5 burning questions we have ahead of Succession’s third season
Here are the biggest questions we’d like to see answered in the HBO drama’s season 3, debuting on Sunday, October 17
TV Features Succession
It’s been two whole years since HBO’s award-winning drama Succession ended its second season with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. 2020 felt like it lasted a decade, so if you need a reminder on everything that went down, here’s a quick summary: Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) finally revealed to the public that his father, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) was fully aware of all the problems within the company. It was a total power grab on his part.
The season-two finale, “This Is Not For Tears,” also put Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) marriage on the rocks, left eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck) without a purpose, and saw Logan’s wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass) check out after learning he had an affair.
In time for the show’s highly anticipated return, The A.V. Club staff is hoping to get answers to some pivotal burning questions in season three as Logan and Kendall scramble to make allegiances to emerge on top of this corporate—and familial—war.
You can also catch up with the Roys before the October 17 premiere with this in-depth recap.
43 Comments
I just really want to know who will get the kiss from daddy.
All of the rich white folk are going to argueWhoever’s best will get the kiss from daddy
Loved the first season because of the writers’ delicious cynicism toward ALL the characters. In the second season the show went soft and wanted us to LIKE these awful people. I hope they go back to the tone of the first season. Also, Brian Cox is better at playing the ailing Logan Roy than the healthy one. Maybe they should give him another stroke.
I think there’s a difference between showing the depths of people’s characters and expecting us to like them. These people are not good people, but they are complex people, and complex people are more interesting to watch.
Perhaps more importantly: what is the gap/overlap between a likable character and a relatable character?I find myself relating to all three of the Succession children without liking any of them. (OK, sorry, four; I always forget about Connor.) It’s just all of the traits I recognize are ones I’m ambivalent about at best. It’s one of the themes that links Succession and Peep Show.
I think “relatability” is beside the point, particularly with a show like this one, where part of its thesis is that these people are so fundamentally removed from the rest of us that they might as well live on a different planet. Honestly, maybe even “likable” is beside the point. Would I want to be in a room with Kendall Roy for even five minutes? Fuck no. But I want to know what happens to him, because the writing and Strong’s performance make me care about him.
That seems like a relatively reductive binary. There are plenty of dysfunctional families out there, and plenty of everyday folks have the same human flaws Succession skewers—pride, vanity, insecurity, etc. One of the key questions the show asks is to what extent unrelatable wealth and power distorts magnify the stakes of mistakes/decisions driven by ordinary human nature.
I’m not sure I’d agree with that. I think a lot of the point of the show is about how these people are actually exactly the same as the rest of us, only with more ability to do want they want to do (and then threaten to take that away from them so that they have to fight over it). I mean, if you gave Mark and Jez a billion dollars, would they really be so different from Tom and Roman? Mark’s father and Logan? Siobh and Big Suze (or several other Jez girlfriends, come to think of it). If anything, Succession smooths out the unpleasant aspects of their characters for US audiences!
To be honest, I’m not sure I really understand what people mean when they distinguish ‘like’ from ‘relate’. Maybe I’ve never liked anyone? Or maybe I like too many people?I certainly don’t admire the Roys, in most respects at least (or Mark and Jez). But I don’t think you have to admire someone to like them. Conversely, some of them seem like good company at a party, but that doesn’t mean they’re likeable exactly; conversely, just because someone seems like they’d be a lot to deal with in person doesn’t exactly mean you don’t like them.
I mean, if we’re all being completely honest with ourselves, I think it’s probably human nature to over-empathize with people you have supposedly “negative” traits in common with. But I wonder how many of us are truly perceived as “likable” by a random sample of human beings in real life. Obviously part of the allure of fictional characters is that you get access to their most intimate moments.
That’s what you took from the second season? You can enjoy watching these awful scumbags eat each other, while still loathing them. Season two was just as effective as the first season in this regard.
I just re-watched the series and don’t really get that at all. In particular Shiv is much more likable and sympathetic in the first season… They make it clear she’s as capable of sinking to the same depths as the rest in season 2. Roman may get more sympathetic but I think it’s also because he’s slowly maturing and taking the family business seriously, not because he’s becoming a better person. If Kendall becomes more likable it’s because Jeremy Strong is giving such an amazing and compelling performance but again, the character isn’t transitioning into something better. Basically if you think these people are more likable I think it’s the Tony Soprano syndrome where the more time you spend with an anti-hero the more their humanity shows and the more you can’t help but feel for them. But I don’t think the show went soft by any means.
That’s interesting—the few negative reviews I’ve read position the unlikability of characters this season as both 1) a return to season 1 and 2) a weakness.I will confess I liked Season 2 much better over all, although overall I’d say both seasons have weaker first halves and stronger second halves.
I was very nervous about them having to skip a year due to Covid.Brian Cox is not getting any younger, and I think he’s already about 83.
The advantage in that respect is that Logan is inherently old and unwell as a character – so if Cox becomes unwell, that can be factored in to the plot. If Logan can’t be on the show for two episodes because Cox is in hospital with a chest infection, they can just say that Logan is in hospital with a chest infection and isn’t allowed (or allowing) visitors. Not to be crude, but even the fact that Logan isn’t going to live much longer is not only acknowledged by the show but the centre of its plot. So obviously if Cox gets unwell it’ll be a lot of work for the writers to change course from their plans, but at least (for us the viewers) it wouldn’t mean changing the long-term narrative of the show as it would do for most actors in most shows…(but of course, let’s hope he remains in good health, for his sake!)
