"Gender fluid illegals maybe entering the country 'twice' " and "Should we really be worried about Robots being body shamed?" by ATN news is some of the best background humor i have ever seen👏👏👏
I love the ATN ticker headline in the opening credits - "WHY ARE SO MANY OLDER CELEBRITIES DYING???" It took a few watches before it struck me how asinine that headline is lol
It’s crazy how Logan never acknowledged that twice his kids saved the company when his body broke down. Kendall by bringing in Stewie and Shiv saving the bear hug settlement when Logan had UTI.
Also a tummy ache from the gold flakes in the alcohol at the club. And someone texted him asking about him “burning”. Is this all leading to something? Lol
I'm reading Jason Hickel's book "Less is More" and he points out that the numbers on CO2 emissions (like the ones at 13:20) don't take into account that a lot of the goods produced by the global south are for the benefit of the global north. So we (in the global north) are responsible for a good portion of those emissions too. It sounds obvious once someone says it, but I honestly had never considered it before. I mention the book because I figured you might enjoy it, too. Also I wanted to come back now that I've seen a handful of episodes of Succession to say that Logan and capitalism are 100% abusive parents. It's really rough to watch him be such a bully and not be able to reach through the screen to punch him.
Mom Collingwood was the far worse parent though. Her narcissism (perfectly acted by Harriet Walker btw) is so beyond that even Livia Soprano looks like Mom of the Year by comparison.
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I weirdly never considered Succession a comedy. I think there's comedic moments, but at the end of the day, I think the show is strictly a dramatic satire. There's comedy sprinkled in, but at the end of the day, the feelings I have watching Succession never make me think it's funny, I always just feel a sort of dread by the end, that same dread we get when we talk about climate change. Weirdly, and again-- unpopular opinion-- in the same way, I don't consider Scream a horror comedy. I think there's comedic moments, "I'm gettin' woozy here!" "Everyone is a suspect!" "There are rules!" but at the end of the day, I always feel like what I watched was a pair of serial killers murdering their friends for fun, and it gives me that same dread. They are satire for the world we live in, sure, and there's definitely moments I loved and found hilarious. The water bottle fight scene in Succession is easily one of my favorites, but when I reflect on it, the show is humorous but bleak. Loved the video, the algorithm showed me the channel so I'm glad to be here and like/comment/subscribe/it's ya boy, etc.
I mean....satire is a subgenre of comedy. The point is using humor to bring up a (usually) political/ethical point and as such is often in a fairly dramatic environment. Theatre even has a specific genre called tragicomedy that's often linked to satire.
It’s a borderline dark comedy imo. Meanwhile, a great example of a full-fledged dark comedy is Barry. I’d say Succession is more like The Sopranos in that the drama is technically in the front seat leading the show along, but the accompanying dialogue is oftentimes so witty, peculiar, poetic, ridiculous, etc that you end up laughing a lot too.
Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but one other element that seems to refer to how the roys are limited by their mortality and/or their body is the fact that kendall is an addict. Kendall's body is working against him because he constantly has this addiction looming over him, which prevents him from actually bettering his life and breaking the toxic cycle.
just as a good number of us are addicted to the unhealthy things capitalism enables us to consume at greater rates than the globally unlucky. an unrelenting torrent of media, data, dopamine hits, and fear from our little black mirrors. why do better when the world is a terrifying place, and staying inside hanging out with your friends Jim Halpert and Captain America feels safe and kinda good anyway? click away on your laptop, have some Zoom chats during the day to earn a few bucks, and spend them at night on overpriced fast-food and weed delivery so you can bliss out watching people have adventures doing stuff you'll never do in your entire life. don't even need to leave your couch; in fact, it can become very difficult to. fortunately for us, for now the world is still a beautiful place if you do.
This is a good point. I've read comments that some suspect Kendall has bipolar (which could fit). I also think Roman has rampant unmedicated ADHD as well, which similarly works against him too
@@stvn1405 I think Kendall has borderline personality disorder. "Borderline Personality Disorder is characterized by a persistent pattern of emotional instability, which alters mood, self-image, and behavior. The person experiences strong emotions and impulsive outbursts that generate uncertainty, they may present extremist thinking and their affections are organized in this way. One day it can refer to admiring a person and later to despise them. His type of thinking is dichotomous, "Everything is bad or good." When experiencing turbulent sensations and having changing feelings, their relationships are often intense and chaotic. Other significant symptoms include: Intense fear of being abandoned, intolerance towards feelings of loneliness, frequently having feelings of emptiness or boredom, presence of inappropriate outbursts of anger, appearance of consumption behaviors, impulsive sexual relations or self-harm behaviors."
It’s also clearly a critique on modern capitalism / politics, the role of the media, the nepotism involved in business (none of the kids are up to the task of managing a multinational, but they’re entitled so they believe they’re the only ones capable) and politics. Its also highlighting the costs of capitalism on the family, where money drives everything but it doesn’t make the children or the families happy (they’re all dysfunctional individuals and they all clamour for time with there absentee father). Not once do they think about the implications of their actions on society, It’s a Shakespearian tragedy of epic proportions and we’re seeing this in our society today. We all know disaster is looming, but we’re pretending we can somehow control what’s about to happen (we can’t).
