The Prestige TV Podcast - The 25 Best 'Succession' Characters With Bill Simmons and Joe House
Episode Date: October 13, 2021In honor of Season 3 of HBO's 'Succession', The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to rank the 25 best characters from the show. Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Joe House Producer: Kyle Crichton ...Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome to the prestige TV podcast.
My name is Bill Simmons.
I'm here with my buddy Joe House of the Ringer, a fairway rolling,
and a bunch of other podcasts that we have.
We've known each other since 1988 in college.
We've had a lot of favorite TV shows over the years.
Succession is the latest.
We did a gimmick house for Grantland in 2000.
where I counted down my 20 favorite Boogie Nights characters.
And I made it seem like we were doing it.
I made a list.
You didn't sign off on the list.
And then you were outraged over and over again.
I think Dirk Diggler was like number seven or number eight.
How dare you?
And you were just furious.
And then as it went down and we were arguing and I thought we would recapture the magic of that with Succession.
We were going to do my 25 favorite succession characters.
25.
Yeah.
Well, we're going to zip through.
through the 25 through 15, but I didn't tell you the list. Are you prepared to get angry at me?
I'm prepared to get angry. I'm prepared to celebrate the calomary cock ring. I mean, I, you know,
you're not a man, Bill Simmons. You're a fucking planet. And I'm here for it. We're going to pay homage to
L to the OG. L to the OG. To multiple hooker girlfriends. Yes. To the Roy family, to bed shitters.
there's a lot that's going to happen.
So let's just get into it.
Some people who didn't make the cut house.
Yeah, honorable mentions.
Jamie, Jamie Laird.
Oh, I have him on my list.
You had him?
Yeah.
Well, he didn't make the cut.
All right.
Great scene by him, episode 10, season two,
where he really is pushing for the deal
and they kind of see through him
and they just sent him packing on the boat.
You like Jamie?
Well, I mean, he played an important role.
He filled.
He's a good role player, good bench player.
Yeah.
he's up.
Carolina, the PR person,
who had some good looks of either
complete horror or confusion.
I wanted more.
Wanted a little backstory.
Wanted her involved with maybe go on one date
with Kendall, nothing.
We never got the backstory with her.
Nate,
who had the affair with Shiv.
And then Tom basically took his lunch.
He took his wine at the wedding,
made him pour the wine back in the bottle
and completely emasculated him.
I didn't like Nate.
I didn't like his giant head.
I didn't think Shiv would be with him.
It bothered me that Shib liked him.
He should have looked better.
Yeah.
Right?
He should have been handsomer.
He should have been more of like a threat to people like us or in love with Shib.
He looked like a fucking Nate that you could bully to pour wine back in a bottle.
Like, imagine to pour the wine back in the bottle.
Like, go fuck yourself.
Unless Shib just has terrible taste in men and that was the point of Nate.
Well, I mean, her track record beyond Nate were some pretty handsome and exotic.
She ate that after it was a good looking guy.
Yeah, right.
Tom Wambingans.
Well, anyway, Nate's out.
Screw him.
Nan Pierce, I think the actress did a great job.
I just didn't love the two episodes with the Pierce's.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat.
It was a detour that basically took us back to the same point with the family and stuff.
Very good character, but I think she's taking the 24 billion.
Don't get a haughty with me, Nan Pierce.
Right.
The moral high ground.
Yeah, don't give us the moral high ground just because there's a New York magazine.
Anyway, she's out.
I like that actress, though.
She was the president in 24.
Cherry Jones.
Great, great job by her.
Iverson Roy didn't make the cut.
I only mention him.
Obviously, he's, he's, uh, Kendall's son.
He had some issues.
But the fact that they named him Iverson,
I thought was one of the five funniest things in the show.
It's such like a just like overtly rich white family thing to be like,
I want to name our son after Alan Iverson,
heroic,
Roak Sixer.
Like it's so stupid.
For the.
character who begins the entire series in the back of a car, loudly rapping Beastie Boys
in noise-counselling headphones.
Right. Iverson-Iristen, of course he named his kid Iverson.
Iverson, right. Well, he didn't make the cut either. All right. We're going to get to the top
25 right now. In reverse order. We'll do this quickly. Number 25, Marsha Roy, Logan's wife.
Wow. I thought she had some good moments. I liked when she laid into Shiv.
on the wedding weekend and she does the
he made you a playground and you think
it's a whole world. That's a fantastic line.
She's a power player. How is she only 25?
Is it because we didn't see her in the last two episodes?
I didn't like when she laid over for Rea.
So just to explain the character rankings for people.
I'm not ranking on who is the best actor,
best performance, just like the actual character,
the enjoyment they brought me.
Okay.
And then how authentic the character was.
Was the character on a straight line?
Was it written correctly?
Did it obey the way it was written?
And that Logan's wife, I don't feel like she rolls over for Rea like that in those two episodes.
It was like she was playing the long game knowing Raya was going to kind of burn out.
Okay.
They had established her as this badass from Lebanon.
He was like, don't fuck with this lady.
