Succession: A Tragedy of Appearances

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[@subjectiviteit]

If any of Kafka's books get more movie adaptations, I would so love to see Jeremy Strong (Kendall Roy) play the main character. I don't even care which book, I just feel that he would communicate the confidence, insecurity, and absurdity that Kafka's main characters tend grapple with so well given his performance in Succession.

[@heloisaalmeida1243]

he would be great as Gregor Samsa

[@subjectiviteit]

@@heloisaalmeida1243 Agreed. I can also easily and vividly picture him as 'K' from The Castle, or 'Josef K.' from The Trial

[@tanusree3517]

@@heloisaalmeida1243 the metamorphosis is better left alone and not adapted. i'm sure kafka would have wanted the same

[@tanusree3517]

@@subjectiviteit yes!!

[@appletini1967]

@@tanusree3517 I respectfully disagree. I believe Metamorphosis hasn't been more relevant than in our days. I think it could work really well adapted to modern audiences while being faithful to the theme. Your work still resonating with people in the future? That would've made any writer proud.

[@squiggle9981]

I think that the show is more about the cyclical nature of abuse and how it in a context of power influences the world than business.

[@melchol2121]

Capitalism encourages a focus on gratification & social approval and hence also encourages more open narcissism, corporate world attracts existing narcissists and they are rewarded for playing “the game” correctly

[@misssoso5859]

It's both. It argues that capitalism creates dynamics of family abuse.

[@squiggle9981]

@miss soso I don't think capitalism creates the family abusive cicle because Logan wasn't rich when it started with him BUT capitalism is the reason why the consequences of the cyclical abuse with the roy kids affect the whole world. If they were just a middle class dysfunctional families, their actions based on their trauma wouldn't affect millions, but that's not the case. I love how the show knows how to make these themes match

[@djvoss3075]

i never made the connection between kendal's low points and his being closer to the public

[@Zeivo5]

Excellent video as always 👌 Good to see you back, my guy.

[@jacobrippy5586]

Came back to this video after watching the series finale. Plays like absolute prophecy. Brilliantly written with incredible insight.

[@videonlyn]

I follow you since the early evangelion days. Your content never ceases to amaze me!!

[@free1431]

Such a great video. I'd wish this show was more talked about and analyzed on this platform. It's really good and I especially loved the ending and how you described the tragedy of this family, mainly the three siblings, and how they are so wealthy, but at the same time so out of touch with reality and desperate for power and approval, that they don't even know what they want and fail to realize that they just act like children fighting for their dad's love and attention, trying to get everything they want to have a rush of adrenaline or fleeting satisfaction that won't even last and destrying their own lifes and hurting everyone around them in the process because they can't really be intimate with someone, communicate or show any kind of affection in a meaningful way. They are so childish and immature they always think they are doing such important stuff like you said, when in reality they barely control anything that happens around them and if they didn't have so much money and political influence, people would probably treat them as a joke, just as his dad does most of the time. I think Tom and Greg are the ones that will gain much more power and influence than the Roy's and the approval of Logan because, as Tom said, he knows what is like to come from a difficult background and really have to fight to get where he is and be wealthy and powerful, just as Logan, so it makes sense that the latter trusts more in him than in his own spoiled, out of touch, desperate to please, and sort of delusional kids.

[@Winter-Alpha-Omega]

Spot on.

[@emmag938]

That hall of mirrors analogy is spot on. Cheers - great video.

[@tomaitoe]

I'm glad I am seeing this for the first time now, after watching the incredible finale. You summed it up so well.

[@sadiyabaksh8906]

Wow.. This was great... Plz keep going....

[@dawnfmEnthusiast]

So many original thoughts in this video; one of the best Succession video essays! I'm just 7 mins in and I had to say so.

[@kevinavilaescobar8050]

this is definitely one of the video essays that i have watched on what is my in mind a true contender for the spot of greatest tv show of all time and deserves to be placed in the same league as shows like the sopranos and the wire.

[@mathiaskolding3241]

Excellent essay! Really enjoyed it.

[@LG-kg5pg]

Great video, man. Not much else to say. Good job.

[@melissas7980]

New subscriber here! Great video. Look forward to more, and thank you! Now I've added two more shows to my watchlist. ;-)

[@nls547]

You're really good.

[@MajPickles]

Babylon was great! Great break down

[@Ecutt]

Jesse Armstrong wrote my favorite black mirror episode

[@guillegarcia7146]

Which one?

