Succession: Season 3 Teaser + Roundup
**THIS POST CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS**
ONTD Discussion Post: Episode 1
Season 3 - The Weeks Ahead:
Season 3 Podcast:
There's an official podcast accompanying this season. In the first episode - host, Kara Swisher speaks to Jennifer M. Palmieri, who was the White House Director of Communications from 2013 to 2015 and Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. Her intern at one point in time was Monica Lewinski. They discuss THAT call that Gerri made to the President's office and the White House's role in this season of Succession:
"I have anxiety after hearing that phone call, yeah," Palmieri says. "Because, anything involving Justice is just so sensitive and I'm like processing in my mind if, you know, how many crimes were committed in the course of that phone call, right? And just, like, feeling anxiety for the press secretary about how you handle something when it's a person that's important to you but the White House just can't be anywhere near anything involving Justice and anytime anything involving Justice would come up - people like me, the press people - you're just like backing it up. You're like, 'Get me out of the room, talk to the Counsel's office, like not it, do not include me, do not talk to me,' you're like imagining legal bills racking up in your brain. Most people are sophisticated enough to know, particularly when it's a Justice Department thing, like that's just the third rail that the White House has to stay away from - but there are, as you know Kara, rich doesn't equal smart, powerful doesn't equal savvy, so there are people that will make phone calls like that even though it's, in the end, reckless, and more likely to backfire on you."
"You get weird, back channel awkwardness calls all the time."
She also confirms that most of these phone calls are NOT recorded BUT that even when you have an encrypted White House phone, that you have to assume that there are any number of foreign entities listening in on all phone calls!!!!
This was a VERY interesting podcast - Succession aside tbh.
[REVIEWS & MORE]
Jesse Armstrong Breaks Down the Season Premiere for Variety
‘Succession’ Creator Jesse Armstrong (Reluctantly) Breaks Down the Season Premiere https://t.co/0Pgb2uaQnl
- Variety (@Variety) October 18, 2021
Not too much is revealed, but Armstrong discusses the Kendall/OJ comparison, Gerri and Roman, and more.
Re: Tom and Shiv he says:
“There are other ways in which that relationship works,” Armstrong said. “And they’re activated by different business and familial dynamics. So even though things might be quite wonky in one regard, it doesn’t mean that they’re not able to cooperate in other ways. And I always find that interesting that all relationships, including romantic ones, have different ways of operating.”
Re: All of the past-scandals Frank listed on the plane:
Are there backstories for all of these past scandals?
“Yeah!” Armstrong said. “We have a good bible, not that we don’t sometimes create new bits from the past.”
As for “the black cloud after Sally Ann,” she’s been mentioned in the past - as a past mistress of Logan’s. In the show’s second season, she was mentioned twice off-handedly as “Sally Ann with the horses,” and “Sally Ann with the harp.”
Indiewire Gives Episode 1 a B+:
#Succession Review: Season 3 Premiere Rings the Bell on the Roy Family Title Fight - Spoilers https://t.co/pIIkf5BfRk pic.twitter.com/pk6UjQbsXH
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) October 18, 2021
RollingStone says Season 3 is a "Fucking Killer" with a 4/5 Rating:
'Succession' Season Three finally arrives on Sunday night - and Alan Sepinwall says it's bigger and more bloodthirsty than ever. Read our review. https://t.co/g3kKnlaZQW
- Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 15, 2021
Though Logan and Kendall spent much of the first season at odds with each other, Season Three is almost entirely about the Roy family civil war and its collateral damage - which, as usual, impacts extended family members like Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), but Waystar Royco execs Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Frank (Peter Friedman), and Karl (David Rasche), and eventually much of the American political system and the global economy.
Nina Metz at the Chicago Tribune gives it a 2/4 and feels that the show rings hollow:
“Succession's" buffet of uniquely crafted artisanal profanities have the ring of desperate-to-impress schoolyard taunts. A little goes a long way and the show’s preoccupation with this kind of shock comedy has diminishing returns. My review https://t.co/U5ulI593YZ
- Nina Metz (@Nina_Metz) October 15, 2021
When I see praise for the show, there’s often a focus on the crass verbosity that is the Roy family stock in trade, to the point where it feels like they gave everyone on the show the same linguistic personality. On one hand, it’s a canny thematic throughline - wealth doesn’t equal class, it doesn’t even equal good manners, it just means you can move through life without anyone giving you what for about your behavior or the garbage coming out of your mouth. It takes on a distinctly Cool Girl dimension coming from someone like Shiv, who is indeed a victim of sexism in her own family, but who also couldn’t give a toss about actual liberation, for herself or anybody else. Ultimately, “Succession’s” buffet of uniquely crafted artisanal profanities have the ring of desperate-to-impress schoolyard taunts. A little goes a long way and the show’s preoccupation with this kind of shock comedy has diminishing returns.