And then Holly Hunter shows up and she rolled over.
I didn't like it.
Did she roll over, though?
Did she think she was chess matching her?
She's punishing Logan, right?
Logan needs to get punished because the one thing he can't do is humiliate her.
Like that's the implicit bond that they have.
Like she indulges a lot with him.
She knows what the deal is.
She's the third wife and she likes the power component of the relationship.
But he humiliated her and she's punishing him.
I think she deserves higher than 25, but it's fine.
We'll talk through this list.
No sense of humor at all.
No sense of humor.
It's not like, oh, cool, here's a scene with Marsha Roy.
I think that's why she's love.
I think she's an effective character.
Won't be told my grandkids.
Won't be going on YouTube looking for Marsha Roy scenes.
To me, the best line relating to Marsha is what Lady Caroline Collingwood referred to her as the head of the Eastern Operations.
That was very...
What of her, Lady Caroline's...
Lady Caroline.
Well, we'll get there.
I know we will.
Number 24, I have Frank.
I thought the guy who played Frank was just perfect.
He's a great friend.
Yeah, he's a political guy, but he's also a punching bag, and he's resilient.
He takes stuff personally, but yet comes back for more.
He's very self-aware.
That's what I like about Frank.
Frank, the character, and as is throughout this show, I kept having this experience of not
being able to separate the actor from.
like they all seem to me now to inhabit those characters so well.
Like, I don't know if I could ever have a conversation with Karen Culkin and not expect him to do Roman.
Frank felt the same way to me.
Yeah, and Frank was one of those guys.
Yeah, but now he's Frank.
Classic.
But that was one of the interesting things about succession.
We had no history with basically anyone on the show except for Brian Cox and maybe Fisher Stevens.
And Colkin.
Yeah, and Fisher Stevens a little bit.
But it was all these fresh.
He kind of had to feel them out for it.
But now it's like,
the people. It's really hard to, I, watching Kendall either in succession or as the Red Sox
manager, Alex Cora, which are the two roles they could place. Looks exactly like Alex Corr,
I'm unbelievable.
Kendall Roy. But, uh, yeah, it's hard to separate. Anyway, Frank, number 24. That's fine. I enjoy him.
knows this place. Going to number 23.
Lawrence Yee. The head of Walter. Yeah. Some great lines and moments from him in the pilot episode,
which pilot episode,
let's talk about it quickly.
They hadn't really figured out the characters yet.
And I think with Joanna Robinson
and I talked about this last week,
it takes a few episodes.
I think for the writers to learn the characters
and the actors,
for the actors to kind of realize
how to color between the lines and stuff.
And like Kendall's,
well, do your thing on Kendall on the pilot.
Well, I just thought like across the board,
the point that you're making
is a good way of describing how I felt like
looking back, what you and I did was rewatch,
you know, you will rewatch every one of the 20 episodes
a couple times over.
Yeah.
And I was catching back up.
And as I sat through the first five or six episodes,
what I've come to understand and appreciate about these characters,
going back to them,
it's like,
how did we get,
they were rough caricatures.
They were like the worst versions of themselves.
They didn't have anything to like really, you know,
sink your teeth into.
Well, you use the word,
Campy, which I thought was good.
And, you know, that really, to me,
describes scenes like Roman jerking off in his office.
You know, after he's on the window.
Yeah, the first time he gets Frank fired and becomes the chief, the COO.
He goes up to his office, pulls down all the blinds and jerks off onto the window,
the 95th floor, whatever. Come on.
Yeah.
Well, the show settles in.
But Lawrence is really good in the first episode.
What's weird is in the Volta episode where Kendall tries to build.
up this multimedia thing that they bought and then destroys it at the end of the show.
I actually thought Lawrence, I didn't kind of live up to the promise of what a dick he was
in the first episode. He rolled over a little bit for Kendall.
He did get a bunch of big fat check.
Yeah, I guess he did.
Maybe he didn't care at that point.
Number 22, the Weasley Waco PR guy played by Fisher Stevens.
Once married to Michelle Fever.
I loved where Logan would just get mad at him and he would change his mind.
but he was just a good
beaten down PR guy.
He also did have,
you know,
some strong Machiabelly angles to him.
Logan respected him.
He did.
Very,
very similar to our friend Louis K.
And how he operated.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, very similar.
Okay.
Lewis takes it as a compliment.
Wishy-washy.
I don't think.
I'm kidding.
I don't think Lewis is going to take it that way.
That's all joking.
Number 22.
Brian,
the management training.
buddy. You love this guy. This is in my favorite episode, Safe Room. He's working with Ron Rockstone,
aka. It was great. He looks right out of a strong name. I like, he's like, what do you do?
He's like, I like hanging out with my cousins, Bob and Bob and Joseph. No, his nephews. His nephews.
He spends time with his nephews and he has high-tech drones. Yeah. No, he was good. He was a good,
sometimes when you have these one episode, you never see them good characters. They don't work,
but I really enjoyed that guy.
