Tag: still watching

It’s finally time to lay Logan Roy (Brian Cox) to rest. On the penultimate episode of Succession, the Roy children band together for Logan’s funeral—a profoundly emotional affair for all involved. In a funeral befitting a king (or a tyrant), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) each attempt to eulogize their late father, with varying degrees of success. On this week’s episode of Still Watching, cohost Chris Murphy and Vanity Fair correspondent Joy Press unpack Logan’s epic funeral, and the weight of his loss on the Roy children and the world.

Before the Roy children can speak about their dearly departed dad, Logan’s brother, Ewan (James Cromwell), delivers a rogue eulogy that was not on the program. His brother, Ewan says, “decided not to try anymore,” and actively made the world a worse and meaner place with his media empire. Logan “stopped trying to be a good person. He stopped trying to care,” says Press. “Ewan is not a very likable character in the series. He’s a crank. And yet the fact that he says, ‘I tried,’ what you see is very human.”

After Ewan’s denigration of Logan, Kendall steps up to the plate and knocks his impromptu eulogy out of the park, providing a counterpoint to Ewan’s cynical view of Logan. “Kendall says, ‘We gotta give the other side,’ and Kendall gives an equally epic eulogy, but it’s like an ode to capitalism,” says Press. “Ayn Rand could have written his speech.” The beauty of the series, Murphy notes, is that it’s difficult to poke holes in either Ewan’s or Kendall’s estimations of Logan, even though one lionizes him and the other condemns him.

While Kendall and Ewan deliver dueling eulogies, Shiv’s remembrance of her father highlights his difficulty with women, bringing back this season’s focus on the undercurrent of misogyny in this universe. Shiv’s pregnancy may very well prevent her from becoming the American CEO of Waystar Royco, as Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and president-elect Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) make quite clear what they believe a woman’s place should be. “[Mencken] says to Shiv, ‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche,’” Murphy says. “It’s a German slogan, and it’s translated as ‘children, kitchen, church.’”

Despite pre-grieving, Roman is ultimately unable to channel his inner Logan Roy. He breaks down at the altar, forcing Kendall to pinch-hit. “Beneath the Proud Boy is a blubbering little sad boy,” says Murphy. The end of the episode features Roman swimming upstream against protesters who have been spurred to action by ATN’s decision to call the election for Mencken. 

While Press refrains from making any big predictions for the series finale, Murphy predicts that Succession will end back in the boardroom with a knock-down, drag-out fight for control of Waystar Royco—with Kendall and Roman on one side, and Shiv and Matsson on the other. But in the end, none of them may emerge victorious: “I would imagine that the outside world increasingly comes in and bursts the Roys’ bubble in some profound way,” says Murphy.

Elsewhere on the podcast, Alan Ruck drops by to discuss all things Connor Roy, from his relationship with Willa to his failed presidential campaign and the state of the Con-heads. “I think a lot of them are in the bar and will stay there probably for a while,” quips Ruck. “It’s just a bunch of disillusioned people, but it’s something like 1%. That’s kind of like a million people.”

With one episode left in Succession, it’s still anyone’s guess who may wind up in control of Waystar Royco. Listen to the latest episode of Still Watching below—and email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com with your own questions, comments, and thoughts ahead of the series finale.

It’s election eve on Succession, and everyone’s on edge. In “Tailgate Party,” the seventh episode of Succession’s final season, Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) join forces to throw a preelection soiree at their Manhattan triplex for some of the most influential people in politics. Sparks fly—mostly between the two of them. At first it seems the formerly estranged couple have reconciled, with Tom and Shiv trading sexts during the workday. On this week’s episode of Still Watching, cohost Chris Murphy says Tom’s jokey preelection present to Shiv—a scorpion paperweight—is the worst gift he’s seen on HBO since The White Lotus season two, when Valentina gave her unrequited love, Isabella, a hideous starfish brooch.

“I think that it was emblematic of Tom’s tragic inability to not see when he’s taken a joke too far, to not be able to read Shiv when she’s not in the mood for the big joke of their relationship,” agrees cohost Richard Lawson. “He’s never supposed to lead the attack.” 

