Tag: Matthew Macfadyen

‘Death by Lightning’: The Bizarre, True Story of Charles Guiteau and James A. Garfield

But it wasn’t Guiteau’s bullet that ultimately killed Garfield, rather a far more preventable medical condition: sepsis. Garfield was taken to the White House where his wound was repeatedly reopened as doctors, led by Doctor Willard Bliss, tried to remove the bullet from his back. He survived for 11 weeks, but his condition worsened. By the end, Garfield was having consistent hallucinations and was given nutrient enemas because he was no longer able to digest food. As portrayed on Death by Lightning, Alexander Graham Bell, credited with patenting the first working telephone, did drop by the White House to try and find the lodged bullet with a metal detector he invented, but it malfunctioned in part because Garfield was lying on a metal bed frame, and because Dr. Bliss only allowed to check Garfield’s right side.

Garfield died on Monday, September 19, 1881, in Long Branch, New Jersey. Many physicians believe that Garfield would have survived the surgery had proper modern sterilization measures been taken, which were already being used in Europe at the time. “It was the most horrific death you can imagine,” wrote Millard in Destiny of the Republic. “He was riddled with infection and, when they did the autopsy, there were huge gouges. The fingers had created these burrowing holes through him and they were filled with pus and infection. He lost so much weight and was horribly dehydrated. He almost certainly would have survived had it not been for his doctors.”

Guiteau’s end was no more merciful. He went on trial in November 1881, represented by his brother in law, George Scoville, and garnered attention for his bizarre behavior—insulting his defense attorney, and claiming that he was innocent because God demanded that he assassinate the president. According to Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, Guiteau’s trial was one of the first major trials to seriously consider the innocent by reasons of insanity defense. Ultimately, Guiteau was convicted on January 25, 1882, and sentenced to death by hanging. Guiteau stubbed his toe on the way up to the gallows on June 30, 1882, two days before the anniversary of the shooting. He then recited a musical poem he wrote, “I Am Going to the Lordy,” (further musicalized in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Assassins) before dropping to his death.

“Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning,” Shannon says as Garfield in the film. While it sounds eerily prescient, Garfield did actually write that very sentiment in a November 1880 letter, unaware of the fate that would befall him only months later. But at least he wasn’t living his life in fear of the outcome: “And it is not best to worry about either,” he added.

Chris Murphy

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November 11, 2025
What to Stream: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ Tracy Morgan, Kim Kardashian and ‘Downton Abbey’

The earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and Tracy Morgan returning to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: The upstairs-downstairs drama “Downton Abbey” bids farewell in a final movie, Kim Kardashian plays a divorce attorney in Hulu’s “All’s Fair” and Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year.

New movies to stream from Nov. 3-9

— Guillermo del Toro realizes his long-held dream of a sumptuous Mary Shelley adaptation in “Frankenstein” (Friday Nov. 7 on Netflix). Del Toro’s film, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his monster, uses all the trappings of handmade movie craft to give Shelley’s classic an epic sweep. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “Everything about ‘Frankenstein’ is larger than life, from the runtime to the emotions on display.”

— Matt Shakman’s endearingly earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Wednesday on Disney+) helps alleviate a checkered-at-best history of big-screen adaptations of the classic Stan Lee-Jack Kirby comic. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn play Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch, respectively. In 1964, they work to defend Earth from its imminent destruction by Galactus. In my review, I praised “First Steps” as “a spiffy ’60s-era romp, bathed in retrofuturism and bygone American optimism.”

— “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” (Friday, Nov. 7 on Peacock) bids goodbye to the Crawleys 15 years after Julian Fellowes first debuted his upstairs-downstairs drama. The cast of the third and final film, directed by Simon Curtis, includes Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and Paul Giamatti. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote that the film gives “loyal Downton fans what they want: a satisfying bit of closure and the sense that the future, though a bit scary, may look kindly on Downton Abbey.” Peacock is also streaming the two previous movies and all six seasons of “Downton Abbey.”

— “The Materialists” (Friday, Nov. 7 on HBO Max), Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated 2023 breakthrough “Past Lives,” stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in a romantic triangle. The New York-set film adds a dose of economic reality to a romantic comedy plot in what was, for A24, a modest summer hit. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck called it “a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leaves us smiling.”

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

New music to stream from Nov. 3-9

— The legendary Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year. “Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle,” out Friday, Nov. 7, is exactly what it sounds like: Nelson offering new interpretations of 11 classic songs written by Merle Haggard. And we mean classics: Check out Nelson’s latest take on “Okie From Muskogee,” “Mama Tried,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink” and more.

— Where’s the future of the global music industry? All over, surely, but it would be more than just a little wise to look to Brazil. Not too dissimilar to how Anitta brought her country’s funk genre to an international mainstream through diverse collaborations and genre meddling, so too is Ludmilla. On Thursday, she will release a new album, “Fragmentos,” fresh off the heels of her sultry, bilingual collaboration with Grammy winner Victoria Monét, “Cam Girl.” It’s a combination of R&B, funk and then some.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from Nov. 3-9

— Tracy Morgan returns to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch.” Morgan plays a widowed empty-nester whose world is turned around when his adult children move home with his grandkids in tow. The Paramount+ series debuts Monday.

— Kim Kardashian says she will soon learn whether she passed the bar exam to become a lawyer, but she plays a sought-after divorce attorney in “All’s Fair,” her new TV series for Hulu. Kardashian stars alongside Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash-Betts, Naomi Watts and Teyana Taylor in the show about an all-female law firm. Ryan Murphy created the show with Kardashian in mind after she acted in “American Horror Story: Delicate.” It premieres Tuesday on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

— The old saying about truth being stranger than fiction applies to Netflix’s new four-episode limited-series “Death by Lightning.” It’s a historical dramatization (with some comedy thrown in) about how James Garfield became the 20th president of the United States. He was shot four months later by a man named Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), who was desperate for Garfield’s attention. Two months after that, Garfield died from complications of his injuries. It’s a wild story that also features Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham. The series premieres Thursday.

— HBO offers up a new docuseries about the life of retired baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez. “Alex Vs. A-Rod” features intimate interviews with people who are related to and know Rodriguez, as well as the man himself. The three-part series premieres Thursday.

— The next installment of “Wicked,” called “Wicked: For Good,” flies into theaters Nov. 21 and NBC has created a musical special to pump up the release. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lead “Wicked: One Wonderful Night,” a concert event that premieres Thursday on NBC and streams on Peacock Friday, Nov. 7. Additional film cast members like Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater appear as well.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from Nov. 3-9

— It’s going to be a while until the next Legend of Zelda game, but if you’re craving some time with the princess, check out Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. In this spinoff, a prequel to 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda travels back in time to join forces with the Six Sages in a war against the invader Ganondorf. You can also drag another human into battle with split-screen or the GameShare feature on Nintendo’s new console. Like the previous collaborations between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, it’s more hack-and-slash action than exploration and discovery. It arrives Thursday on Switch 2.