I have him tied for number 21
with the winner of 2019 Boer on the Floor.
Carl.
Carl, sure.
Carl, not the greatest character,
but he won Borr on the floor.
Carl Mueller.
Yeah, pulled off, like Tom had,
Tom was a minus 500 favorite
during Boar on the floor.
He had the sausage first.
Yeah.
Carl just would not be the night.
Stole the sausage.
And then he's funny on the odd at the end
when Kendall's like,
it's going to be me.
And there's a pause.
And Carl's like,
I don't mean to be too forward here,
but is there going to be any of their announcements?
Everyone is just covering their ass at all times of this show.
It's great.
All right.
Now we're into the top 20.
Ray and Jewel, I have a 20.
Yeah.
Really effective character.
Really smart.
Especially when she starts kind of seen.
This was the wrong job.
she's being set up to fail and she starts kind of pulling away.
And you could see her pulling away in that last episode.
I wanted more from Holly Hunter in this role.
In what respect?
I don't know.
How would you describe this character ultimately?
Like she's definitely a take no prisoners, businesswoman, really smart, really calculating.
But they tried to sell us on this thing with sexual attention thing with Logan.
Yeah, that was tough.
And I was just not buying it.
That was tough.
I don't know who it was less realistic for,
but that part was weird.
It was almost like,
like it had to be somebody a little more sultry
that I felt like Logan was willing to get seduced by the notion of
versus like she was more like her,
his intellectual equal.
And he already had that with his third wife.
Well, I think it was like a,
I definitely understand the notion of it being a calculated liaison, right?
And so she's appealing to,
all of Logan's, you know,
senses, vices, you know,
she's getting them at every level, emotionally, intellectually, intellectually,
physically, because that's how she wants to fulfill her ambition.
But the physical part wasn't there.
I didn't see the connection with them at all.
Like, let me, let me throw this at you.
Let's say Sharon Stone is in that role.
Well.
Casino Sharon Stone, but at her age now where she's like older.
Now people would say like Sharon Stone, she's not,
Sharon Stone is a good actress.
She's been good and, like, she's great in Casino.
Now, maybe that she's playing a crazy character in that,
but should have been somebody who had, you know,
somebody who's in their 60s,
but you can tell back in the day to get any man she wanted
at snap of her fingers.
I felt like she should have been leading Logan by his cock around
a little bit more than she was.
Other than that, it was an intellectual thing,
which again, he had with his wife.
Well, I, my biggest complaint with that character
was attaching her
to the stick in the mud
Pierce family.
I liked the arc of
Holly Hunter's character. By the way, I do
appreciate you inviting me on
this because it does appeal to my
inner English major nerd.
And this has been part of why we've gotten along
so well with television,
prestige, and otherwise over all these years.
But like, that arc
of that character
belonged to something other than
the Pierce family. It wasn't a great
fit, right? Because she was, she's one of the smartest characters that I think she's just very solid.
And the only weakness that she shows is the idea of she, it's an overdue to, you know,
have an affair with. Did they have an affair? Well, they went into a bedroom together and
Marcia. Yeah, see, I would have thrown that out. I don't know if I would have had the romance piece of it.
That's what I'm saying.
This is a complaint.
But that's why I have her ranked 20.
I just say something was missing.
That character either had to be more sultry or remove the romance stuff completely and just make her this calculated, badass businesswoman.
But then it's like, so she's kind of leading Logan?
I just didn't get it.
All right.
Number 19.
You and Roy.
The angry brother.
He's kind of the grim reaper of the show.
He just comes in.
He says terrible things.
Yeah.
You build an empire.
shit. Every time it's like,
we're like, man, wow. But great lines. I like him.
And he did
deliver for us
the true canonium
for Greg the egg, right?
Is he going to choose? And then, and it gave
us the opportunity for Logan to tell him
look, your uncle's
I mean, your grandfather's a coward.
What do you say? Uncle,
whatever, or Grandpa grumps.
Yeah, Uncle fun or Grandpa grumps. Uncle fun.
Uncle fun. Yeah, that's funny. He's 19.
All right, now we're getting this some good ones.
I have number 18, British heroin waiter.
He made the cut?
Yeah.
He was not an honorable mention?
Great guy.
Great character.
He made the most of his appearance on the show.
He screwed up the champagne thing,
took the yelling attack from Logan really nicely, I thought.
Well, I mean, he kept going with it.
That's what I made it extra delicious.
Didn't hold it against Kendall when he found out
maybe he'd have something to do drugs with at the end of the night.
got paid for the weekend,
let Kendall drive his car.
Downside,
swimming, not great.
Death, not a strong swimmer.
Swimming, but I like the character.
Number 17,
Stewie.
Yeah,
I have Stewie much higher than 17.
If I was going to be doing it.
Well, wait,
you're going to have to hear the rest of the list.
I think Stewie is actually in the right spot.
Highlight for Stewie for me,
other than he gets progressively
pissier.
More as serbic?
Pissier,
more acerbic and just more disdainful of the Roy's as the two seasons go along.