Watching Logan reminds me of entitled maniac trump. (With higher intelligence) and Tom seeking the limelight purely for status and is money hungry like jared....I love the natural flow of throwing cheap shots at each other
@@lauramarshall2072 I would equate Logan to Murdoch TBH, which I assume the entire show has been based on. Murdochs family is dysfunctional, his kids are arseholes who have failed in the corporate world but got those opportunities precisely because of who their father was. The phone hacking scandal is similar to the cruise line debacle in the show in that they clearly new but publicly denied all knowledge and culpability for there employees actions. Parallels could be made for Trump (his father was actually a successful self made man, Donald certainly isn’t self made despite trying to give that impression). His kids are certainly devoid of talent and in there own rights have achieved nothing of note.
2:06 Critique? I’d say parody. I’ve seen these personalities from the rich to the poor. And it’s not capitalism. It’s corruption. Because you can be a Logan Roy and be communist. Unless you consider the fact that communist leaders end up killing anyone who dares go against the established status quo.
Maybe this is hte poverty speaking, but the part that makes my head spin the most realizing how terrible these people are is "the banquet followed by throwing away the leftovers" That one shot you showed of what was thrown away could have been three days of food.
What makes it worse was that it wasn't leftovers - they threw the entire banquet's worth of food away because there was a bad smell in the house so Logan didn't feel like eating and was worried the smell would get into the food.
This is a really good essay. Even beyond the climate change metaphor, your technical insight on how the character dynamics work in Succession really enriched my understanding of the show. Nice work!
The essay sucks. His argument about Logan's wealth not meaning anything when he's sick is BS since he can afford the best medical care. Which is ironic cause fossil fuels are the reason we have so much medicine, clean water, heat, and food. If you turned off the power tomorrow, these climate change morons would change their tune really quickly once they see how much they took for granted. Just telling them that they'll only be able to charge their phone every other day would immediately end the discussion.
Its style is very similar to "The Thick of It". Dramatic satire. The situations are so absurd that it is obvious you should not take it serious as a real drama, but it is played straight by the actors as a drama, which just puts it such a nice dark place with its humor. I love it.
I wasn't aware of this show, this was really interesting. It relates to a theme touched on in Squid Game that I haven't really heard anyone talk about, namely that the capitalist system doesn't produce happiness or fulfilment for ANYONE, even for its ostensible winners.
It's funny cos I suggested this show to my 15 year old niece, and about 20 minutes into the pilot she turned to me and said, "so this show is basically a dramatic Arrested Development?"
I always saw Ewan's assessment of Logan as a parody. That self righteous aspect of "I'm against capitalism and I hate that they are ruining the environment, but I still profit from it". When Ewan says that Logan's worse than Hitler, the show doesn't mean it. I means that Ewan simply wants to feel as if he's making a grand stand against evil while simply saying forgettable words. Words, fucking words.
I still don't know what to make of Ewan. On the one hand, I thought that maybe he should have deposed Logan, and that it was self-indulgent hypocrisy to not do that. On the other hand, if Ewan's goal is to see Royco damaged as much as possible, maybe allowing Kendall to take over instead from Logan wouldn't have seemed like a good idea. Maybe he thought Kendall would have been a good enough leader to keep the company afloat and that Logan would crash it or die off soon enough. If that's the case, it's not a particularly good assessment of the facts, given the merger that Royco is about to get.
I somewhat agree that he's extremely self righteous but the profit he makes from it is used to donate to greenpeace , he's not just using it for homes and clothes. it's better to use the profit that way instead of not profiting at all and allowing another shareholder to get that money. therefore , it's not just words , although , if he really did care he would have donated the 150mil MUCH earlier rather than just when he's reaching death, seems like he still was proud of the amount of money he could say he had by old age
It's not true that the show doesn't have anyone to root for. What the show does brilliantly is that it keeps shifting the likability around. Doesn't everyone has a soft spot for Tom this season? Wasn't everyone rooting for Kendall the previous season when is beyond broken, and this season everyone sees him as an asshole completely inappropriate, cringey, and out of touch? And isn't he slowly going back to that same Kendall we were rooting for?
The elevator pitch of this show that got me to watch it (and I got my dad to watch it with this pitch) is that the show centers on a family that is heavily inspired by, if not a fictional proxy for, the Murdoch family. It’s a dramatic and comedic psychological study of a fictionalized Murdoch family.