— Lou Kesten

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November 3, 2025
A new Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley want to tell you a story

LONDON (AP) — If you listen carefully, you can hear the noise of chocolate frogs flying through the air on the Hogwarts Express.

Hermione Granger gasps with delight as Ron Weasley catches the sweet treat thrown his way by Harry Potter, as all three travel home after an eventful first year at the wizarding school.

This isn’t the now-vintage, Daniel Radcliffe-era movies, it’s not the “Cursed Child” play and neither is it the forthcoming HBO TV series. What you’re hearing is a brand-new cast in a new Audible recording of J.K. Rowling’s seven books.

The legacy of Harry Potter might have been clouded by headlines surrounding Rowling’s comments on gender and opposition to trans rights, but it hasn’t stopped production on new projects set in the wizarding universe. The Associated Press visited the London recording studio for a “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” session in the summer, as young actors Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton lay down walla — background noise that’s used to bring the stories to life. The young trio voice Harry, Ron and Hermione in the first three audiobook adaptations, before an older cast takes over.

Instead of listening to someone like Jim Dale or Stephen Fry telling the whole story alone, this new audio production — the first book releases Nov. 4 — has a full, high-wattage cast. While Cush Jumbo narrates, Hugh Laurie is Albus Dumbledore, Riz Ahmed portrays Professor Snape and Michelle Gomez brings Professor McGonagall’s Scottish lilt to life. Matthew Macfadyen voices Voldemort, and Keira Knightley appears later in the series as Dolores Umbridge.

But it’s Stanton who is pulling double duty in the Potterverse: The 11-year-old is also starring as the studious and brave Hermione Granger in the HBO show.

“I can’t say much, because they’ve cast a Mimblewimble tongue-tying spell on me,” Stanton apologizes. “But I’ve just started filming, and it’s great at the moment.”

AP sat down with Treadaway, 14, Lester, 13, and Stanton to find out the snacks required to keep them going, their introductions to the wizarding world and how they feel about acting. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: What were the auditions like?

TREADAWAY (Harry): You really got like, a taste of what it was going to be like, also in the studio and even the scenes.

AP: Had you done anything like this before?

LESTER (Ron): I did some audio before, yeah, but I mean nothing as professional as this is.

AP: How does this compare to your stage work?

STANTON (Hermione): It’s just very, very different, but I suppose the similar thing is that, because you want to make your voice come alive, I think you … sort of act as you’re saying the lines to give the words some color.

AP: How’s the recording going so far?

LESTER: Lovely people, great food and great experience.

AP: What’s your favorite food when you’re working?

TREADAWAY: The snack cupboard and the chocolate fridge.

LESTER: The chocolate fridge is dedicated to chocolate.

STANTON: It’s filled with snacks.

TREADAWAY: They have to restock every time I go.

AP: Can you remember the first time you ever heard about Harry Potter?

TREADAWAY: I think it might have been when my sister was watching the movies chronologically and then for some reason I only decided to tag along for the last one.

AP: Did you go back to the beginning?

TREADAWAY: I don’t think I did, because I was like, “Oh, I can’t watch this, this is a 12 (rating),” so I had to wait till I was 12 to watch them.

STANTON:  My friends had started all reading all the books and everything and they were like, “Oh have you heard Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that?” And so I was like, right I’m going to start reading the books. So I think when I was 8 I started reading the first one. Sort of just worked my way through them and yeah it was great, I’ve loved Harry Potter. I love it.

LESTER: I saw this book in Waterstones and everyone said that it was quite popular. It was like one of the bestsellers. So my mum bought it for me and I read the book and it was just great.

AP: So what do your friends and family think about you voicing these characters? Have you been able to tell them?

LESTER: I haven’t really told many of them, not really.

TREADAWAY: I think those who know will never truly know actually what it’s about until they listen to it.

STANTON: I think I’ve told quite close family, sort of keeping it in a bubble. But they’ll never really understand because so much effort — I mean, the teams, all the amazing people behind it, they put in so much effort to make the audio series incredible.

AP: Have you got a favorite part of the stories?

TREADAWAY: I can’t wait to hear how the battle scenes work because of all the SFX and all the sounds and all of the grunts and oohs and ahs and all that because I think that will sound really cinematic. … It was very weird because I would stand there for a minute just grunting and I would feel so stupid.

STANTON: I can’t wait to hear all the spells because I think Hermione generally just says so many spells and I can’t wait to hear the sounds of people casting them, I just love spells.

LESTER: My favorite part that I’m looking forward to is just literally just to hear it all come together and for everyone to talk to each other because I feel like that’s going to be amazing.

AP: Are you like your characters in any way?

TREADAWAY: That’s how I found it quite easy to just step into the character because I think I relate to them and I’m sure you guys do as well. … I’m not like the biggest ego ever. … Sometimes you’re the smaller person in the room and you just sometimes just mingle. I feel like I relate to Harry in that way.

AP: How about you and Hermione?

STANTON: I love books. I love writing, I love reading, I love doing all that kind of stuff. I mean, I like school, but I don’t love school. And I think … books is the main connection between Hermione and I.

AP: How are you like Ron?

LESTER: I think we both relate to each other because we’re quite cheeky and we love food. We love food! … In moments, we’re both serious and we’re also not afraid to stand up for the people that we love or stand up for our friends because we always do the thing that’s right, and that’s kind of what I relate to, because I go into the deeper side of Ron, and not just the eating food and being cheeky.

AP: What’s your favorite kind of magical element?

LESTER: My favorite kind of magical element is the spells. I think they’re just really cool. Like “stupefy” (the stunning spell) — I think that’s very, very cool.

STANTON: One of the main props that Hermione uses is the Time Turner. I love all the magical objects like the Invisibility Cloak, the Time Turner, all those things because … (they’re) things you wouldn’t be able to use in real life, but in the magic world, it transports you into a completely different world.

TREADAWAY: The Polyjuice Potion, because when you record that, it’s like, you have to really hone in on the actual sound of turning into someone else, and that was one of my favorite magic parts of it.

AP: Are you aware of how much love there is for Harry Potter?

TREADAWAY: I guess that’s sort of why you have a bit of pride in yourself knowing that such a big name and characters, you get to associate yourself with them. If you know what I mean, it gives you a little feeling inside your heart.

AP: What does it mean for you to be representing Ron?

LESTER: It makes me proud, honestly, to be representing such a great and funny character, but then also, I don’t know, it just makes me … feel a part of this community.

AP: And how about you, representing Hermione?

STANTON: I’ve dreamt of that since a really young age, and I’ve always looked up to all of the people who played Hermione, like Emma Watson and all those people.

AP: Are you aware how huge it is around the world?

TREADAWAY: I don’t think we’ll really feel that until it comes out, I guess, because that just makes it more unreal.