Stewie always has cocaine.
He sure does.
But never too much cocaine.
He always has the right amount of cocaine.
And it's like you got to go back and say, no, I'm out.
But he has enough to kind of get you going and make you make bad decisions.
Then he's out.
Judicious allocator of the cocaine.
Yeah.
He knew not to give it to Kendall when he needed Kendall.
He had it.
He said, I don't have it.
He had it.
Of course Stewie had it.
I like Stewie because I feel like,
from the very beginning of the show,
the relationship between him and Kendall,
he's always one half step smarter
and more calculated than Kendall.
He's what Kendall,
you know,
Kendall wouldn't say it,
but I think Kendall wishes he had the,
the acumen of Stewie,
the business acumen.
Because Stewie still,
as we sit here right this second,
entering the third season,
in the driver's seat.
Yeah,
you're right.
Cocaine,
what'd you call a cocaine,
cocaine adjudicator?
Allicator and cocaine.
or cocaine allocator?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've never done cocaine, but if I was a cocaine person, it would have been nice to have a
stewie around who never had too much cocaine.
Well, I knew what to give it out.
Yeah, the right amount and would always use it as a weapon.
Number 16, Naomi Pierce.
This is the name Pierce's daughter who Kendall gets involved with.
Great fucked up rich lady.
Yeah.
She kind of came through, but here's why I have her so high.
Reminding me of like 10 people I went to high school with.
She's honorable mention to me.
I didn't love.
I liked her.
You know,
she was an effective vehicle for showing the continued poor decision making by Kendall.
Kendall putting her on,
bringing her along for the family trip.
Yeah.
At that moment in the,
the crucial juncture for the Waystar Royko,
the future of the family,
the future of the company,
and he brings her along.
Yeah.
That's like an effective thing for his lack of judgment, but she didn't blow me away.
She had the great scene when she's going for the walk with Kendall.
Yes.
When he's when they're, what's at Turnhaven?
And he's like, and there's like this long pause.
And she's like, would you, would I like to do hard drugs?
Yes.
It's a great line.
Yeah.
I liked them with you.
Number 15, Gill.
So Gil.
I'm in a knife fight here and I'm holding a dildo made of American cheese.
played by Eric Begoge.
Now, Gil's probably a top 10 character,
but I hold it against him because he was on Billions
and he tried to do the rarely scene
cross the beams.
Billions and Succession.
Two totally different shows.
I love them both.
I don't, I feel like if you're on the Billions team,
you can't then be on Succession.
I don't understand this.
Pick your show. Pick your team.
You can't be on both.
He's just trying to make a...
Eric Bogosian...
just out there hustling.
Why are you?
Yeah, you're on the Billions team.
Don't, don't crush his hustle.
That's good hustle by him.
The best thing I love him as Miles Surrey
calls him fictional Bernie Sanders.
I think that's good.
My single favorite moment involving Gil Evis
was Roman calling him Senator Beavis.
I love so much.
My favorite moment was when Connor,
who will get to much later in this top 25
when Connor gets into it with him at the wedding
and just starts going in
and the guy's like, all right, I'll see you later.
I'm like, I dusted that guy.
Yeah, he's not up for a debate.
Yeah, I've won that debate.
Yeah, I got Gild 15.
Number 14, Pissbucket Ray.
Pissbucket Ray.
Piss Bucket Ray from the board of floor.
Out of nowhere.
Yeah, he's very brief.
I don't even know if he has a line,
but Ray needs to take a piss.
Logan tells him, why don't you pee in here?
He's so stupid. He almost does it.
We get to see Ray later.
And you nicknamed him Pisspucket Ray and it stuck with me.
I have a number 14.
He's part of Roman's attache.
Isn't he like an executive something or other?
He's symbolic of just how terrible all these people are.
Like it's just a series of zeros surrounding these.
That great amassed group there for the hunting expedition.
Yeah.
You know, notionally.
And they're all hidden there.
And Logan doing a masterclass in, you know, I have an agenda.
I want it to find something out.
Here's how I'm going to run this show.
Yeah.
And this poor dope just wants to go take a leak.
Piss bucket Ray.
Logan's like, nope, nope, you can't.
Nobody's leaving.
Go get a bucket.
Number 13.
We never see him on screen.
Uncle Moe.
Leicester McClintock.
The source of so much comedy.
Oh, my God.
leads to some of Conner's best moments.
Mo touched us all.
Should I lead with this?
Moe touched everyone in this room.
Just crossing every line.
I loved it.
We don't see it as much in 2021 anymore.
Everyone's too afraid to make jokes about an Uncle Mo.
It was so fucking funny.
And it feels like he's going to be a character in season three.
Oh, my God.
He's dead.
It feels like he was the one who talked for the book.
We're going to get more Uncle Mo.
Some flashback.
we could get some flashback stuff potentially.
Is that what you're saying?
Uncle Mo, yeah, you're right.
That would make sense.
Flashback Uncle Mo.
Uncle Mo, just in general, just a hilarious concept.