By nightfall, though, it’s all-out warfare between Tom and Shiv. It may be impossible for them to come back from their patio fight, particularly because Tom tells Shiv that she’d be a terrible mother. Murphy points that out as both proof that Tom still doesn’t know Shiv is pregnant and the potential point of no return for the couple. “The fact of the matter is, we have never seen a single good parent on this show,” says Lawson. “There’s no reason to think that Shiv would be a good parent.”

Tom and Shiv were not the only couple to hash it out this episode. Kendall (Jeremy Strong) finally gets a visit from his ex-wife, Rava (Natalie Gold), who informs him that their daughter has been the victim of bullying due to his running of “a racist news organization.” Murphy notes that Kendall’s first instinct is to blame Rava for the incident, despite the fact that he hasn’t seen or spoken to his daughter once this entire season. “You’d think that given his relationship with his own father, [Kendall] would maybe want to be a better dad or more attentive, or more caring, or more involved,” says Murphy. “But no. The only lesson that he has learned from Logan’s death is that he wants to be better than Logan. He wants to be bigger than Logan.”

On his quest to become bigger than his father, Kendall, at the tailgate party, goes head-to-head with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), who he discovers—courtesy of Matsson’s employee and ex-girlfriend, Ebba (Eili Harboe)—has been making up some numbers of his own. Kendall and Matsson’s resulting tête-à-tête, Lawson and Murphy agree, is akin to a middle school shoving match with no winner to be found. Skarsgård drops by the podcast to chat with VF’s Julie Miller about the episode, particularly that gold bomber jacket. “He wears a lot of sweatpants and sneakers, and then this crazy golden jacket that’s probably like a $25,000 Japanese designer jacket,” he said. “It’s a weird combination of super casual and comfortable but also ridiculously expensive and completely over the top, just because he finds it funny.”

After some shady phone calls with Republican candidate Jeryd Mencken’s (Justin Kirk) team, Roman attempts to convince Connor (Alan Ruck) to drop out of the presidential race, offering him a series of ambassadorships in Mencken’s Cabinet—much to Willa (Justine Lupe) and Connor’s chagrin. But Roman has bigger issues to face than whether Connor wants to be the ambassador to Oman. After Roman tries to bring Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) back into the fold, Gerri flat-out refuses, demanding hundreds of million of dollars in a severance package and threatening to release the “many, many” pictures of Roman’s penis that she has on her phone. 

Elsewhere in this Still Watching episode, Miller chats with dream team Karl (David Rasche) and Frank (Peter Friedman), who say their characters’ relationship was forged in trauma. “[They] fought wars together,” says Rasche. “The audience doesn’t see it, but we spent all day with Logan every day. Meetings, dinners, trips. We’ve known him for 20, 30 years—a long, long time.”

As each Roy sibling circles the drain, will any of them be left to run the company by season’s end? Listen to the latest episode of Still Watching to hear Lawson and Murphy discuss the seventh episode of the final season of Succession. For your own questions, comments, and final-season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

Once again, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) seems to have notched an unlikely win, delivering a cringey yet ultimately effective product launch for Waystar Royco’s latest business venture: the planned community Living+. “When Kendall’s giving his speech and he’s talking about how [Living+] is gonna have discreet security, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is for rich white people who feel terrified that Black Lives Matter is gonna come get them,” notes Richard Lawson on this week’s episode of Still Watching. “But that’s what the Fox News set wants to hear.”

While Kendall and the gleam in his eye are impressing investors, Roman (Kieran Culkin) is flailing and firing anyone who rubs him the wrong way—from Waystar Studios exec Joy (Annabeth Gish) to Geri (J. Smith Cameron). Still Watching co-host Chris Murphy posits that Geri’s warning to Roman is Shakespearean in scope, something that might foreshadow a tragic end for Roman. “[Roman] was always good at sort of squirming around daddy and courting his favor, and he would always retreat, sucking his thumb back to his lap,” agrees Lawson. “We saw that right before Logan died. And now that he doesn’t have that, he’s a baby with a gun.” 

Elsewhere in the episode, Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) seem to be reconciling in their own twisted way. The episode’s director Lorene Scafaria dropped by Still Watching and let viewers in on the complicated power dynamic between the somewhat estranged couple. “Bitey was just electrifying to watch,” said Scafaria. “It’s like they’ve already kissed under the bleachers, so now they’re teenagers at a party. Of course their expression of love can’t help but have some violence in it of who can hurt the other.”

