Summary: Marcia invites Ewan, Logan's brother, to Thanksgiving. Greg picks him up and brings him back for Thanksgiving. Logan decides that he wants to buy local TV despite Roman and Kendall not wanting it. After Logan insults Roman and threatens to demote Kendall back to his old job, they decide to come up with a plan to get him our of power. Kendall meets with Frank and prepares a plan to make a vote of no confidence. At Thanksgiving, Ewan arrives and fights with his brother again at dinner. Ewan leaves and Kendall gives him his offer. Ewan refuses him and leaves. Tom needs to bury the information about the cruises and sends Greg to do the job at the office. Greg does so successfully. Tom has his lawyer, who is his mother, check the pre-nuptial contract presented to him by Shiv. The family plays I Went to Market and Logan accidentally hits Kendall's son. Gerri talks to Kendall having heard him with Ewan, offering to join in on his plan.
The Good: This episode starts to move the narrative forwards as Kendall and Roman begin to turn on Logan, looking to secure their own future ahead of his. I like that this is done under the guise of doing "what's good for Logan". However, Logan seems perfectly lucid in his decisions, and a couple lapses in awareness are what Kendall and Roman latch onto to justify their plan to remove their father. When in reality, it's clear that they are doing this because of how Logan is treating them. Roman is annoyed to be openly insulted by his father, and Kendall is angered by the possibility of being sent back to his old job. The characters we watch remain self-absorbed schemers, and it's a bold choice to have everyone be so thoroughly unlikable. The Thanksgiving dinner is a good event to structure the episode around. This also gives us a good excuse to meet Ewan, who we have heard about for a few episodes, and now we get to see who he is. Ewan's presence makes the dinner wonderfully awkward, and it's engaging to see what will happen between Logan and Ewan. Their inevitable arguments and sparring steal the show, and it's impressive that we're able to get a perfect idea of their relationship without hearing a single line of exposition. This show hasn't always been good at introducing characters, but it did very well here. Ewan is a lot of fun to watch as he's a very different kind of bitter old man, and it's amusing to see him diss Logan, but also his own family. Kendall thought he had a chance when he tried to recruit Ewan to his side, but as usual he has grossly misjudged him. I got a laugh out of Ewan's viper metaphor, an intense moment of dialogue, leading into a joke when Greg corrects that it is boa constrictors that suffocate you, not vipers. The rest of the Thanksgiving dinner is just as compelling even when Ewan leaves. I'm glad that we get to see what a family event looks like now that I have a better idea of who each character is. The character interactions are much more rich and entertaining, making it clearer what this family dynamic is. These interactions further cement the characterization of the characters as well, and finally I'm starting to feel like I know who these characters are and what to expect from them. The fun family setting has some pretty funny moments (Grace thanking Roman sarcastically, Willa being thankful for being welcomed only to be met with awkward silence, Connor's awkward announcement, etc.), but it builds up nicely to a pretty scary moment when Logan accidentally hits Kendall's son. This is a pretty horrifying scene, and Kendall and Rava's reaction suggests to me that Logan has had a history of violence/abuse before, which could add further layers to this moment, as well as Logan's persistence that Iverson join them for dinner despite him dealing with what is most likely to be some degree of autism. Greg and Tom continue to be the most entertaining thing about this show. Their dynamic is really fun to watch, and these two provide the most consistent laughs throughout the episode. Greg's drive home with his grandfather is amusing, and it's so much fun seeing Greg's timid awkwardness in every scene. The disastrous phone call with Tom was the funniest moment of the episode, and I got a chuckle out of how Tom immediately called Greg after being told to use somebody expendable. Greg's trip to the office is a lot of fun, watching him bumble around, realizing that he's being set up to fall in case anything goes wrong. The fact that Greg is accidentally high through all of this makes it even funnier, as does the fact that the poor guy just can't seem to catch a break without somebody telling him to go somewhere or do something. I love watching Greg and Tom's antics, and I'm looking forward to see what they get up to next. The Bad: There is still too much going on in each episode. This is preventing the show from having good standalone episodes because all of the good stuff is diluted throughout a myriad of storylines, with each episode having at least a couple plot threads that are confusing, uninteresting, or questionable in relevance. Most aspects of this episode centered around Thanksgiving, Ewan, and Tom/Greg's story worked, but we also have so many other plot threads that get lost in the shuffle and make this episode feel bloated and poorly paced. A lot of this is because "Succession" has so far spent far too much time suggesting character details instead of actually showing us character details. A good example is Connor and Roman's story. The amount of time spent with Connor and Roman's love life with Willa and Grace felt like a bit of a waste because both love interests are boring characters and don't answer enough of the pressing questions I have about Connor and Roman (see: The Unknown). Add on some plot fluff with a random turkey movie, and Connor's confusing arrangement with Willa and there is just too much. Imagine how much easier it would be to enjoy this show if we spent this time actually learning about Connor and Roman in the way that we learned about Tom and Greg. Wouldn't the show be much more gripping if that were the case? Then there's more suggestions of Tom's relationship with Shiv without confirming anything to us, further suggestions of Kendall's strained family life, Marcia's intentions with the random introduction of Amir, and so much more. These suggestions are too much and distract a lot from the good stuff that we get throughout the episode. You could argue that they are here to build mystery and intrigue, but I'm not invested enough in these plot threads for that mystery to be compelling. The show needs to introduce the story and characters before building intrigue like this. The Unknown: Is Logan capable of making decisions himself? The show suggests this idea, but it is never clear if his decision-making has been skewed or if he's always been like this. Will Ewan continue to play a role in this show? Or will he remain in Canada the entire time? So Connor is paying a prostitute to be in a relationship with him. Why does he feel like he has to do this? What has his upbringing been like? I'm sure that there's much more to Connor than what we have been shown. What's going on with Roman? Why hasn't he been having sex with Grace? Why did he break up with her? What's his deal? Is Shiv cheating on Tom? Can he trust her? Since we also know very little about Shiv, I genuinely don't know. Will Greg's actions come back to bite him later? Or can he use what he did to continue to rise? Did Iverson have autism, or some other disorder? It sounded like he had some underlying condition. Who is Amir? Why did Marcia invite him? Will he play a role in the show? Will Kendall succeed in removing Logan from power? What will be the fallout of this vote of no confidence? Is Gerri trustworthy? Is Frank trustworthy? Will this plan work? Will someone betray Kendall's trust? Best Moment: Logan and Ewan's argument was great, effectively telling us the entire dynamic and conflict between Logan and Ewan by showing them blowing up at each other. Character of the Episode: Greg. Conclusion: After watching this episode, I finally feel like "Succession" is succeeding at its character dynamics. I am starting to have a good feel for most characters, and the dynamics are becoming more interesting for me. We're not at a high quality show yet, but this is a step in the right direction. Score: 63
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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