And then Willa introduce yourself to Mo's wife.
He's a major, major, exactly.
I'm sorry about Mo.
Didn't do a great job with the boatsline.
What do you mean?
Well, a lot of people have died on the boats.
There were crimes, just Moe was sweeping them up, left and right.
All right.
Number 12.
It's about to get real.
Yeah.
Shivroy.
Whoa.
Yeah, I am penalizing her big time.
Not a top 10 out of Bill Simmons.
No.
And here's the thing.
Sarah Sniff, amazing actress.
Yes.
I actually really like the shift character.
I think she's incredibly important in the show.
So goddamn frustrating that I had to downgrade her like six, seven spots.
She's the one character of all the simple.
including Logan and her brothers and her uncle, whoever, she's all over the place.
Is she smart?
Is she dumb?
Is she on the family side?
Is she not?
Is she a good sister?
Is she not?
Like she has that moment with Kendall and Safe Room when he hugs her.
And it's like all of a sudden she's this authentic caring sister.
And then other times she just wants to trample everyone in the family.
And she loves Tom.
She doesn't love Tom.
Now maybe that's the point of the character.
but it's a roller coaster ride
and I think out of all the characters
on the show it's the one character they have not
figured out totally who she is
what she cares about
what does she want
if she liked the family this month
why did she work much love
why did she work for Gil
what's the point of that
this is the thing right
and you're keying on
how did she not see Holly Hunter
coming with the setup
and it's like are you smart or you're not smart
so this is there's a frustration
with the character arc
because we can like tolerate
one vice, one sort of, you know, blind spot.
And for her, what they set us up with in terms of that blind spot was, you know,
she wants to not be tied down to one man.
I mean, that feels like the one thing where, and she's willing to use, you know,
she's got a, like all of them, a calculus, and she's willing to use all of her sort of tools
to sort of get what she wants.
But there are a lot of questions
about her decision making.
We were presented with her early on
as having a great political nose,
and yet in many other instances,
her instincts are so completely wrong.
She embarrasses herself beyond repair
at the dinner with the pierces.
I mean...
Yeah, the Pierce thing was weird.
Right. When they're on stage for the panel
and she calls her dad...
A dinosaur.
She says the dinosaur thing, and it feels like it's, she's like too smart for this stuff.
That's it.
And I guess my question is this.
If we're going to say this character has bad decision making, that's one thing.
I just don't think they can make up their mind on what this character is.
And again, I don't believe in the actress because I think Sarah Snook is an amazing actress.
Like, I love her.
I'm in with her for life.
And what she was able to do in season two, you just, like, you just have a crush on her.
Well, and not only that, but like, there are some really touching, revealing, heart-wrenching moments when she goes to bat for Tom after Tom tells her, you broke my heart, essentially.
And then she just shows a human decency that we don't see out of the Roy family otherwise.
I don't know. I think she's kind of a monster.
Well, she's definitely, you know, you can use that word because of the unfurray.
fettered ambition and how the, you know, the desire, she's so tickled by her dad coming to her
and saying, I think you're the one. I mean, he basically sets her up for three quarters of a season
of easy manipulation. He just pushes her around a little bit in the direction he wants her to go.
Which also isn't authentic to me. Yeah. Well, that's the frustration that you're saying. Frustration
with the narrative. So here's thing. If you're telling me all this is intentional,
the showrunner Jesse Armstrong,
his whole point with this character
is to make us really frustrated.
I would say that's fine.
But we also have other evidence
from the first few episodes
that they figured out some of these characters
as it went along.
They completely figured out Kendall
from where he was in those first couple episodes.
Roman, same thing,
made him way less campy.
He's just firing off one-liners.
Shiv, it's like, am I rooting for her?
Hard to say.
Hard to say.
I don't have good answer.
Do I think she has a good soul?
I think what she did in terms of going to bat for Tom,
plus some of the moments where it's just the three kids together,
not with Connor.
Right.
Are really authentic.
I'm glad I use that word.
Like genuine sibling bonding bond.
Good sister brothers.
Great sister moments.
Yeah.
Well, I have 11 characters.
I like more in there.
Tabitha is our number 11.
That's Roman's hooker girlfriend.
And I guess not a hooker.
or maybe more like a...
No, I don't know.
What is she?
I don't know.
I'm not sure.
She was participating in a sex party.
It seemed like she probably was being compensated for her participation in that particular party.
So she's like a hostitute?
Maybe a hostitude.
Yes.
I like that a lot.
I don't know what she does for money.
What does she do for money?
Did she have a job?
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's unclear to me.
Well, she had a snowball incident with Tom.
And it was hot.
It was hot.
It's a hot thing.
It was a very hot thing.
Greg the egg did not agree.
Swallow my own load.
Greg the egg did not agree.
Greg the egg was horrified.
He was mortified.
But Tabitha got off some great lines.
Her dynamic with Roman,
I never watched Masters of Sex,
but apparently she was on that show too.
Her dynamic with Roman was awesome,
where Roman just wouldn't have sex with her.