LESTER: It’s so popular around the world, which makes it more unreal that so many people are going to be interested in this and we don’t even realize it, yeah, we can’t even process this.

AP: So is acting the way forward for you now? Would you like to continue doing this?

TREADAWAY: Yeah, definitely — I mean on this, it never really felt like pushing yourself to do something, it wasn’t work, it felt like an enjoyable experience and you’ve got something to see at the end of it.

STANTON: I’d love to act, yeah, definitely. And I think, like Frankie said, I mean, just being part of the audio series is incredible. And yeah, can’t wait to do more.

LESTER: I think it is for me because I always say it’s not work if you do something that you love and, honestly, I love acting so much. It makes me feel happy and it makes me feel like my true self and … I think it is the way forward just to keep going and do a lot of jobs, hopefully.

AP: And you’re all bonded now aren’t you?

ALL: Yeah.

LESTER: The proper trio.

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October 26, 2025
Matthew Macfadyen on Why He “Didn’t Really Enjoy” His Role as Mr. Darcy in ‘Pride & Prejudice’: “I’m Not Dishy Enough”

Matthew Macfadyen is opening up about why he “didn’t really enjoy” his role as Mr. Darcy in 2005’s Pride & Prejudice.

The Emmy-winning actor looked back at the film where he starred opposite Keira Knightley during an interview with CBS Mornings Tuesday morning.

“I didn’t really [enjoy it],” he admitted. “I feel bad saying that. There were moments I had a good time, but I wish I enjoyed it more. I wish I was less worried about it.”

Macfadyen added that he didn’t feel like he was the right choice for the role of Mr. Darcy. “I felt a bit miscast, like, ‘I’m not dishy enough,’” the Deadpool & Wolverine actor said. “But it worked out.”

And it sure did, as the movie went on to score four Oscar nominations. The British actor also confessed that he still gets excited when he’s recognized as Mr. Darcy in public.

“Probably the most flattering thing that happens to me now is people say, ‘Were you Mr. Darcy?’” he said. “It’s a good 20 years later. So I think, ‘I can’t be aging that badly.’”

The Joe Wright-directed film, based on Jane Austen’s novel of the same name, centers on the developing relationship between Elizabeth Bennet (Knightley), the daughter of a country gentleman, and Mr. Darcy, a wealthy English aristocrat.

Before Macfadyen took on the beloved role, he was already following in Colin Firth’s footsteps, as he had portrayed Mr. Darcy in the 1995 TV miniseries of Pride and Prejudice. The Succession star added that the two actors later compared notes on their separate experiences “exhaustively” and “extensively.”

Carly Thomas

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July 23, 2024
Our Best Look Yet at Deadpool & Wolverine’s Supervillain, and a Familiar Friend

Marvel Studios recently released new photos from Deadpool & Wolverine and while they’re not groundbreaking, each is our best look yet at characters on opposite sides of the spectrum. On the one side, there’s Cassandra Nova, the evil, likely main villain in the film played by The Crown’s Emma Corrin. Then there’s Peter, one of Wade’s best friends played by Rob Delaney.

Who Should Be The New Wolverine? io9 Picks

That’s one of the new images above, featuring Wade (Ryan Reynolds) and Peter at work together. It’s from a scene early in the film that screened at CinemaCon 2024 and you can read all about it here. Basically, Wade and Peter are car salesman and while Peter wants Wade to go back to being Deadpool, Wade does not. This is before the birthday party you see in the trailers.

Then here’s another photo of Peter that looks more like it’s from Superstore than a superhero film but hey, he’s great so we like it.

Image: Marvel Studios

Finally, here’s the new image of Cassandra Nova, the character we all expect to be the big bad of the film. Either way, she’s certainly one of the main villains, considering the trailers have shown here with a team of B-level X-Men characters, in a gigantic Ant-Man helmet, and her powers completely baffling Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). But here we get a bit more of her stare, a bit more of her fashion, and a bit more of her lair. She looks very calm, very confident, and very much like Professor X, whom she’s related to in the comics but…is she here?

Image: Marvel Studios

Just a brief tease of Deadpool & Wolverine, which is coming very, very soon. Starring tars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, and Matthew Macfadyen, it opens July 26.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Germain Lussier

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June 30, 2024
The Miniature Wife Starring Elizabeth Banks & Matthew Macfadyen Ordered by Peacock

Peacock announced on Monday that it has placed a straight-to-series order on a new romantic drama comedy starring Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen.

The series, called The Miniature Wife, will star Banks and Macfadyen as two spouses who will “battle each other for supremacy after a technological accident induces the ultimate relationship crisis.”

The Miniature Wife is based on a short story written by Manual Gonzalez, and is described as a “high-concept martial dramedy” that will examine the power imbalances between a couple.

Banks and Macfadyen have a long history of high-profile projects

The series was created by Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner (Boardwalk Empire, Goliath), who will also serve as showrunners and executive producers for the series.

Currently, no other casting information has been made available. Banks is best known for her acting work on hit films like Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games franchise, but has also dabbled in directing, having helmed 2015’s Pitch Perfect 2 and 2023’s Cocaine Bear.

Macfadyen is best known for his run on the hit HBO drama series Succession as Tom Wambsgans, but has also starred in a ton of high-profile projects, including 2005’s Pride & Prejudice. Up next for Macfadyen will be a role in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.

Anthony Nash

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March 25, 2024
‘Succession’ stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen share sweet reunion

‘Succession’ stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen share sweet reunion

Updated: 3:25 PM EST Feb 25, 2024

“Succession” stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen shared a sweet reunion at the SAG Awards Saturday night. The trio were seen sharing a loving hug at the awards ceremony, before reuniting on stage to pick up the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.Co-stars Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgård, J. Smith Cameron, Justine Lupe, Fisher Stevens, Dagmara Dominczyk and David Rasche also appeared on stage to celebrate their win.”One last hurrah, I think,” began Ruck, who accepted the award on behalf of the cast. “I think right now you’re looking at some of the luckiest people on the planet and some of the most grateful because not only did we get to all work on one of the best television shows, you know, maybe ever, we made friends for life.”And I think the magic of “Succession” was that the writing was so fabulous. It inspired all of us to bring our A-game from the very beginning.”He concluded: “And we got off on watching each other work, and we caught lightning in a bottle. Lucky, you know? So, now we’re thrilled to be recognized by our peers.”It was the end of an era for the show’s cast as they rounded out their final award ceremony of the season. Despite losing out on Lead Actor and Lead Actress SAG awards to The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki and The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal, Succession’s fourth and final season scooped multiple gongs at the Emmys and Golden Globes last month.Culkin beat his co-stars Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox to the Best Actor prize at both ceremonies, while Sarah Snook and Macfadyen triumphed in the Best Actress and Supporting Actor categories.

“Succession” stars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen shared a sweet reunion at the SAG Awards Saturday night.