Despite Kendall’s big win, there’s still plenty that can go wrong for the Roy family. Listen to the latest episode of Still Watching to hear Lawson and Murphy discuss the sixth episode of the final season of Succession. For your own questions, comments, and final-season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

CE-Bros Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) notched a huge win for Waystar Royco on paper, but they certainly don’t feel like celebrating. In “Kill List,” the fifth episode of the final season of Succession, the whole Waystar Royco crew travels to Norway at the behest of GoJo CEO Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skaarsgard). Of course, things don’t go as planned when Mattson reveals that he wants to buy the entirety of Waystar Royco—including ATN.

“My theory is that Matson’s company is maybe kind of a house of cards,” posits Richard Lawson on this week’s episode of Still Watching. “I’m wondering if something is about to collapse at his company and he needs something concrete to hold it up.” 

While Mattson’s motivation for changing the terms of the deal are somewhat unclear, what is clear is that Kendall and Roman no longer want to the deal to go through. In a power-hungry move, Kendall convinces Roman to join him in his attempt to tank the GoJo deal so that the two of them can remain on the top of the Waystar Royco foodchain. However, the move blows up in their face when an emotional Roman tells off Mattson on the top of a mountain, spilling the beans that the brothers have zero intention of selling the company to him. Roman’s screed against Mattson was honest and fair, notes Still Watching co-host Chris Murphy, but he ultimately shot himself in the foot.

Elsewhere, the Waystar Royco staff are reeling after Mattson’s team sends a list with names of Waystar employees who will likely not have a position if the deal goes through. Frank (Peter Friedman), Karl (David Rasche), and Hugo (Fisher Stevens) are all on the chopping block, but the women of Waystar Royco, specifically Karolina (Dagmara Dominczyk) and Gerri (J. Smith Cameron), live to fight another day. J. Smith Cameron also drops by Still Watching to discuss Gerri’s rollercoaster of a season at Waystar Royco, as well as the hat that she wore to Connor’s wedding—which started out as an idea from the lighting department. “I think a hat is sort of subliminally a kind of a statusy thing for a woman these days,” she said. “I thought of it a bit like, ‘I’m gonna show up in my finest and bluff this out.’”

Halfway through the final season of Succession, it’s clear that it’s best to expect the unexpected when it comes to the Roy family. Listen to the latest episode of Still Watching to hear Lawson and Murphy discuss the fifth episode of Succession season four. For your own questions, comments, and final-season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

Just when you think the Roys have been through it all, another surprise comes their way. In the opening moments of “Honeymoon States,” episode four of Succession’s fourth season, Shiv (Sarah Snook) takes a call from her doctor the morning after her father’s death, confirming that she’s pregnant. 

In real life, Snook revealed at the Succession premiere that she’s also expecting a baby—leading Still Watching hosts Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy to wonder whether life merely imitates art, or if Shiv’s pregnancy was by design. But either way, this development works for the show, complicating not only Shiv’s ambitions but also her relationship with Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).

Shiv’s major news has to take a back seat, though—because, as always on Succession, there’s business to attend to. Most of the action of the episode centers around a single pencil mark on a page, as Frank, Gerri, Karl, and the Roy siblings try to determine whether Logan (Brian Cox) meant to underline that he wanted Kendall (Jeremy Strong) to take over as CEO in the case of his untimely demise, or if he meant to cross Kendall’s name out entirely. “The point is that we’re never gonna know,” notes Lawson. “The point is the ambiguity, which leads to this polite-ish war of the wills in terms of who’s gonna step up.”

Somewhat miraculously, the two who are chosen by the episode’s end are Kendall and Roman. For all his foibles leading up to this moment, Kendall seems to be shining in the wake of his father’s death, stepping up to the plate in a way that previously seemed impossible for the prodigal son. “Kendall is really clicking in this episode, despite him still seeming very fraught,” Lawson says, though he still thinks something more nefarious might be at play. “I think Kendall is gonna become his father—like, his father’s ghost is gonna possess him,” he adds, pointing to the end of the episode—when Kendall asks Hugo to tarnish his father’s legacy.

Elsewhere in the Still Watching episode, Lawson and Murphy talk to public relations maven Risa Heller about how she’d advise the fictional Roy family in the aftermath of Logan’s death. “What I would say is, they would have to either say immediately, here’s who’s running the company in the interim, or announce the new governance structure,” she says, noting how bizarre it was that Shiv gave a public statement right after her father died. 