And she's,
they just started dating.
She's sexually frustrated.
And she's getting off, you know,
Barb's left and right.
The phone sex scene is a classic.
Well, she's a, I love that character and they have a couple of these in the show.
They're like kind of outside of the Roy orbit and they're truth tellers.
Like she tells a kind of truth about the character, about Roman's character.
She's a hostitude.
Right.
So she, she's worldly, right?
She can see, this is why she's so appealing.
This is why Roman likes her.
Well, she's friends with Naomi Pierce, which makes me think, so how did they cross past?
Party circuit.
Party circuit.
You think she's like a socialite?
Like a Paris Hilton?
Yes.
I need more Tabith of the backstory.
I mean, maybe we get it in season three.
Spin it off.
Number 10.
Somebody who is a hooker.
Willa.
Yep.
We never see her in that role.
She's definitely a call girl though.
Well, that's the first few episodes.
Yeah.
And they're worried about it and they don't let her in a couple of family pictures and all that stuff.
she is like a weirdly valuable character.
Hmm.
She comes in and you're like, all right.
So this is just the blank slate,
Connor.
Like there's some stuff going on with her.
Like she,
especially there's some comic stuff with her
that she develops in season two,
especially in the safe room episode.
When she throws the iPad off the yacht
in the final episode.
Fantastic.
Unbelievable.
Her being a playwright,
her kind of fumbling along.
The way she kind of navigates
the relationship with her
and Connor where it's like, does she like this person?
Is she attracted to him?
Yeah, maybe.
But by the last few episodes, season two, they do feel like a team.
It's like she's kind of bought in, right?
Yeah, because she loves the money.
Yeah.
I mean, she loves the lifestyle.
I'm not suggesting that she's purely motivated just to like try and cash, but like.
Oh, no.
She's purely motivated by the money.
What are you talking about?
Whatever her love.
What else would it be?
Whatever she perceives of her life options, she's fine with making whatever
self-compromises she needs to live this lifestyle and be a partner with Captain Dufus.
And she is like the intellectual side of that relationship.
She wrote the eulogy that would not get him in hot water with the Mo Lester.
She has weirdly astute feelings on things.
Some instincts that are right.
Yeah.
She was the one who realized that funeral, don't say anything that could hurt your
election chances. Now, she was also dumb enough to think Connor had a chance to be the next
president. Well, I think she was just indulging him. There's no downside for her to indulge that nonsense.
Probably would have come out at some point that she was a call girl if he, if he, if he,
you think, is that that? You could argue like Melania Trump, who knows nothing came out with that.
Great point. We still don't know her background. Great point. Okay. I have Will at number nine.
I have throwing the iPod off the yacht or number 10. Throwing the iPad off the yacht was great. Number nine.
our guy Greg the egg
Yeah someone have him higher
I think his usage rate
Boy this is sacrilegious to some people
I thought his usage rate was a tad too high
A little too high
Yeah like they like
If you could have toned it down 8%
I think there were some fourth quarters
When they were clearing out for Greg
That maybe I wouldn't have
I think he was more of a
Come off the bench
Hit a couple threes set some picks
Kind of character
The highlight of him is him
And Tom together I think
they had some of the best stuff.
Yeah, really, nearly every kind of scene.
And he had, of anyone in the first 20 shows,
the easiest to understand best sketched out arc.
Yeah.
From the buffoon he was in the first one who didn't even have enough money
to pay for a cab and all that stuff,
to where he goes at the end, where he becomes Kendall's
kind of, you know, side conspirator when they finally pull it on logo.
The documents in the envelope.
And this goes back to the ship thing where it's like,
they sketch that Greg arc out perfectly.
And yet the Shiv thing looks like the win expectancy chart for one of those basketball games
or people keep hitting threes.
It's like it's just lines going up and down.
It's like, where are we with Shib this week?
I don't know.
So the Greg the Egg thing, I totally agree with you in terms of his arc having, you know,
a sensible kind of trajectory is something that we could wrap our minds around.
And I also totally agree with the idea that his use or
treat was a little high for my taste as well.
I get the idea of his, you know, naivete, whether it's, it's calculated or not, as another
vehicle for us to, you know, kind of get a perspective on how these characters, you know,
the true nature of the characters, we see it through Greg's naivete a little bit.
And his, you know, he's batting, his batting average is pretty high in terms of his political instincts.
and how to create opportunities.
He's got a little bit of street hustle to him,
a little bit of street sense.
Saving copies of those documents, pretty smart.
Choosing not to bring, you know,
he both in an early second episode,
third episode,
where he's sent back to the house to get some belongings.
Shiv gives him,
Roman gives him an instruction to bring back the papers to sign.
Shiv tells him not to.
He sides with Shiv on that decision.
I mean, he's got some instincts.
Well, he's number nine.
Number eight.
This seems, I'm surprised he's not higher, but this is where we are.
L to the OG, Logan Roy.
Logan.
Yeah, I have him eighth.
At seven characters, I enjoy more than them.
Okay, let's hear it.