The trio were seen sharing a loving hug at the awards ceremony, before reuniting on stage to pick up the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Co-stars Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgård, J. Smith Cameron, Justine Lupe, Fisher Stevens, Dagmara Dominczyk and David Rasche also appeared on stage to celebrate their win.

“One last hurrah, I think,” began Ruck, who accepted the award on behalf of the cast.

“I think right now you’re looking at some of the luckiest people on the planet and some of the most grateful because not only did we get to all work on one of the best television shows, you know, maybe ever, we made friends for life.

“And I think the magic of “Succession” was that the writing was so fabulous. It inspired all of us to bring our A-game from the very beginning.”

He concluded: “And we got off on watching each other work, and we caught lightning in a bottle. Lucky, you know? So, now we’re thrilled to be recognized by our peers.”

It was the end of an era for the show’s cast as they rounded out their final award ceremony of the season.

Despite losing out on Lead Actor and Lead Actress SAG awards to The Crown‘s Elizabeth Debicki and The Last of Us‘s Pedro Pascal, Succession‘s fourth and final season scooped multiple gongs at the Emmys and Golden Globes last month.

Culkin beat his co-stars Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox to the Best Actor prize at both ceremonies, while Sarah Snook and Macfadyen triumphed in the Best Actress and Supporting Actor categories.

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February 25, 2024
The Eyes Don’t Have It: Succession’s Series Finale, “With Open Eyes,” Emphasizes That Hubris Makes You Blind

If Kendall (Jeremy Strong) hugging Roman (Kieran Culkin) toward the end of the series finale of Succession reminded viewers of anything, it’s that, when it comes to the Roys, love fucking hurts—and seems to cause far more pain than it’s worth. The last episode, “With Open Eyes,” offers an ominous title in and of itself without any backstory, but taking into account that it continues the Succession season finale tradition of using lines from John Berryman’s “Dream Song 29,” it adds yet another sinister layer. Berryman himself was haunted his whole life by his father’s suicide when the poet was just eleven. With Succession being, at its core, a show about daddy issues and what they can wreak, it seems appropriate to interweave this writer into final episode titles. And oh, what a final episode “With Open Eyes” is. And yes, it’s all about eyes in this narrative. Particularly how those with sight can be so blind (see also: King Lear).

The emphasis on eyes begins the moment Shiv (Sarah Snook) arrives in Barbados at the urging of her mother, Caroline (Harriet Walter), to come and comfort Roman after the beating he took at the end of episode nine, “Church and State.” Naturally, Shiv is only really interested in taking the trip so she can lock down another vote and really secure the GoJo deal for Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), who has promised to make her the CEO once the merger and acquisition goes through.

Alas, in the business realm, where misogyny reigns more supremely than anywhere else besides politics, it’s clear that Matsson actually doesn’t feel that comfortable with Shiv taking the front seat while he rides shotgun at best, and in the trunk at worst. A profile in some New Yorker-esque rag featuring a cartoon of Shiv as the puppet master pulling Matsson’s strings (even though the article is called “Is Lukas Matsson Taking Over the World?”) does little to assuage his wounded ego. After all, he’s already being forced to stand in the shadows for the sake of the deal going through with an anti-foreign business president taking the reins (or not…the finale leaves that open-ended as well). And it seems to dawn on him that it would be so much better to have someone (a man, of course) in charge that he could boss around with far more ease than he can Shiv, who easily lives up to her nickname by shiving Kendall in the back at the end of the episode. And just when it seemed like the trio was getting along so well, too. That is, back in the kitchen of Caroline’s “hellhole in paradise.” After Caroline remarked to Shiv about being unable to “tend to” Roman, “There’s something about eyes. They just kind of, ugh, revolt me.” Shiv clarifies, “Eyes? Like human eyes we all have?” “Yeah, I don’t like to think of all these blobs of jelly rolling around in your head. Just…face eggs.” To be sure, that is what they amount to when you can’t really see past the blinding nature of your own hubris.

Something all four of the Roy children suffer from…because let’s not forget about Connor (Alan Ruck). Even if his appearance is minimal as usual, but nonetheless effective. Especially when, via a fresh home movie, he stands next to Logan (Brian Cox) and delivers a performance of “I’m a Little Teapot” “in the manner of Logan Roy.” The lyrics then, naturally, go, “I am a little teapot—fuck off! Short and stout—what did you fucking call me? Here’s my handle, here’s my fuckin’ spout. When I get steamed up, you can hear me shout—Frank Vernon is a moron, Karl Muller is a kraut!” But Karl (David Rasche) can still sing a good Scottish folk song as he regales the dinner table with his rendition of “Green Grow the Rashes, O.” The lyrical content of which hits too close to home for the Roy children as they listen to the words, “Green grow the rashes, O/The sweetest hours that e’er I spend/Are spent among the lasses, O/The war’ly race may riches chase/And riches still may fly them, O/And even though they catch ‘em fast/Their hearts can ne’er enjoy them, O.”

What modicum of something resembling “hearts” the Roy children might have certainly don’t allow them to enjoy much, that’s for sure. Indeed, they all seem like masochists who actually relish torturing themselves, and reminding the other siblings of who they really are. For a brief moment in the episode, Shiv and Roman are compelled to make Kendall forget who he is at his core by obliging him in his long-standing, ceaseless desire to become Waystar Royco’s CEO. Upon Kendall informing Shiv that Matsson ousting her (per craftily-secured intel from Greg [Nicholas Braun]), the trio at last aligns to form a bloc that will stop the vote from going through. The only problem, as usual, is that none of them can agree on who should be CEO.

With Kendall swimming out to a dock to let his siblings confer in the darkness of a Barbados beach, Shiv and Roman discuss whether or not they ought to finally just let Kendall have what he’s been dreaming of ever since this whole saga began. Roman asks, “Should we give it to him?” An annoyed Shiv says, “Yeah, we probably should.” Shiv pauses and then adds deviously. “Unless we kill him.” Although meant “in jest,” it’s ultimately exactly what Shiv decides to do by ousting her big bro at the last minute. And when she cuts him with that knife, he definitely bleeds, saying, “I feel like…if I don’t get to do this—I, I feel like, that’s it. I might, I might, uh, like I might die.” And there is that exact feeling as we watch him sink via the elevator back into the bowels of the cruel real world. Whether or not he tries to kill himself now, Kendall is already dead.