I like that the ever-dwindling paper evidence for the cruise ship scandal seems to be just as thorough and explosive as it would have been had it all come to light in the first place.Cousin Greg only copies some of it in the first place (albeit at his own leisure, so presumably the juiciest stuff), then burns most of that, only saving a couple of pages. It also seems like he was burning the only copies, otherwise why else save any of it, and risk burning his hand, when Tom was distracted. Yet, from Kendall’s press conference, it seems like the evidence they do have is fairly comprehensive, enough to implicate Logan severely at any rate.
I don’t think it would be implausible for cagey Cousin Greg to have made two copies of the documents in case things went sour. But that’s hard to reconcile with him pulling documents off the pile. But yeah you really only need one document that says ‘I did this crime’ to cause trouble
In particular, it can take a lot of documents to prove something in court, but it often doesn’t take a lot to give the legal and/or media bloodhounds enough of a scent to chase down, particularly when the story’s already out there…
Just reminded me I need to hyper-decant some wine for Sunday night.
warm up your butter ahead of time, you’d hate to serve your guests cold butter
It’s not at all clear that Logan actually had an affair, at least physically, with Rhea. (And I think it’s inferred that they didn’t.) But more importantly that’s not the reason Marcia left him (indeed, at one point she tells Rhea to use protection if they are having an affair–Marcia doesn’t care so long as she has a grip on power). She leaves him because he’s cut her out of the company’s succession plans by installing Rhea as CEO. It’s something that had been boiling all season–remember when Logan sent Marcia out of the room so he could talk to Shiv about the possible CEO gig. The first season spent a good bit of time on Marcia jockeying for power along with the kids–including getting her own kid a plum job with the company. We didn’t see as much of that in Season 2, but I do think some light blackmail with Kendall’s vehicular homicide might get her back in the game (notable that she and her son were present for part of Logan’s final showdown with Kendall in season 1.)
I feel like everything Logan does when Kendall is involved is meant to shape him into Logan 2.0. I think the point of the vagueness with Rhea was to show his boys how to handle an extramarital affair, which is also why Logan was so disgusted by Kendall bragging about having Naomi over (not that he’s currently married but still, I think Logan would consider that behavior weakness and knows it would easily be used against him were Kendall ever holding real power.)
I think that’s a bit too complicated an explanation; much more simply and directly, Logan’s upset at Naomi because it’s right after the Pierce rejection and Kendall’s literally sleeping with the enemy (which is why Logan keeps coming up with dumb reasons to get Kendall away from her.) I think it’s implied the Rhea didn’t stay over–Logan’s alone in the morning, there’s a bit of misdirection when Roman thinks he heard someone doin it (turns out to be Kendall), and in any case Logan’s going to be cagey about it because it’s nobody’s business. But later, to Shiv, he calls Rhea a ‘prick tease’, not the obvious language you’d use to describe someone you’re having relations with. Overall I don’t think they had an affair, though Logan would have welcomed one. (And more generally, I don’t think Logan’s interested in ‘shaping’ Kendall at all, especially in season 2, where he all but tells Kendall he’s only keeping him around while he’s useful for the proxy fight and, later, to take flak for the cruise ship fallout.)
Both Brian Cox and Holly Hunter have confirmed in interviews that Logan and Rhea did not have a physical affair and that they “both agreed on that” up front. It was left ambiguous to highlight how the kids’ dirty minds would automatically assume it was sexual. Something many of us assumed as well, my own dirty mind included.
she didn’t tell rhea to use protection, she asked if rhea has been checked for infectious diseases. it wasn’t an “i don’t care if you’re sleeping with my husband” it was an “i know you’re sleeping with my husband and you’re a grubby little slut”
“But Tom undoubtedly deserves better treatment,”
Does he, though?
He is probably one of the only who truly doesnt lol. The Kids are fucked up cuz of their dad and vying for his love. Logan is clearly fucked up from his childhood which led to all those scars. Tom just seems like a power hungry dickhead.
He’s as bad or worse than everyone else, he’s just midwestern
[replied to wrong comment]
Tom is bastard man.
[Cousin Greg has joined the chat]
i think he deserves better from his wife. i don’t think he deserves better from the rest of the family. he’s a vain, grasping coward who needs to take out his insecurities on people lower than him on the totem pole and he deserves whatever shit is coming down the pike at him EXCEPT he has been thoroughly used and taken for granted by shiv. and it doesn’t seem like that abuse was contingent on how much of a shitty guy he is. if he was a great guy, shiv would still be taking advantage of him. they both suck and they deserve each other, but tom is 100% taking the worst of it in their relationship
greg literally tells ken he has the papers in the season 1 finale
There’s a (maybe in season one?) where Greg mentions to Kendall how he “knows some shit” or something like that and it would be wise for the company to keep him happy. Kendall seems impresses and says something like, “Greg the motherfucking egg.”
“Do I remember anything about last season besides L-to-the-OG…?”No. Am I excited? Hell yeah.
I remember there was a boat and some controversy about a bigger boat and Roman was a hostage for a little bit.
But really, deep down, isn’t Roman always a hostage?
I just want to know when Tom and Greg the Egg are getting their own spin-off.
As evidenced via the trailer, Cousin Greg and Tom are apparently back together at some point. And Greg says something about not knowing what Kendall was planning.
Cash App is the easiest way to Buy, Sell, Deposit
and withdraw Bitcoin. A mobile payment service developed by Square.Inc. that
allows users to transfer money to one another using a mobile phone app is cash
app. then visit our website https://fromask.com.
Question : will Rob Yang still be in the main title credits despite the fact he’s had like maybe 10 lines in the entire series?
I suspect Succession was substantially retooled after they shot the first couple of episodes–a couple of other characters are introduced with great fanfare but dropped–and the Vaulter plot got trimmed, but Yang probably had the opening credits in his contract.
https://www.fiverr.com/web_ashiq2019/design-wordpress-website-with-divi-avada-child-or-any-theme