That was such an incredibly sad but perfect and correct ending.
I don't understand people who didn't like the ending because their favorite character didn't win. After 4 seasons with these despicable characters did anyone expect the Roy kids to unite and defeat the bad guy with the power of love and friendship? It was never going to end that way.
The three siblings just could never get over their egos. They all proved, through the 4 seasons, that they’re basically useless and the only reason they were ever in the discussion to be CEO is because Logan was their father. They'd rather destroy everything than have only one of the trio take the upper hand. Shiv just could not let her brother have a win, even if it meant her losing as well. Perfectly summed up their whole family dynamic and the show as a whole.
The siblings are so entitled and self-absorbed they never saw Tom coming. They’ve never had to work for a damn thing. I don't like Tom, but it makes sense for someone like Tom, who worked his way from the ground up and earned himself the position he was in.
The scene with the siblings making that awful smoothie and them watching their dad reveal yet another side of himself was so nice among the insanity that came in between.
That penultimate shot with Shiv and Tom in the car was phenomenal. Complete shift in the power dynamic. After marrying him specifically because she thought he was weak enough to keep holding power over.
Kendall not winning every season. That’s rough.
Willa revamping Logan's apartment with a cow print couch.
In the end Conor was the only one to have any kind of a relationship with Logan, the other kids are never shown having moments with him like he did at the recorded dinner.
Greg translating the Swedish in real time is the smartest thing he’s ever done. Four seasons and I cannot for the life of me understand why he would put up with that. His uncle offered him $250mil to get away from the firm.
But the biggest thing for me coming out of this episode is Kendall’s son isn’t really his. It really came out of nowhere and seemed more like a fact than a rumor the way everyone reacted to it.
All in all, Succession stuck to the show’s core till the end. In a way it’s a predictable ending but because it’s television and we expect some twist where a cool character comes out on top we don’t expect the expected. The outcome is pretty much what you’d expect from all the characters knowing their faults
This episode is disappointing.
With the action, it’s tiresome and a considerable downgrade from the first episode’s kick-ass opening. It’s short, full of tedious banter and only shows people punching and throwing each other off trucks.
Similarly, the episode’s revelation has little weight; since the episode doesn’t explain why it matters, I don’t know why I should care. Also, they introduce a new character, but we don’t learn why she’s a threat to our heroes or why Sam and Bucky need to catch her group.
Worst of all, though, the character dynamics are awkward. Despite understanding its origin, I found the conflicts messy and confusing. I mean, why the therapy? What’s with this therapist?
On a positive note, I like the social commentary, even if the episode doesn’t explore it that much. In the first episode, the show comments on racial discrimination and they continue it here; I appreciate it.
Finally, the pacing is sluggish, and as a result, I struggled to get through the episode’s runtime. If there were more action, I’d forgive the weak writing, but alas, I’m left disappointed.
Likewise, The Star-Spangled Man feels undercooked, dissatisfying, and left me disappointed. Not only has the storytelling quality faltered, but the action has too, which is all I’m looking for in this TV show. Hopefully, this is the only bump on my FWS journey.
TECHNICAL SCORE: 6/10
ENJOYMENT SCORE: 5/10
This one started out pretty well. I like using Jimmy as a champion of a censorship- and bias free press, and I think he is a great prism to use to criticize the PC Bros, and expose the hypocrisy in telling marginalized groups how to feel. The accusation that the PC Bros are only using their PC-ness to get girls is a funny little dig, but the more interesting part of the episode is Jimmy's stand against P.C. Principal restraining or blocking out the truth. There was a lot of meat there and it worked for both the comedy and commentary that South Park is great at.
And then we hit two things that took the episode down a notch for me. The first is the focus on ads on the internet. I find them as annoying as anybody, but it seems like pretty small potatoes compared to the social commentary South Park has been building throughout this season. There's a little more weight to the complaints about sponsored content, and it dovetails with Jimmy's anti-censorship story, but it feels like the whole episode is a little jumbled, and can't quite settle on one topic or theme or, in the alternative, tie the disparate themes together. Now maybe this is a longer form story and that will happen in a later episode, but it felt kind of undercooked here.
The second is a kind of tiresome trope that keeps coming up in South Park -- that whatever the latest crisis is, it's all a part of a big shadowy conspiracy. We've seen it in everything from Crab People to Aliens to the Government to a Cthulu cult and countless other reveals. It's not the worst thing in the world, but South Park just keeps going back to that well over and over again, and it leads to diminishing returns. Maybe they'll put it together in the remaining two episodes, but I'm just a bit tired of that particular plot popping up in this show. We'll see where it goes.
(Though I did appreciate what seemed like a shoutout to Bladerunner.)