Perhaps it’s all part of his karma for Andrew Dodds (Tom Morley), the waiter who ended up drowning at the end of season one as a result of Kendall’s insatiable search for drugs. When Kendall spots the waiter, just fired from Shiv’s wedding by Logan, he asks him for a “powder” connect. When Andrew tries to offer him some ketamine, which he does himself, Kendall insists he needs a “different vibe tonight”: coke. Thus, Kendall drives them through the darkened English countryside in search of Andrew’s connection. When he sees a deer in the road and swerves, Kendall crashes the car in the water, leaving a ket’d-out Andrew to die. In the present, when Shiv and Roman bring the murder up (which Kendall confessed to them in the season three finale, “All the Bells Say”), Kendall has lost all sense of guilt for the “incident,” immediately responding, “It did not happen. I wasn’t even there.” He then reiterates, “It did not happen!” Because when rich people say something didn’t happen, then it definitely didn’t. But this denial makes Shiv all the more disgusted by her brother, and therefore convinced they’re better off selling the company than letting him be the CEO. Blinded by her own jealousy, of course, she would rather watch the company burn in someone else’s hands than let Ken take his shot. And, talking once more of eyes and sight, when Roman reminds that, in terms of “bloodline,” Ken’s children aren’t “‘real’ real,” he escalates the eye jelly comment Caroline foreshadowed to the next level by pressing Roman’s eyeballs in (already having mushed Roman’s face into his shoulder in that previous scene of “aggressive love”).

This gives Shiv her opportunity to go back into the meeting and cast her vote in favor of the GoJo deal despite being betrayed by Matsson. And despite the fact that the CEO position will go to, of all people, Tom fucking Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen). The one person who should have been axed ages ago both personally and professionally, but managed to shapeshift his way to the top. Indeed, it’s his “mutability” that makes him so appealing to Matsson, whose opinion of this non-person is obviously cinched when Shiv describes him as “very plausible corporate matter” and “a highly interchangeable modular part.” In other words, exactly what Matsson is looking for in his own puppet. And, being that Tom sells himself by noting of his current position, “I’m cutting heads and harvesting eyeballs,” Matsson can tell he’s got the chops to give the chop to whoever he says, whenever he says. Of course, Tom’s mention of harvesting eyeballs is yet another nod to the notion of sight and vision—or rather, lack thereof—in this episode, and in Logan’s progeny.

Kendall obviously had no foresight about Shiv’s sudden treachery, prompting him to continue to stand in disbelief in the office where the emotional and physical altercation transpired. Roman finally lays the truth out for him: “It’s fuck-all, man. It’s bits of glue and broken shows, fuckin’ phony news, fucking come on.” Unable to see that reality, Kendall keeps urging, “We have this, we can still do this.” Himself seeing clearly for the first time, Roman balks, “Oh my god, man, it’s nothing. Okay? It’s just nothing. It’s fucking nothing. Stop it!” Kendall, who has placed his entire identity into this role of “successor” cannot believe what Roman is saying, repeating “no” over and over again until Roman interjects, “Yeah. Hey, we are bullshit… You are bullshit. You’re fucking bullshit, man. I’m fucking bullshit. She’s bullshit. It’s all fucking nothing, man. I’m telling you this because I know it, okay? We’re nothing. Okay.”

And so it is that Roman is the one to finally admit that what Logan said at the beginning of season four was accurate, even if harsh: “You’re such fucking dopes. You’re not serious figures. I love you, but…you are not…serious people.” Only ornaments and pawns in the life of Logan, the quintessential King Lear figure of this narrative. And yet, a Cordelia never seems to manifest in any of his children. It’s nothing but Regans and Gonerils where the obsession with “winning at inheritance” is concerned.

Genna Rivieccio

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May 31, 2023
5 Questions To Consider As You Get Ready For The ‘Succession’ Finale

By ANDREW DeMILLO, The Associated Press.
Published: 26 mins ago
Last updated: 19 mins ago

There’s no Iron Throne, but the stakes feel just as high.

“Succession”, the critically acclaimed drama chronicling a Murdoch-esque feuding billionaire family, wraps its four-season run on Sunday May 28 with a highly anticipated 88-minute finale.

And just like another tentpole HBO show, “Game of Thrones”, there’s no shortage of theories over how the series will end and who will prevail. But instead of a throne, the Roy siblings are battling over the sprawling Waystar Royco media empire.

The Shakespearean-level intrigue has prompted speculation among fans looking for clues in past episodes, characters’ names and elsewhere. Even the final episode’s title, “With Open Eyes”, has critics poring through the John Berryman poem that has been used for each season finale’s title.

Here are some of the questions that remain as the finale nears.

WHERE DO THINGS STAND WITH THE ROY FAMILY?

“Succession” has been about who will ultimately run the media conglomerate founded by Logan Roy, the belligerent and profane Roy family patriarch played by Brian Cox.

For most of the series, three siblings have been vying for the crown: Kendall, played by Jeremy Strong; Roman, played by Kieran Culkin; and Shiv, played by Sarah Snook. A fourth sibling — Connor, played by Alan Ruck — instead mounted an ill-fated run for president.

By the end of season three, the siblings had buried their differences enough to attempt a corporate coup of their father — only to be betrayed by Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans, played by Matthew Macfadyen.

Brian Cox in ‘Succession’
— Photograph by Macall B. Polay/HBO

The series’ most shocking twist came early this season, when Logan died on his way to close a deal with GoJo, a tech company.

Logan’s death and the power vacuum it created have led to renewed struggle among the siblings, with Kendall and Roman hoping to block the GoJo deal.

READ MORE:
‘Succession’ Directors Filmed Tense Fight Scene Without Knowing Shiv Was Pregnant

WHO WILL PREVAIL?

Show creator Jesse Armstrong told The New Yorker earlier this year “there’s a promise in the title of ‘Succession,’” a sign that there’ll be some certainty at least on this question.

The finale could live up to Logan’s statement in season 3 that life is “a fight for a knife in the mud.”

Kendall appeared in the penultimate episode to be on track to follow in his father’s footsteps, delivering an impromptu eulogy at Logan’s funeral after Roman was too grief-stricken to do so.

Jeremy Strong as Kendall in “Succession”.
— Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Media

After aligning himself with the far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken — who the Roys’ network questionably declared the winner — Roman’s fortunes appeared to be falling and was seen fighting with protesters in the streets in the final scenes.

Shiv, meanwhile is still trying to shepherd the GoJo deal with a plan she’s concocted that would install her as the company’s chief executive in the United States.

Connor, after losing every state and endorsing Mencken, is instead planning for his hoped-for ambassadorship.

There are a few wild cards that remain, within and outside the Roy family. The biggest one of all is Greg, the cousin and fan favourite played by Nicholas Braun, known for his awkward quotes and verbal abuse he endures from Tom.

READ MORE:
‘Succession’: Kendall Roy’s Manhattan Penthouse Hits The Market At $29 Million

WHO WON THE ELECTION?

All of this is happening with the backdrop of an unsettled U.S. election that may have been swung to Mencken (Justin Kirk) with the help of the Roys’ cable network and a seemingly not-coincidental fire at a vote centre in a swing state.

Justin Kirk as Jeryd Mencken in “Succession”.
— Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Media

The scenario and the series’ Election Night episode has echoed the conversations revealed among Fox News executives and talent during the defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems that led to a nearly $800 million settlement with the network.

“Succession’s” fictional election results have both professional and personal implications for the Roy family, with protests over Mencken erupting throughout the city. But even Shiv seems willing to put her moral qualms aside at the prospect of making a deal with Mencken.