“That, to me, was an insane thing to do,” Heller says. “Because first of all, practically, if you’re a human and your parent dies, who wants to go stand in front of 20 cameras and microphones to be like, ‘Our father died’? It’s a very weird thing to do, number one. Number two, there was no need for them to actually do that. They could have just put out a statement.” 

Unfortunately, it looks like the PR foibles are just beginning for the growing Roy family. Listen to the latest episode of Still Watching to hear Lawson and Murphy discuss the fourth episode of Succession season four, and how the Roys handled the aftermath of their father’s death. For your own questions, comments, and final-season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

Are Shiv (Sarah Snook), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) playing hardball with the GoJo deal? Or are they potentially ruining everything out of spite for Logan (Brian Cox)? That’s the major question at the end of Succession season four, episode two, as the Roy children join forces with Sandi (Hope Davis) and Stewy (Arian Moayed) in a bid to drive their father back to the bargaining table with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) the day before the GoJo deal is supposed to go through. It also happens to be the day before Connor’s (Alan Ruck) wedding to Willa (Justine Lupe), who appears to be getting cold feet—although the Roy siblings barely have the capacity to pretend to care about Connor’s impending nuptials.

On the latest episode of Still Watching, hosts Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy try to suss out who on the show, if anyone, might have the purest intentions. “If anything, I trust Matsson more than anyone involved in the GoJo deal right now,” says Murphy. “He seems like, as Roman said last episode, a 4chan weirdo, but he does not seem like a liar.”

Matsson makes it very clear to Kendall on the phone that if they try to renegotiate the terms of the sale, he’s going to walk. And yet, the Roy siblings—particularly Kendall and Shiv—seem more than happy to take that risk if it means they can squeeze a few more dollars out of him and hurt their father in the process. “I think the kids think they have him figured out better than Logan does,” says Lawson. “But I just don’t know that.”

More surprising than Shiv and Kendall’s potentially reteaming with Sandi and Stewy to mess with their dad is the family’s heart-to-heart, and the location in which it transpires. In a private room at Maru, a swanky karaoke spot in New York’s Koreatown, Logan comes face-to-face with his children for the first time this season—and a lot of Logan’s bravado, demonstrated earlier in the episode on the floor of ATN, falls by the wayside. “We have seen some moments of emotional vulnerability on this show before—and in this season, maybe especially. But that scene felt like something new, where [Logan’s] walk-and-talk bluster is kind of gone,” notes Lawson. 

In his own way, Logan tries to make amends with his kids. “There’s no amount of words that he could possibly say to apologize for everything that he’s put his kids through,” Murphy notes. “But they’re able to get at least a kernel of an apology.” Time will tell if it’s enough to keep them from blowing up his GoJo deal, but he seems to have made inroads with Roman at least. 

But is Roman entertaining his father’s dangling ATN in front of him for the right reasons? Lawson isn’t so sure. “Maybe [Roman’s] just trying to hold the family together out of pure business
interest,” Lawson notes. “I think these people are all capable of love, or finding it, but they have absolutely no idea what to do with the faintest shred of a sincere sentiment.”

Joined by Vanity Fair political correspondent Bess Levin, Lawson and Murphy also delve into the real-life inspiration for the dysfunctional Roys—the Murdoch family—and the stark similarities between that media dynasty and its fictional counterpart. “There are so, so, so many similarities between these two families,” Levin says. “At the basic center of it, you have this patriarch running a global media empire. Rupert Murdoch has a child from his first marriage, Prudence,
who has never worked for the business—a similarity to Connor Roy. And then from his
second marriage, he has three children, Lachlan, Elizabeth, and James, who have all
worked for him over the years and jockeyed for the top job in a very similar fashion to Kendall, Shiv, and Roman.”

And as with the Roys, the interpersonal relationships between the Murdoch family members are decidedly messy. “I believe, at this point, the relationship between James and
Lachlan is said to be pretty nonexistent,” Levin shares. “I believe somebody said that Prudence—the oldest one, the Connor of them all—she’s Switzerland.”

