendall learned the hard way he was wrong and Logan was right, S1 Kendall and Mattson can argue the brand is toxic and the graphs all go down but at the end of the day he's still willing to overpay for it
What the other guy said about negotiating, plus Mattson is also in a situation that demands he make a big move. That business with the 2 Indias. It's more comparable in that respect to the original attempt to get Pierce than it is to the Vaulter thing.
"Long term, I don't think news for angry old people works." This may have been the point where I completely agreed with the kids. 20 years ago I would have agreed with Mattson. And even in light of Tucker Carlson getting fired this morning for god-knows-what and the dominion lawsuit and other problems FoxNews has it turns out that every year there are new angry old people. A sucker born every minute, and some of them turn to anger, and some of them grow old, and the brand creates its audience as they tune in. I've known a few folks in their 60s-70s that would have absolutely sneered at FoxNews during the height of of W. 20 years ago when they were in their 40s and 50s, that are now somehow taken in by some sliver of culture war nonsense, and then they buy into the whole thing after getting into right-wing media. But of course the whole business model is propped up by insane billionaires like the Roys and Mattson in the first place. We should be cheering Mattson's misunderstanding and willingness to gut it, but it's season 4, and we're locked into our protagonists.
On top of that, it is clear he doesn't understand the US cultural landscape and audience. The kids are right that he doesn't understand what he is buying.
Exactly my thought process too. If a real-life billionaire bought Fox News and reshaped it into Bloomberg, they'd be Time Person of the Year and fawned over from coast to coast (or, well, maybe just the coasts, lmao.) But here all we see is a guy threatening to unwittingly tarnish the Roy kids' futures by sucking the value out of their core asset.
The keyword here is longterm. People my age, 25, don't think Fox News is cool. Even the conservatives. There is irreparable brand damage that can come with that that cannot be changed by pivoting political values over the course of time.
Mattson only said "Lecture me, Vaulter guy," to Kendall because he knows that the Roys are very behind on tech but also he knows Kendall is the most savage out of all of them.
" he knows Kendall is the most savage out of all of them" Lol Mattson was mocking Kendall. He called him a tribute band to his face. Mattson does not fear or respect Kendall
@@freesandals29 Still don't think Mattson feared or respected Kendall in this scene, but damn do I want to see Kendall and Frank pull off the reverse Viking.
@@Seitanic_panicslinging weak insults is not a sign of disrespect, it's a negotiating tactic in his position. We now know that Mattesson needed the deal to go through and would've done anything to get it done.
Roman sneers at the "good parts, bad brand" because "bad brand" is basically denigrating Logan and his family name. Still though, the "parts shop" metaphor is perhaps the most apt way I've heard Waystar described by anyone on this show.
I think Ken killed it in this episode. Really hard situation all things considered but he pulled through. I know at the end it didnt go "as expected" but still, the decisions he made were the correct. I for one would have tanked the deal also and said "fuck off!!" to that prick of Mattson.
Idk how people think mattison is a serious guy. Especially after his how stalker blood brick story to shiv. American media would destroy him once they found out 1% of details. Also love the call back to vaulter. We all knew Ken had a solid plan for it and low swing for Mattison to say it but Ken took it on the chin even though it wasn’t his idea to gut it.
Mattson is much more serious than the kids. They want to use Waystar as their playground. Mattson wants to run a business. Also Ken overpaid for a company that was pretty much all hype. He had no plan with them, and the fact that he found out that Vaulter was a badly run company only after his father told him to gut it begs us to ask the question if he is really qualified for the position
@@jackashmore How? I really dont think Shiv is on the side of the family anymore. The left her to do nothing, whereas she has a role with Mattson. She switched teams
@@nihal85901 nah Mattison gave a high profile damaging info. If shiv was a beast like Logan she’d drop the news the moment it benefits her, seeing as she feels screwed out by the bros I don’t think she realizes her position to come out on top. She thinks she’s just winning silently.
This episode did a great job showing Mattson isn't some genius negotiator, Roman had his outburst but Kendall convincing him that nuking the deal was the best option wasn't a bad play either. Mattson disclosing how much of a weird tech bro he is to Shiv was either a ploy or another sign of his incompetence. But the overpay at the end was probably the most telling, sure Mattson is taking the offer to the board directly by relaying it to Frank, but the offer also proves the initially made up point that there was more value at the company. With Shiv knowing what she knows, they could easily convince the board of the companies intrinsic value and discredit Mattson as someone that can steer the ship. Its setup for the kids to win if they work together but we all knows thats not gonna happen lol.
you couldn’t of been more wrong, Matsson played and carved all three kids up like a Thanksgiving turkey - they were all out of their league and Mattsson knew what Logan did, they aren’t serious people.
@@frvnxis Eh idk, Matsson was panicking once he found out the three siblings would vote no at the board meeting. He may have played them initially but his scheming isn't what got the merger over the hill. It was always the siblings not working together, and you're correct they aren't serious people, that's a persistent theme in the show. But an even bigger one is their complete disdain for one another. Shiv couldnt bear to see Kendall become CEO, Kendal divulged incriminating information to them, and Roman burned the whole thing down by going after Kendals children.