WHAT ABOUT TOM AND SHIV?

Tom and Shiv’s marriage had been on shaky ground before he betrayed her to Logan at the end of last season.

This season it’s even more so, with the two holding a no-holds-barred argument at a pre-election party where the two traded grievances and insults.

Shiv’s revelation to Tom on Election Night that she’s pregnant prompted one of the most gut-wrenching responses, with Tom asking her whether she was telling the truth or just using a new tactic against him.

The show continues to offer some signs of affection between the two, with Shiv telling an exhausted Tom to sleep at her apartment after the funeral, but it remains to be seen whether their marriage is salvageable.

READ MORE:
Kieran Culkin Clears Up Confusion About Roman’s Wife And Child In ‘Succession’

The finale. Tomorrow on Max. #TheOneToWatch @StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/TY3i5ORRcv

— Succession (@succession) May 27, 2023

IS THIS REALLY THE END?

There are plenty of examples of shows that lived on after their finales. “Game of Thrones” spawned a popular prequel series, “House of the Dragon”, while “Seinfeld” got a second try on its much-maligned finale on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

Even “The Sopranos”, known for one of the buzziest finales of all time, came back with a movie looking at Tony Soprano’s beginning.

Armstrong has left open revisiting his characters in another fashion, and the possibilities for doing so are endless. A Tom and Greg buddy comedy? Or maybe a Logan Roy origin story, just to reveal the first time he said his signature vulgar phrase.

Melissa Romualdi

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May 27, 2023
Lukas Matsson Has His Lexi Featherston Moment

There must be something about being inside a rich person’s apartment overlooking the New York skyline that makes a party guest have a rather overt epiphany: New York kinda sucks. More to the point, it’s not actually that special. Naturally, those loyalists who are obsessed with NYC and defending its “honor” no matter how much it devolves into a moated island for the uber-affluent or the uber-deranged (usually those two qualities go hand in hand) will say that the likes of Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and Lexi Featherston (Kristen Johnston) are merely “haters” because they’re not being treated like the “relevant” beings they see themselves as. Of course, Matsson is endlessly relevant (“fudged” GoJo numbers or not). As far as anyone (apart from the Roys) is concerned, he’s a rich white man doin’ big thangs—and should be treated as such.

Nonetheless, Lukas is feeling generally bored and resentful from the outset of showing up to Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) triplex in Lower Manhattan, where they’re hosting an election kickoff “tailgate party” (hence, the name of the episode being just that). It’s Shiv, playing the double agent throughout the ongoing and much talked about “deal” (one in which GoJo will absorb Waystar Royco), who urges Lukas to show up. Because not only will it throw a wrench into Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman’s (Kieran Culkin) plans to talk shit about him and GoJo, but it will also give Lukas a window of opportunity to shine bright like a diamond in front of the “most powerful people in America.” To Lukas’ surprise, it really is that easy to make an impact. More specifically, as he notes to Shiv in the coat room, “You know, I thought these people would be very complicated, but it’s…they’re not. It’s basically just, like, money and gossip” (ergo, Gossip Girl remaining the pinnacle of rich people life). And maybe that’s part of when the disenchantment with New York starts to sink in for Lukas. Sure, he’s been there many times and witnessed “the scene,” but never until this moment did it seem so clear to him how utterly lacking the innerworkings behind the veneer are. Like Dorothy and co. witnessing the Wizard of Oz being operated by nothing more than a little man behind a curtain, Lukas sees something far more disillusioning in these “movers and shakers.”

Shiv confirms, “Oh yeah, no. That’s all it is.” Money and gossip. Synonyms for wheeling and dealing as a “key player” in New York. And being a key player, of course, automatically means you have to be rich. As the phrase that triggers so many people goes, “You have to pay to play.” No money, no skin in the game. And it is, as most are aware by now, a very rigged one. Matsson has been all too happy to be part of that ruse, particularly since he’s been putting one on himself in order to come across as “big enough” to buy out Waystar. Perhaps he was hoping that New York, for all its prestige and having a “solid reputation” as an epicenter of finance and “glamor,” would have more to it going on behind the scenes than merely more of the same.

Kendall, committed as much to New York being the “end all, be all” as he is to his father’s company embodying that as well, insists that there is. And that Lukas is the inferior impostor who can’t hack it. In short, he’s no Anna Delvey when it comes to navigating New York as an impostor (as Kendall remarks to Shiv, “I fuckin’ knew he was a bullshitter. I’m tellin’ you…new money. You gotta hold those fresh bills to the light”). And yet, he actually does seem to know how to navigate. For he’s comfortable and confident enough in his own skin to “dare” to speak ill of the “greatest city in the world.” And amongst the “most powerful” people who run it, therefore all of America. Thus, we’re met with Lukas Matsson’s “Lexi Featherston moment” around forty-eight minutes into the episode. When he’s finally had enough of this blasé, bullshit party and wants to stir things up by asking, “So who’s, uh, who’s going out tonight in this shitty fucking town? Anyone? I gotta say, it’s pretty depressing from up here. You can really see how Second World it is.”

For those who don’t remember Lexi’s own anti-New York monologue from season six of Sex and the City, it bubbled to the surface after being at her wit’s end with the banality of everyone and everything at the so-called party. Thus, Lexi snaps after being told she can’t smoke inside near the window, “Fuckin’ geriatrics… When did everybody stop smoking? When did everybody pair off? This used to be the most exciting city in the world and now it’s nothing but smoking near a fuckin’ open window. New York is over. O-V-E-R. Over. No one’s fun anymore! What ever happened to fun? God, I’m so bored I could die.” And then she does, tripping over her own stiletto heel and falling out the window. Previously, when Carrie encounters her in the bathroom doing coke and tells Lexi she only came in to get away from the party, Lexi replies knowingly, “Oh Euro-intellectuals. I don’t know why I pulled strings to get an invite to this piece of shit party.” Funnily enough, Lexi would probably view Lukas as one of the “Euro-intellectuals” she finds so dull merely because he happens to be from Europe. But at least his “right-hand man,” Oskar Gudjohnsen (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), is “moon-beamed on edibles” according to Lukas. Which makes things slightly more amusing for him (like having a court jester or something) as he “mingles” among the “glitterati” of the political and business worlds.

Even so, just as Lexi did, Lukas finds himself utterly unimpressed by the goings-on at this “event.” Which, to him, feels like a sad attempt on these people’s part at pretending they’re living it up in some “fabulous” town with a lifestyle that couldn’t possibly be had anywhere else. Yet if it’s so fabulous, why does it bum him out so much as he stares out the window? Just as Lexi sort of did as she lit her cigarette and then turned her back to the city to give the “revelers” a harrowing recap on the state of affairs in NYC. A merciless “summing up” tailored to those who are still delusional about its “untouchable clout.”