Many questions loom heading into the third episode: Will the GoJo deal fall apart? Will Connor’s wedding? Listen below to hear Lawson and Murphy discuss the second episode of Succession season four and debate who won this week at Waystar Royco (as well as what songs the Roys would sing at karaoke). For your own questions, comments, and final-season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

The Roy children are here to play ball. The first episode of Succession season four sees Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) aligned in their quest to take down Logan (Brian Cox), delivering the one-two punch of skipping Logan’s birthday party and scooping Pierce Media Group up under his very nose. On this week’s episode of Vanity Fair‘s television podcast Still Watching, hosts Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy break down the unification of the Roy children, the end of Tom and Shiv’s marriage, and what exactly happened to Anne Pierce in Maine.  

Before they can take on Papa Logan, the Roy children have to come up with—and dispense—their maybe terrible idea, The Hundred.  “Rather than deal with any of the way more pressing issues in their lives, they’re like ‘Oh, let’s start a made-up, fake, bullshit company that has no way of going anywhere,” notes Murphy. 

But The Hundred, the Roy children’s new media venture—described as “Substack meets Masterclass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker”—is dead on arrival. “It fails ten minutes into the episode,” Lawson notes, while pointing out it’s shrewd satire of recent real-life media ventures like Semafor and CNN+. 

The abandoned business also servers as table setting for the rest of the season. “It was eerily familiar,” says Lawson. “I think that it’s such a good characterization of exactly this kind of heir: not heir to just a static fortune, but heir to a business.” At first, the kids want to try to build something new. Then “they abandoned this kind of dumb rich kid idea, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re rich kids. Let’s just buy this show’s version of the New York Times.”

Enter Nan Pierce, the owner of Pierce Media Group. Due to a tipoff from Tom, the Roy children learn that Logan is angling to buy it, and decide to get in the game. Played by Tony-winner Cherry Jones, Nan Pierce is diametrically opposed to Logan in her negotiation style, revealing something very true about a certain type of wealthy person . “It’s such a rich people thing to be like, ‘Oh, I don’t care about money. It’s beneath me.’ And it’s like, no, you’re lying,” Murphy notes. “That’s maybe all that you care about, actually.” 

The Roy kids ultimately go head-to-head with their father for Pierce Media Group—and win with a bid of $10 billion. But will their high bid end up biting them in the ass?  Either way, it seems Nan Pierce needs the money if only to help cover “Anne’s disaster in Maine”—whatever that may be. “What was the disaster in Maine?” wonders Lawson. “Did she run over one of the Bushes in Kennebunkport on her wood-sided motor boat?” 

In non-business dealings, Tom and Shiv seem to be at the end of the road when it comes to their marriage. Lawson appreciated the scene in which they appear to call it quits. “I thought that was pretty striking. I don’t think these are good people, just cause they had a moment of weakness and connection,” he says.“Throughout this episode there were moments that were careful to remind us that these are, at the end of the day, flesh and blood people—who, like Roman says, should probably be buying snowmobiles and sushi. Should just be enjoying themselves, but they can’t.” 

But will the end of Tom and Shiv’s union affect Tom’s standing with Logan? If he is legally not married to Shiv any more, if there is no formal bond between them, what is Tom’s position at ATN? We’ll have to wait and see. 

Listen below to hear Lawson and Murphy unpack the season premiere of Succession, and debate who will take over Waystar Royco by series end. For your own questions, comments, and final season theories, please email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com.

Spring is in the air, and it’s time to pick an heir. Succession returns for its fourth and final season on Sunday, March 26—and Still Watching, Vanity Fair’s TV analysis podcast, is all over it. Hosts Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy will dive deep into the final 10 episodes of the Emmy-winning series—which remains as “sleek and engaging” as ever in its last round, according to Lawson’s review. We’ll be unpacking everything from deliciously devastating Roy family drama to the show’s greatest one-liners and sharpest insults.

“What is the moral of the story for Succession?” asks Murphy on Still Watching. The answer may depend on who ends up in charge of Waystar Royco by series’ end. Throughout the season, Lawson and Murphy will make their predictions as to who, if anyone, will inherit the Waystar Royco throne, while also interviewing key members of the cast and crew. 

The beginning of the end for Succession kicks off this Sunday, with a brand-new episode of Still Watching dropping right after the episode airs. Tune in, or in the words of Logan Roy, “F–k off.”