I appreciate this as an outline of the show on behalf of people who can’t afford HBO. Honestly the only exposure I’ve had to it has been inscrutable smug references by twitterers who can. Thanks for both letting everyone else in on what goes on in Succession and why it might be worthwhile.
this video inspired me to go and grab my long dead plasma donation card and scam a free month off it lol. this works with visa gift cards and such too if you can find like a 5$ one you can get lots of free trials off shit. at least that's how it was 7ish years ago when I had somehow less money than I do now
Linking this great show to the decline of the American Empire and climate change was nothing short of brilliant. Great observations, notably how the only thing the Roys can't control is nature.
The problem with this narrative is that the American Empire is not in decline, at least in terms of power, and is certainly not going to end anytime soon. it's really just getting into its corrupt middle age.
This was a phenomenal video essay. Thank you! When you appeared at the end I thought "Holy fuck he's gorgeous" then when you said "I usually appear in the videos" I got very happy. Good quality essays PLUS your breathtaking face? instant sub
Thank you! I now know that I don't need to watch the show. It looks great, but there's so much content out there and I have to see some of this IRL. Great video!
This is one of those series which may be brilliant but I also have no interest in seeing. I already spend way too much of my time on real rich assholes, I don't need more of that in my life.
Roy's abrupt dead and The "Living+" thing becoming a main focus in the final season definitely brings to the forefront a lot of the talking points from this video...
another great show that parallells our relationship to capitalism to a parental relationship, but one in much smaller scale and thus easier to compare, is Sharp Objects
Just more cover for capitalism: "See ultra rich people have big problems inherent to being ulta rich. There lives are "doomed", and that's the sacrifice you make to be ultra rich. You (average viewer) are definitely better off in the end." Meanwhile in reality the rich fiercely protect wealth and the wealthy. Their lives are actually lived leisurely, in excess, fulfilled. and "drama" free.
I def agree with the premise of the video, but id add that the show's audience contributes to thematic arcs youre describing. So many people myself included watch the show like vultures waiting for the Roys to get their comeuppance so we can feast on their misery. We know that these people exist in real life, we know they are a blight to the world around them and that the world would be better off without them around in the drivers seat of capitalism. The show essentially trains you to be an accelerationist waiting for Capitalism (logan) to finally collapse and we can rejoice in the house of cards tumbling down. Its a show that implicitly promises there will be no happy endings for the characters, and so you just wait and watch for it to end.
This is not about climate change, capitalism reminds of climate change, which makes sense, cause they are related. But I don't see that in the show at all, you are taking quite the leap.
Lol. Just made another comment where I brought up "The Thick of It", and yeah, its the closest thing I can think of to Succession. Notice how Succession use the same camera moves as TToI to create the same vibe.
The irony of Succession is that it's a show produced by a public company aimed at it's direct private competitor. You can't separate the macro investment from the message.
The existential threat (referred to as climate change) is apparent in Game of Thrones (night king), Sopranos (the FBI) (plus other A+ shows I can’t name off the top of my head). They show how those in power and power adjacent places feel 1. the biggest threat to them is losing their seat on the throne than the existential threat and 2. the hardest challenge in an interregnum is just uniting people and getting them to be facing the right way in battle.
the yacht and the private jet flights and the food waste all give me such intense anxiety... like people are literally allowed to LIVE LIKE THIS? DURING GLOBAL WARMING? it's infuriating!
Maid is EXCELLENT. It's so many things but it's a very sharp critique of how our society treats people, especially primary caregivers, who are trying to survive. How we have built an impossible system for people to actually use public assistance programs.
"Following the political intrigue of the Roy family..." "Sounds boring, right?" Me, who started watching the show explicitly for the political intrigue: Yeah........boring.
Can you do a follow up on this now that the season has ended? The moment Logan said something like "Guess I'm a climate denier" I thought of this video. You were right on the money
What you mentioned about how money loses its value and everything is reduced to a game of power reminded me to a moment were Greg comments on how his grandfather has disinhereted him and when he mentions the sum of money he "lost" Tom and i think Roman tell him how it's not really that bad, as if he became a billionaire but with a smaller pile of money than that of his piers he would just me the "shortest giant".
Succession pulled a bait and switch on me. I went from not liking any of these characters to caring deeply about what happens to almost all of them in the blink of an eye. It is a testament to the stupendous writing on the show that they can take some deeply unlikeable people and make me root for them.
YT didn't even tell me about this video so I'm watching it a week late. boooo. But also great timing because I just finished episode 4 which is very appropriate.
Oh god... please no... please don't try and make Succession into some "truth" messaging attempting to mimic any reality. We get that on every other show now.... just want the good shows to be in their own universe and not try and press reality politics into the show. For the love of god. Stop it. We watch shows to escape our world
how could you possibly say that about a show like succession. its about an american media-empire owning family of course its gonna have links with our reality????
Turning the worst aspects of our society into entertainment is psychological poison. Even if you are watching to hate the characters, we are constantly jumping through hoops to empathize and project morality into despicable people. This unconsciously normalizes this shit. I hate The Wolf of Wall St, House of Cards, and this show for all those same reasons. It doesn't matter than you're supposed to hate these characters. Its like watching a series about a dictator committing an active genocide.