Kendall being one such person as he replies to Lukas calling it a shitty town with, “I don’t know, [it’s a] pretty happening town, famously.” “Really? Is it though?” “Yeah.” Lukas reminds Kendall of his quaint American perspective by saying, “Compared to Singapore, Seoul…it’s like Legoland.” Kendall insists, “You know we still run shit though?” Lukas ripostes, “Hmm, like as in…only in New York?” Kendall confirms, “Yeah.” Lukas titters, “Right. Okay. Well, uh, nothing happens in New York that doesn’t happen everywhere.” A fairly obvious statement, but one that actually needs to be said to those living in the self-deceiving bubble of “nothing else being like New York.”

Starting to get offended as every NYC diehard does when a nerve is touched about “their” city, Kendall demeans in return to that comment, “You should get that written on a cup. Right? Shouldn’t he get that written on a cup? Like that would look so cool. You could sell that in a head shop in Rotterdam. Could be a good business for you.” Unfortunately, there’s still not much business in trying to “pull back the curtain” on New York blowing chunks, as it were. And even those who are “aware” of it still claim there’s nowhere else they’d rather be (especially if their choice is limited to staying in the U.S.).

Including Carrie Bradshaw, as she claims to her “partner,” Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov), “I have a life here.” This being in response to his desire for them to move to Paris together. He answers, “Yes, but what do you want to come home to? What do you want your life to be?” These questions inferring that her continuing in the same way as she always has for the sake of “being loyal” to New York will only lead her down a path of despair and loneliness (something And Just Like That… ultimately confirms). And it’s for this reason that Lexi’s timing to appear as a cautionary tale plummeting to her death prompts Carrie to take her own plunge—by leaving New York. Even if New York is her “boyfriend,” as she called it in the first episode of season five, “Anchors Away,” wherein she tells us in a voiceover that she “can’t have nobody talking shit about [her] boyfriend” (this after a sailor named Louis [Daniel Sunjata] does exactly that). Unfortunately for Carrie and those committed to New York like a mental institution, this is what both Lexi and Lukas “deign” to do in their honest assessment of a city that “never sleeps.” Which is perhaps part of why it has the propensity to always disappoint.

Genna Rivieccio

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May 9, 2023
Cameron Frye and Connor Roy: “My Old Man Pushes Me Around” No More!

Just as it is for the Roy family at large, for many viewers of Succession, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck) is pure background. It hasn’t really been until season four that he’s been permitted his moment to shine. To “take a stand,” as Ruck’s most famous character, Cameron Frye, would say. And it starts with episode two, “Rehearsal,” in which he displays the full extent of his vulnerability during a karaoke session. Not just because he opts to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” but because, just as he did in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as Cameron, he decides to take a stand and defend it. And yes, singing Leonard Cohen at karaoke (even if only in a room as opposed to a more public stage) definitely counts among the ranks of taking a stand and defending it (regardless of Roman [Kieran Culkin] jibing, “This is Guantanamo-level shit”).

It’s no coincidence that he should choose that particular song, either. Not with Cohen singing, “I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert/You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.” Lest one needs to be reminded, the early seasons of Succession find Connor living alone in the desert of New Mexico in his palatial palace. A cold place in a hot climate, where he still can’t seem to finagle something akin to love. Not even from his “girlfriend,” Willa (Justine Lupe), a call girl he pays to keep around. Eventually paying enough to make her want to be his full-time girlfriend. But back to the lyrics of “Famous Blue Raincoat,” also fitting for Connor’s sibling situation with the Cain and Abel allusion in the line, “And what can I tell you my brother, my killer?”

Both Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman have no need of killing their half-bro, however—for he’s so irrelevant to their patriarch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), that wasting any energy on him would be wasting much-needed focus on “securing the position.” CEO of Waystar-Royco. Something that was never going to belong to “hapless” Connor, who spent three years of his childhood without seeing his father at all. “Attachment” isn’t exactly a thing between him and Logan, nor is it between Cameron and Morris, who never appears once in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—merely looms large as a source of fear. Especially after Ferris (Matthew Broderick) gets Cam (“Con” also has a shortened version of his name) to take his dad’s Ferrari out for the day.

Not one to be disagreeable, Cameron ultimately concedes to loaning out the car after several half-hearted attempts at protesting. Lying in bed genuinely sick (even if only in the head) as opposed to Ferris’ fake-out version of sickness, it’s clear Cam’s family doesn’t need to be played to in order for him to get out of school. They’re never around anyway. Least of all his father, off being the “provider” of the family, therefore excused from anything like involvement. Yes, it sounds a lot like Logan Roy. And Cameron, like Con, leads a privileged existence with the trade-off of never experiencing any emotional attachment or care whatsoever. With regard to “Con,” there’s one in every family, to be sure. Someone who never gets quite the same amount of attention or consideration. Whether because their personality is more demure or they don’t seem “special” enough to warrant as much care. Connor falls into both categories, with Shiv (Sarah Snook) in the Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) role and Kendall and Roman trading off on being the overly arrogant Ferris Bueller (Roman obviously being more Ferris-y than Ken). A scene of Cameron stuffed in the back of the Ferrari that Ferris and Sloane are effectively using him for speaks volumes vis-à-vis this dynamic. The only time anyone bothers with Con is when they need him for something…so basically they never much bother with him.

Sure, he’s there for “ceremonious” events like birthdays and family vacations, but, by and large, he’s out of the fold. Until season four rolls around and, suddenly, the “Rebel Alliance” that is Shiv, Kendall and Roman ends up prompting Con to say, “This is how it is, huh? The battle royale? Me and dad on one side, you guys on the other.” This after Willa has walked out on their wedding rehearsal dinner, leaving Con with no one to “turn to” for “comfort” but his so-called family. The trio of his siblings (all of whom show up late because Logan cut off their helicopter access) amounts to one giant Ferris Bueller, the narcissist in the dynamic constantly taking up space and demanding more from the Cameron/Connor of the outfit. Meanwhile, all Connor is asking for is a round of karaoke at Maru, one of many overpriced options within the parameters of Koreatown’s 32nd Street.

Upon arriving to said location (under duress for most of them), Connor is quick to admit that he told Logan where they are, and he’s coming over to “talk things out”—presumably the deal that Shiv, Kendall and Roman want to fuck by asking for more money of Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in exchange for merging his streaming company, GoJo, with Waystar. In defense of himself, Connor replies to the sibling backlash, “My life isn’t filled with secrets like some people. And I want my father to be at my wedding.”

To everyone’s surprise, though, Logan wants to make an “apology.” Or the closest he can get to one. But with all the hemming and hawing, Kendall is quick to redirect his father’s messaging by demanding, “What are you sorry for, Dad? Fucking ignoring Connor his whole life?” He later adds, “Having Connor’s mother locked up?” This being why Connor refers to the cake at his wedding as “loony cake.” A type of dessert he apparently associates with Victoria sponge cake and doesn’t care for at all because it was what was fed to him for a week after his mother was institutionalized. So yeah, even Kendall can take a moment here and there to stand up for his older brother and acknowledge that Con might have had a more emotionally bankrupt childhood than all of them.