Here's my issue with Logan, other than horrible father, a monster of a human being.
And as Mallory Rubman said, all of these kids.
are damaged birds because of him, solely because of him.
And he pits up against each other constantly.
But that makes him a great character for the show.
My issue with the Logan character,
and I'm about to ruin him for you a little bit.
So this guy's in such bad health,
the first four or five episodes,
and summons this unbelievable Larry Bird
with the injured back 1992 playoffs performance
just to give his speech
so he doesn't seem weak
to kind of stave off the coming
you know, Logan,
or Kendall trying to take company from him.
And he's just weak losing his fastball.
He's peeing in the office on the floor.
That's his, that's a house.
It's at home.
He's, yeah.
Well, he also peed in Kendall's office.
Yes.
Well, that was deliberate.
Yeah.
But he's doing stuff like that.
And then first season,
first episode season two,
he's thrown fucking 95 miles an hour again.
What happened?
Is this guy?
He recovered.
Recovered from what?
He looked like he had dementia.
He had a stroke.
You don't recover from a stroke.
The first season, he has his 80th birthday for Christ's sakes.
I think it's, I don't think it's authentic enough that by basically season two, he's throwing
95, he's battling everybody, he's controlling the room, he's doing bore on the floor.
It's like, this guy was this weak old, doughtery man who was about to lose his company, and he just
miraculous recovered? It's never addressed. I don't feel like it was that miraculous
recovery. Where's the hospital trip? But they're like, hey, Logan's really doing great. We're so
fired up. A big part of that season two thing is Kendall managing his meds because
whoever it was, the assistant that was both missed one dose. So Kendall takes it upon himself.
And that's part of, you know, Kendall's redemption with his father. And he puts him close to his
father to be responsible for that. But he's still taking his meds. He still needs to sit down all the time.
He still, they do. I mean, I hope Brian Cox is in good health, but the character is fat.
You know, he's having a hard time. You can see him laboring around. I'm surprised that you think
that he's not capable. It's sheer force of will for a megalomaniac like that who believes that the
world revolves around him through sheer force of will, that he's, he's unstoppable. He's literally
unstoppable. And so a stroke, fuck that. He's got a, he's got a company to run. And his ego,
okay. He's a planet, not a man. All right. So if we're to think that he's recovered and he's
kind of back to being Logan, how does he get like his ass handed to him by Nan Pierce? How does he not see
the Ray of Jewell thing at all.
Why does he handle the thing with Shiv and
Kendall so badly? I think he handles
all that stuff fine. And I think...
He does? What's good about it?
No, I mean... I would argue that he's terrible at his
job. Those are the aspects
that make him
you know, that tie him
to the story in a
way that makes it plausible. He's not
infallible. He's not God.
He's not capable. He's not every
decision that he makes is perfect.
he's paranoid and, you know, delusional and he's a narcissist, like all of the pathological stuff that
goes along with him.
But that doesn't keep him from making bad business decisions or questionable business decisions,
right?
And we know he's people who have bad decisions with his kids.
Listen, I love the Logan Roy character.
Yeah.
I'm just nitpicking because I wanted to put seven people above him.
Okay.
How about this?
Goes to the fuck off thing.
a little too much. Wow.
Yeah. Not for me. Yeah. Not for me.
Develop some other low post moves. No.
No. That one works. It can't just be fuck off twice an episode.
It's a sky hook. It works every time.
Fuck off works every time. It's like.
It's a, it's a Kareem sky hook, Bill Simmons.
It's like when good times, when JJ started saying dynamite every episode, it's like,
all right, we get it. No, I like dynamite every episode.
Fuck off should be used like a nuclear weapon. When it's used, it should be this impactful,
incredible thing. He's throwing it around
people on the fucking street.
It's a very versatile fuck off.
He uses it in a dozen different ways.
Terrible father.
Yes.
I think the best Logan moments for me are like
when he is the chess master,
like the last episode of the first season,
Kendall kills the guy,
brings Kendall in the next day and he just navigates
the room just perfectly.
And all of a sudden,
like the old man's got his fastball back.
I think he's all over the place in season two
in a way that's kind of weird.
Okay.
It's like,
what is good
about him running a business
anymore?
He's ready to double down
on the,
on the Nazi anchor.
Hey, we stuck by our talent.
I got married
in Hitler's bunker.
It's just which way
is the wind blowing
for in each moment.
All he cares about
is making money
for the company.
And, you know,
he demolishes Walter.
That couldn't have been
a good business decision.
I don't know if it was or wasn't.
Yeah, you're just a Logan defender.
Well,
that's true.
I am.
When I get to these other seven characters,
you'll see why Logan was eight.
Number seven, Jerry, your favorite 64-year-old Cougar.
I would put her in the top three.
She's in the top three for me.
The best thing about this character is you could tell she wasn't supposed to be that important of a piece of the show in the first four or five episodes
and hit everything out of the park to the point where they go into season two and they're like,
we actually have to lean into this.
It's the actress.
We have something great.
Great actress.