TV Guide Says Season 3 is "all bangers all the time":
#Succession Season 3 shreds the last of your trust in the Roys 😳
Read @freakwharf's review: https://t.co/5bVtV7Syhd pic.twitter.com/zcSb2Aw16B
- TV Guide (@TVGuide) October 14, 2021
Season 3 can be best described as a series of ferocious clashes between its characters, with many of the best scenes coming when the show forces them all to be in the same place and just lets the tension boil. One standout is an episode that takes place entirely at Waystar's annual shareholder meeting, where Kendall and the rest of the Roys are separately working on brokering a deal with Sandy (Larry Pine), his hilariously named daughter Sandi (Hope Davis), and Stewy (perennial scene-stealer Arian Moayed). The characters spend the hour so focused on coming out on top from their separate corners that they don't notice the dramatic escalation of Logan's ongoing health issues happening just under their noses.
Strong continues to be the series' MVP, magnetic and layered in his performance (his work in Episode 7, set at Kendall's truly absurd 40th birthday party, might just earn him his second Emmy). Many of his best moments come when he gets to act opposite Snook, who is excellent playing a version of Shiv wholly unravelling under pressure, and Cox, who continues to delight and terrify as he delivers his lines with Shakespearean gusto.
[CAST ROUNDUP]
Alan Ruck
Interview in the Guardian
WTF With Marc Maron Podcast Episode
Jeremy Strong
Interview in the Guardian
Sarah Snook
Interview With Seth Meyers
Town & Country Magazine Photoshoot & Interview
Vogue Australia Interview
Kieran Culkin
Interview with The Hollywood Reporter
James Cromwell:
Cromwell, a longtime activist for animal rights, racial justice and environmental causes, told the Guardian his character was rewritten to reflect his politics as a condition of his participation in the HBO series. “I demanded that we have similarities,” he said.
But Cromwell said that, over an hour-long conversation with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong before signing on to do the show, he insisted that Ewan’s objection be made a moral one. Ewan is a veteran of the Vietnam war; Cromwell’s political activism began when he was arrested at anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC in May 1971.
“Jesse’s position was all these people are culpable, they are all the same … I said, ‘You can’t take the guy who’s fought in Vietnam, and seen what he has seen, and think that he is going to be the same sort of asshole that the rest of his family is’. Yes, of course, he’s privileged, and everybody is flawed - but he will have seen the truth.
Read More in The Guardian
Weeks Ahead | Podcast | Variety | RollingStone | Chicago Tribune | TV Guide | Ruck 1 | Ruck 2 | Strong 1 | Snook 1 | Snook 2 | Snook 3 | Culkin 1 | Cromwell 1
ONTD Discussion Post: Episode 1
Season 3 - The Weeks Ahead:
Click to viewSeason 3 Podcast:
There's an official podcast accompanying this season. In the first episode - host, Kara Swisher speaks to Jennifer M. Palmieri, who was the White House Director of Communications from 2013 to 2015 and Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. Her intern at one point in time was Monica Lewinski. They discuss THAT call that Gerri made to the President's office and the White House's role in this season of Succession:
"I have anxiety after hearing that phone call, yeah," Palmieri says. "Because, anything involving Justice is just so sensitive and I'm like processing in my mind if, you know, how many crimes were committed in the course of that phone call, right? And just, like, feeling anxiety for the press secretary about how you handle something when it's a person that's important to you but the White House just can't be anywhere near anything involving Justice and anytime anything involving Justice would come up - people like me, the press people - you're just like backing it up. You're like, 'Get me out of the room, talk to the Counsel's office, like not it, do not include me, do not talk to me,' you're like imagining legal bills racking up in your brain. Most people are sophisticated enough to know, particularly when it's a Justice Department thing, like that's just the third rail that the White House has to stay away from - but there are, as you know Kara, rich doesn't equal smart, powerful doesn't equal savvy, so there are people that will make phone calls like that even though it's, in the end, reckless, and more likely to backfire on you."
"You get weird, back channel awkwardness calls all the time."
She also confirms that most of these phone calls are NOT recorded BUT that even when you have an encrypted White House phone, that you have to assume that there are any number of foreign entities listening in on all phone calls!!!!
This was a VERY interesting podcast - Succession aside tbh.
[REVIEWS & MORE]
Jesse Armstrong Breaks Down the Season Premiere for Variety
‘Succession’ Creator Jesse Armstrong (Reluctantly) Breaks Down the Season Premiere https://t.co/0Pgb2uaQnl
- Variety (@Variety) October 18, 2021
Not too much is revealed, but Armstrong discusses the Kendall/OJ comparison, Gerri and Roman, and more.
Re: Tom and Shiv he says:
“There are other ways in which that relationship works,” Armstrong said. “And they’re activated by different business and familial dynamics. So even though things might be quite wonky in one regard, it doesn’t mean that they’re not able to cooperate in other ways. And I always find that interesting that all relationships, including romantic ones, have different ways of operating.”
Re: All of the past-scandals Frank listed on the plane:
Are there backstories for all of these past scandals?