This is the rare instance where Kendall is the top mind at the table. This is his bread-and-butter, and he's studied it inside and out for decades, so Lukas presenting his 15-minute observation as a counter comes across as limp and juvenile in comparison.
This episode showed the difference in performance. Between 2 organizations. One is based on meritocracy and the other on nepotism and the momentum built by its founder.
Kendall may have the lingo and data and he's grown a lot in his public performances, but he's still an unequipped nepo baby prone to emotional outbursts. Him trying to tank the deal might work out in his favor based on what we now know about Matsson, but at the time it made zero sense
One of the most powerful scenes in the series. The way Mattson totally and completely called out the Roys was epic. "You're a tribute band"...Scathing.
@@JuhoTunkelo Yeah, he "didn't let it get to him". That's why this child was willing to burn the whole deal just to "own" Mattson, and ended up looking like a fool along with his idiot brother at the end of the episode. Sure. 😂
If Logan was there, nobody would DARE mocking the old man. Even if they did, Logan would burn them all and eat their souls and even the barbecue would give apologies to him.
There will always be angry old people who will want news. They are made everyday as times change. So long term… I’d say it definitely works as a business
This is like the moment when Logan was trying to make the deal with Pierce and he reacted to Naomi when she wanted to make shiv CEO by saying: “Then we’re done” Kendall should’ve done that right on the spot.
But thats kind of what he and Roman tried isnt it? Thats why he called Frank (not them) and told him the number, he would've just gone directly to the board, like he threatened and (kind of) did.
@@kevinzambrano5179 Exactly, It is a tactical and power move. As you said if he did that Matsson would’ve gone to the board but He would know that Kendall is not some “Tribute band”. It is known that he can’t keep a deal like this from the board but it is about the respect that he will walk away with.
Matsson is good at getting under the kids skin so easy. The same way the Vaulter guy did. The same way Logan treated Mattson when they first met in Italy. Only the 5th episode but i really hope one of the kids actually becomes a true killer and evolves into Logan....because i dont want to see a Swedish guy end up being the new Logan
Have people already forgotten why Mattson wants ATN? It seems to me a very very important detail and many do not even question it. A couple of chapters ago he talked about not raising the price and now he has no problem paying more. It all seems a bit strange
Ken steps in here and shows why he is the real CEO out of all of them. But then he goes and makes that speech wearing a pilots jacket and you think ‘Maybe Logan was right, they are all morons!’😏
Actually I think he understands way more than the Roy kids, he's literally manipulating them, ATN's stocks aren't doing good and tbh thier decisions have been bad lately along with their stocks dropping by 20%. I really hope he destroys them
I think you don't understand the show at all. The kids, still blinded by the image of their powerful father, don't understand that his legacy is gradually falling apart. Mattson is objective and has a vision to save the legacy by transforming it. The Roy boys are two fetuses who never managed to walk on their own feet.
@@Rina25tir it actually seems like you’re the one not paying attention because since season 1 kendal remarks plenty of times that the business is sinking. He even says it to Stewie in the previous episode when Stweie asks him does he even like the deal. He expresses that the deal needs to happen or they all crumble. The real problem is they think they can take their dad’s legacy and elevate it not that they think their dad’s legacy is currently without fault.
@@Rina25tir which program have you been watching??? 👀 Every single one of Logan's kids knows the legacy is crumbling and that his way of doing business is outdated. Every single one has mentioned that at one point or another.
@@YouroldboySabs1 "has mentioned", "know". This is not about what has been mentioned in the past, and it's not about knowing. This is about what is happening in this episode, and their feelings shadowing their logic, making them look stupid and cringe. It's a matter of character. I have been watching the same program as you, but I am a better observant.
Matsson is wrong about what ATN is fundamentally about. But he is right about WayStar-RoyCo being a parts shop. Parks, cruises etc. are good parts or operations by themselves but the brand and scandals had ruined them. The profitable operations will be sold off to someone who can chop them up without the brand making it all slimy. The only shining profit center is the media operations and ATN News itself, with the massive humongous archive of content and IP just waiting for a good streaming platform.
@@rhondac.891 sure ! Pierce family has been inheriting wealth for over 150 years nearly 4 generations where as the roys it’s just one generation the difference I saw was roys are more about power and pierce is more low key you can tell the difference roys travel in their Mercedes live in center of city where as pierce have their classic jeep grand wagoneers live outside the city in their old estates. Also they are much more or pretend to be closer to the house help cause people who have inherited generation wealth grow up close with their house help where as the roys barely acknowledge them if you notice roys think power and wealth is important cause it’s true and they know it cause that’s how they came up where as nan pierce clearly says money is a social construct cause they have inherited it and always had it those are many of the differences I’ve noticed also their family bond is much stronger than the roys. I think both are douchebags but in a different way.
Logan should have embraced Kendall, not hold him back. And then look at shiv, doesn’t have anything to say until matson, who’s playing her says he’s listening. She doesn’t have what it takes to be at the big boy table.