[@Ecutt]

@@guillegarcia7146 The Entire History of You

[@greasybumpkin1661]

ah man, all these years later, hearing peep show dialogue still cracks me up. The show must go down as a national treasure.

[@nathanbanks5155]

Best show on tv right now

[@JoeNaeem]

Well F******** Done

[@Raespeach]

Boar on the floor

[@DSQueenie]

2:05 … You do know that Babylon is slang for police, right? 4:51 So how was Babylon connected with what you’ve gone on to say here? Other than it is written by Jesse Armstrong and features failed communication?

[@StudioErsatz]

The slang meaning of Babylon is the surface-level reference of the title. What's relevant to my analysis here is the deeper (although to me, just as obvious) meaning which helps enlighten the themes of the work. The reasons why I started the video by talking about Babylon are: (1) It's an underappreciated work that not many people know about, so I thought it would be interesting and unexpected to start off discussing that show rather than jumping straight into Succession (or leading in with a boring cookie-cutter introduction), (2) to trace out the development of the aspects of Jesse Armstrong's writing style that culminate in Succession (a well as the continuity in visual style). As explained in the video, both shows deal with the theme of communication--PR in Babylon and media mogul empire in Succession--but the comparison is just as interesting with respect to the ways in which the two shows offer different perspectives on that theme and the worlds they portray. As explained in the video, whereas Babylon's narrative is divided along the lines of different institutions or spaces in its world (police force, PR department, etc), Succession locks into one specific perspective within its world (the Roy family). The reasons why this is interesting are further developed in the video.

[@DSQueenie]

@@StudioErsatz Not everyone is as knowledgeable about the biblical story of Babylon so I feel like a little further explanation here would’ve made your point clear. I feel like by having the Babylon information at the front of this essay it meant that the links you were trying to get across much less obvious. I have to say personally, while it’s been a while since I saw Babylon when it first aired, I’m not sure I agree that Succession and Babylon have that much thematically in common other than obviously being written by the same writer who has a distinctive sense of humour and the visual style. However that’s just my opinion.

[@StudioErsatz]

@@DSQueenie It's cool that you have that opinion, but if you disagree with the connections drawn in the video (and repeated in the previous comment) then it would probably be best to explain why or present your own counter-arguments, rather than just say you disagree and add nothing else. I have explained what I think the shows have in common--I've never said they have "that much" in common, not sure what that even means or why it would matter--I've pointed out some thematic similarities as an excuse to introduce a lesser-known show and then segue into the main topic. That's all. There doesn't need to be anything more than that; any connection is interesting if it illuminates something. However that's just my opinion.

[@DSQueenie]

@@StudioErsatz you’re pretty confrontational aren’t you? 😂 I was going to say my proper opinion but I took it out of my comment because I felt it wasn’t relevant to what I was trying to say which was that I felt the beginning of the video wasn’t very strong despite you having overall some interesting things to say in the rest of the video. So below is what I took out: I’d say that compared to The Thick of It it’s much less about communication (despite the lead being ostensively the head of PR) really than it is about shifting power dynamics in a huge organisation like the Met, nature of truth when you are observed vs when you are unobserved. Thick of It on the other hand is all about the the nature of spin and how words can change reality and so is, in my opinion, the show Succession most borrows from.

[@StudioErsatz]

@@DSQueenie I'm not generally "confrontational" but your first comment had a pissy tone, so I responded in kind. I don't really care to dispute which of The Thick of It or Babylon is "more about communication"; it's obviously the central theme of both shows (again, the title is BABYLON for a reason). Your description of what Babylon is really about could also be applied to The Thick of It, but in the end, media and the communication of truth & non-truths (and how they are communicated across different platforms and through different spheres of influence) is what stands out to me most about that series (and is what was relevant to me going into Succession). I'll repeat that one of the reasons I wanted to focus more on Babylon is because of how it bridges the gap from comedy to drama (from The Thick of It to Succession) more plainly, and also the ways in which the approach to the theme of communication differ between Babylon and Succession was an interesting angle and provided a segue into the discussion of Succession.

[@AntonQvarfordt]

over-psuedo-intellectualizing nonsense. It's like the genre of KZbin videos that's all about taking something quite simple, and making it sound super-elaborate and sophisticated... So that people watching it think it's smart. Ridicilous.

[@bucknbury]

Have a day off

[@StudioErsatz]

Which two syllable word tripped you up bud

[@quinbrick8861]

@@StudioErsatzlmfao