“Yeah!” Armstrong said. “We have a good bible, not that we don’t sometimes create new bits from the past.”
As for “the black cloud after Sally Ann,” she’s been mentioned in the past - as a past mistress of Logan’s. In the show’s second season, she was mentioned twice off-handedly as “Sally Ann with the horses,” and “Sally Ann with the harp.”
Indiewire Gives Episode 1 a B+:
#Succession Review: Season 3 Premiere Rings the Bell on the Roy Family Title Fight - Spoilers https://t.co/pIIkf5BfRk pic.twitter.com/pk6UjQbsXH
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) October 18, 2021
RollingStone says Season 3 is a "Fucking Killer" with a 4/5 Rating:
'Succession' Season Three finally arrives on Sunday night - and Alan Sepinwall says it's bigger and more bloodthirsty than ever. Read our review. https://t.co/g3kKnlaZQW
- Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 15, 2021
Though Logan and Kendall spent much of the first season at odds with each other, Season Three is almost entirely about the Roy family civil war and its collateral damage - which, as usual, impacts extended family members like Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), but Waystar Royco execs Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Frank (Peter Friedman), and Karl (David Rasche), and eventually much of the American political system and the global economy.
Nina Metz at the Chicago Tribune gives it a 2/4 and feels that the show rings hollow:
“Succession's" buffet of uniquely crafted artisanal profanities have the ring of desperate-to-impress schoolyard taunts. A little goes a long way and the show’s preoccupation with this kind of shock comedy has diminishing returns. My review https://t.co/U5ulI593YZ
- Nina Metz (@Nina_Metz) October 15, 2021
When I see praise for the show, there’s often a focus on the crass verbosity that is the Roy family stock in trade, to the point where it feels like they gave everyone on the show the same linguistic personality. On one hand, it’s a canny thematic throughline - wealth doesn’t equal class, it doesn’t even equal good manners, it just means you can move through life without anyone giving you what for about your behavior or the garbage coming out of your mouth. It takes on a distinctly Cool Girl dimension coming from someone like Shiv, who is indeed a victim of sexism in her own family, but who also couldn’t give a toss about actual liberation, for herself or anybody else. Ultimately, “Succession’s” buffet of uniquely crafted artisanal profanities have the ring of desperate-to-impress schoolyard taunts. A little goes a long way and the show’s preoccupation with this kind of shock comedy has diminishing returns.
TV Guide Says Season 3 is "all bangers all the time":
#Succession Season 3 shreds the last of your trust in the Roys 😳
Read @freakwharf's review: https://t.co/5bVtV7Syhd pic.twitter.com/zcSb2Aw16B
- TV Guide (@TVGuide) October 14, 2021
Season 3 can be best described as a series of ferocious clashes between its characters, with many of the best scenes coming when the show forces them all to be in the same place and just lets the tension boil. One standout is an episode that takes place entirely at Waystar's annual shareholder meeting, where Kendall and the rest of the Roys are separately working on brokering a deal with Sandy (Larry Pine), his hilariously named daughter Sandi (Hope Davis), and Stewy (perennial scene-stealer Arian Moayed). The characters spend the hour so focused on coming out on top from their separate corners that they don't notice the dramatic escalation of Logan's ongoing health issues happening just under their noses.
Strong continues to be the series' MVP, magnetic and layered in his performance (his work in Episode 7, set at Kendall's truly absurd 40th birthday party, might just earn him his second Emmy). Many of his best moments come when he gets to act opposite Snook, who is excellent playing a version of Shiv wholly unravelling under pressure, and Cox, who continues to delight and terrify as he delivers his lines with Shakespearean gusto.
[CAST ROUNDUP]
Alan Ruck
Interview in the Guardian
WTF With Marc Maron Podcast Episode
Jeremy Strong
Interview in the Guardian
Sarah Snook
Interview With Seth Meyers
Town & Country Magazine Photoshoot & Interview
Vogue Australia Interview
Kieran Culkin
Interview with The Hollywood Reporter
James Cromwell:
Cromwell, a longtime activist for animal rights, racial justice and environmental causes, told the Guardian his character was rewritten to reflect his politics as a condition of his participation in the HBO series. “I demanded that we have similarities,” he said.
But Cromwell said that, over an hour-long conversation with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong before signing on to do the show, he insisted that Ewan’s objection be made a moral one. Ewan is a veteran of the Vietnam war; Cromwell’s political activism began when he was arrested at anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC in May 1971.
“Jesse’s position was all these people are culpable, they are all the same … I said, ‘You can’t take the guy who’s fought in Vietnam, and seen what he has seen, and think that he is going to be the same sort of asshole that the rest of his family is’. Yes, of course, he’s privileged, and everybody is flawed - but he will have seen the truth.
Read More in The Guardian
Weeks Ahead | Podcast | Variety | RollingStone | Chicago Tribune | TV Guide | Ruck 1 | Ruck 2 | Strong 1 | Snook 1 | Snook 2 | Snook 3 | Culkin 1 | Cromwell 1