In that regard, his bid for normalcy is earnest when he declares to his brothers and sister, “I would like to sing one fucking song at karaoke because I’ve seen it in the movies and nobody ever wants to go.” Perhaps he saw it in a certain form in the movie that he co-starred in with Broderick, as the latter plays the titular character lip-syncing to Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen” and The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” on a parade float in the middle of Chicago. Something Cameron nor Connor would ever do. Possibly because attention-seeking is a type of love-seeking. And that’s never been either character’s “game.” Though both slowly start to realize that maybe it should be. Even as Connor notes something as heart-wrenching to his siblings as, “The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it… You’re all chasin’ after Dad saying, ‘Oh love me, please love me. I need love, I need attention.’ You’re needy love sponges, and I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me. If Willa doesn’t come back, that’s fine. ‘Cause I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower.”

Cameron Frye knows that’s not entirely true. It’s also a curse that causes severe anxiety and depression, finally pushing him toward the revelation, “I’m bullshit. I put up with everything. My old man pushes me around…I never say anything! Well he’s not the problem, I’m the problem [cue a lawsuit against Taylor Swift]. I gotta take a stand. I gotta take a stand against him. I am not gonna sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m gonna take a stand. I’m gonna defend it. Right or wrong, I’m gonna defend it.” Something Connor must decide to do in “Connor’s Wedding,” easily the most landmark episode of Succession ever aired. And yet, as usual, just because his name is in the title doesn’t mean he gets the theoretical spotlight. No, this is all about his father. Just as it always is. The same geos for Cameron and Morris, inciting the former to finally lose it and kick the shit out of the Ferrari as he screams, “I’m so sick of his shit. I can’t stand him and I hate this goddamn car! Who do ya love? Who do ya love? You love a car!”

To this, Logan Roy might placate, “I love you…but you are not serious people.” These are his final sentiments directed at his children. Though no one is aware of it until the next day, when Logan’s heart fails (ironically appropriate) while on a private jet to negotiate the deal again with Matsson…thanks to his own kids painting him in a corner to do so. It was the previous night at karaoke that Logan understood the scope of his disgust with them. For here he is, the affluent, distant father figure (like Cameron’s) being unclear what more his children could “take” or want from him after everything he’s already given. Back out on the street with his latest “right-hand woman,” Kerry (Zoe Winters), he clocks a homeless man digging through the trash and seethes, “Look at this prick. They should get out here. Some cunt doing the tin cans for his supper, take a sip of that medicine. This city…the rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore.” Obviously taking a swipe at his lazy, greedy children. Except for Con, who really just wants it all to be over. Unfortunately, it’s only just getting started now that Logan is dead. And as usual, Con is the last to know about it, gently informed by Kendall only to instantly reply, “Oh man, he never even liked me,” trying to smooth that statement over with, “I never got the chance to make him proud of me.”

Of course, that was never going to happen. Because there is no “pleasing” a man like Logan or Morris. And Connor always getting the short end of the stick from his father reaches a poetic peak with him dying on Connor’s wedding day, casting a dark, attention-stealing pall over the event. All Con can finally assess about it to Willa is: “My father’s dead and I feel old.” Cameron probably would have said the same thing. And he, too, probably would have soon after carried out his intended plans for the day. After all, he’s not one to let his old man push him around anymore, especially not now that he’s dead. He’s going to take a stand (for “love”) and defend it. Right or wrong.

That’s why, in the end, he goes through with the wedding, not bothering to join his three half-siblings as they go to deal with their father’s body and make a statement to the press. In this sense, Connor has always been the freest, learning long ago not to bother chasing down the love of a patriarch who was incapable of it. Perhaps learning that from the person he was in another life: Cameron Frye. Meanwhile, Connor’s siblings will continue to volley for Logan’s invisible favor in not-so-subtle ways even after he’s gone.

Genna Rivieccio

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April 11, 2023
Today in History: October 17, Einstein arrives in the U.S.

Today in History

Today is Monday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2022. There are 75 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 17, 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

On this date:

In 1610, French King Louis XIII, age nine, was crowned at Reims, five months after the assassination of his father, Henry IV.

In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

In 1807, Britain declared it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they held U.S. citizenship.

In 1910, social reformer and poet Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” died in Portsmouth, R.I. at age 91.

In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone was released in 1939.)

In 1966, 12 New York City firefighters were killed while battling a blaze in lower Manhattan. The TV game show “The Hollywood Squares” premiered on NBC.

In 1967, Puyi (poo-yee), the last emperor of China, died in Beijing at age 61.

In 1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.

In 1978, President Carter signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

In 1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1989, an earthquake measuring 6.9 in magnitude struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing $6 billion worth of damage.

In 2018, residents of the Florida Panhandle community of Mexico Beach who had fled Hurricane Michael a week earlier returned home to find homes, businesses and campers ripped to shreds; the storm had killed at least 59 people and caused more than $25 billion in damage in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia.

Ten years ago: Federal authorities in New York said a Bangladeshi student had been arrested in an FBI sting after he tried to detonate a phony 1,000-pound truck bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan. (Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison.)

Five years ago: Just hours before President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban was due to take effect, a federal judge in Hawaii blocked most of the ban, saying it suffered from the same flaws as the previous version. U.S.-backed Syrian forces gained control of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which was once the heart of the Islamic State group’s self-styled caliphate.

One year ago: Police in Haiti said a notorious gang known for brazen kidnappings and killings was believed responsible for abducting 17 missionaries from a U.S.-based organization, including five children. (Two of the missionaries were released in November; the others would go free in December.) Russia reported its largest daily number of new coronavirus infections to date, more than 70% higher than the number a month earlier. Allie Quigley scored 26 points and Candace Parker added 16 points, 13 rebounds and five assists to help the Chicago Sky win its first WNBA championship with a 80-74 Game 4 victory over the Phoenix Mercury.

Today’s Birthdays: Singer Gary Puckett is 80. Actor Michael McKean is 75. Actor George Wendt is 74. Actor-singer Bill Hudson is 73. Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker is 67. Astronaut Mae Jemison is 66. Country singer Alan Jackson is 64. Movie critic Richard Roeper is 63. Movie director Rob Marshall is 62. Actor Grant Shaud is 62. Animator Mike Judge is 60. Rock singer-musician Fred LeBlanc (Cowboy Mouth) is 59. Singer Rene’ Dif is 55. Reggae singer Ziggy Marley is 54. Actor Wood Harris is 53. Singer Wyclef Jean (zhahn) is 53. World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els is 53. Singer Chris Kirkpatrick (’N Sync) is 51. Rapper Eminem is 50. Actor Sharon Leal is 50. Actor Matthew Macfadyen is 48. Actor Felicity Jones is 39. Actor Chris Lowell is 38.

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October 16, 2022