The pilot tells him they could be shot out of the sky; Kendall says, “Yeah, but not really, right?” His disbelief, played straight, arouses both distaste and pity, as the princeling learns anew that money cannot always buy freedom from consequences.How the sounds of crinkling, whispering, and tapping induce euphoria.What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week.The Finale of “The Americans” Was Elegant, Potent, and UnforgettableBrian Cox plays billionaire media mogul Logan Roy, who inhabits a dog-eat-dog world of extravagant wealth in HBO’s family drama “Succession.” The newlyweds cruise into view on their honeymoon, aboard an eerily empty yacht, with neither quite admitting that they want to abandon the vacation and race back to the latest palace intrigue.
It has tuned our ears to appreciate the emotional nuances of Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) being addressed as “slimeball”—as if it were an honorific, in recognition of his power moves—and to appreciate, with a combination of amused disgust and tender concern, hearing Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) called a “slimepuppy,” in a scene that literalizes the way that most relationships on the show are psychodramas of humiliation and submission. Siobhan (Sarah Snook)—nicknamed Shiv, a rude blade plunged deep—is a political strategist by profession and a dexterous tactician by nature; her boyfriend, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), is an executive attempting to flatter his way into Logan’s heart.The trouble is, Logan doesn’t have one. In Season 2 of HBO’s “Succession,” Shiv ... Rachel Syme is a staff writer at The New Yorker. The conversations are hazing rituals.In this realm, among these guys who often joke about emasculation and castration, nothing is more horrific, or more comedic, than a neutered tongue. With its bouncy combination of soap and satire, “Succession” demonstrates an elliptical elegance in clearly diagramming these relationships without spelling them out.
His father’s minions fish him from it and send him to appear on a business-news show, in support of Logan’s leadership of Waystar. The cast of the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, a surprise hit in its first season, discuss the challenges of Season 2 and what’s so relatable about a family of horrible rich people. Connor (Alan Ruck), Logan’s son from his first marriage, is a gentleman rancher.
“Succession” (airing Sundays, on HBO) opens with the billionaire media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) rumbling out of bed in the pre-dawn hours of his eightieth birthday.
She has covered fashion, style, and other cultural subjects since 2012. Logan fixed the problem; Kendall is now, more or less, his indentured servant.Kendall opens this season with his head above water, in a pool in some plush detox center. The first season ended with the collapse of a takeover bid in which Kendall allied with Logan’s rivals to seize the company. Things fell apart after Kendall escaped a sinking car, in which his drug connection drowned. The only thing more awkward than the small talk is the silence.The great strength of the show is that it manages to deepen its monstrous characters—to grant them meaningful context, even pathos—without glamorizing them.This hall-of-fame naïf is peripheral to the show’s power plays but central to its overarching structure.As the 2020 elections approach, Stacey Abrams is leading the battle against voter suppression.What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week.A Tribute to Cousin Greg, the Secret Weapon of “Succession”In the second season of “Succession,” Jeremy Strong gives a remarkable performance as the extremely fragile and isolated Kendall Roy. Confident in our familiarity with the dynamics of the Roy family, and our fluency in their idiom, “Succession” has more notes to play. But the energy of this round of “Succession” is in how Logan’s heirs reveal their inner lives as they angle for influence.