Jay Smith Cameron.
Yes.
Jay Cameron Smith or Jay Smith Cameron?
Yes.
Jay Smith Cameron Cameron Smith.
Yes.
She's great.
I don't know how she pulls off sexual attention with Roman
and this weird mother son kind of thing,
the thing he's been looking for because he obviously has such a fucked up relationship
with his mom.
It's a piercing emotional intelligence,
and that's why I like her.
She is present for every crisis facing the Roy family,
and they are in perpetual crisis.
and her as the trusted concedingly this might be part of the appeal to her might be like the lawyer in me right you know 25 years ago i went to law school and i went through all of that there is a certain stability to her right she's not up and down and all over the place in this this heaving sea of the roy family she's constantly just plowing along on the on the tugboat and not getting tossed and not getting flipped over
and everybody seeks her counsel.
I mean, I, plus just what she does with Roman is otherworldly.
She saved that character to me.
Yeah.
Because they turned, Roman was such a caricature of a jerk off, you know, New York dipshit.
I loved that.
Who wouldn't spend any, you know, couldn't bother to spend five minutes building any kind of business acumen or anything.
And they used her, used that character, her character, to convince him.
filling a mother role that just take,
take six weeks, go do the business training thing.
And I'll be your,
your ally in this.
Yeah.
That nurturing instinct, like,
that's, it really adds to the richness of the whole show to me.
And it saved Roman to me.
Also a great political move by her.
Incredible political move.
And this is different to her and shift.
That character was reliable.
The decision she made and the way she played scenes with different
characters and just this is just how to play the room she was very consistent whereas i felt like
shib was all over the map depending on the episode or the season i didn't know where i don't think
she knew because it was being written all over the place jerry jerry just from the first moment
even when they're talking about should we do the pierce day or not the board in the four episode
and she's the one who's like yeah reservations i'm not sure but
but that's what she should have said
because they had built up the equity
that she was going to be the one that said that.
They did a good job with her.
I should mention here just for the listeners,
House was devastated that she didn't get naked
with Roman.
There's still time.
Season two.
Still time.
I jokingly texting during that.
I was like, we upset that we didn't get a sex scene with Jerry
and she's like, upset, I was furious.
It's not too late.
Season three.
Not too late.
Jerry's going to break it out.
Time for number six.
25 favorite characters on succession.
Number six, it's two people.
It's the fly guys.
Oh my God, of course.
They're only in two scenes.
They barely have any dialogue.
The first one, they show up for Tom's bachelor party and get left behind.
And then the second one, they show up for the wedding.
We see them getting out of a car.
No, the bus.
And the bus.
And the bus that's not allowed to drive all the way up.
Tom goes, hey, it's the fly guys.
And it does like this fake punchy thing.
Just, I love that they, it's almost like the Russian in the woods and the Sopranos.
There's no backstory with the fly guys.
There's like clearly his idiot friends from college.
Why do they go along with it?
They probably buried a prostitute like 20 years ago somewhere.
Oh, no.
No, I don't think there's anything sorted among them.
Oh, the flag guys have, terrible things have happened with the fly guys.
I don't know.
The fly guys and Tom, yeah, they're too dopey.
They went on a Bulgaria trip and definitely there was a murder that was covered up.
I don't think that.
I love the fly guys.
Can we start, can we find two people in our lives to call the fly guys?
It's so dumb.
The fly guys.
Yeah.
This is where people are getting mad that had the fly guys over Logan Roy.
People are mad.
It's my list.
Number five, Kendall Roy.
Sure.
Rapper.
Method.
Father.
Scheming fuck up son.
Not method.
Co-co-co-Hod.
Well, he tried meth too that day in New Mexico.
A rational confidence investor.
bed shitter.
It's a good list.
What a character.
I'll just say this.
Jeremy Strong.
I think the best performance on HBO
since Gandalfini and the Sopranos.
Wow.
Yeah.
In the last 15 years,
I think it's the best anyone's done
on that network.
Because that means you like him better
than anybody in Game of Thrones.
Yeah.
And you didn't even hesitate.
Yes.
Even Dingledge.
Even Dinklage.
Yeah.
Wow.
I think it's a much harder character.
He's got to do so many things over the course of those 20 episodes.
And, you know, your heart breaks for him.
You hate his guts.
He's a fucking asshole.
He has a weird morality to him, even though he has no morals at all.
And he's just this incredibly damaged guy.
And navigates it the whole way where it's never not believable.
and just an incredible actor.
Like honestly,
just an incredible actor.
The heel turn that ends season two
is an all-time, wow, jaw-dropping.
It's great.
And the only reason that it packs the punch
that it delivers is because of him,
because of the arc of him.
Well, you said it,
because we watched the end of it today, again,
I've seen it 10 times.
He's on the head, he's on the out of the headphones.
he's watching, he sees Shiv come out,
and she goes over to Tom and whispers,
and now he's starting to realize,
oh, they're going to make me the fall guy.
I'm the one.
And then she's like, hey, Kendall,
and he takes up the headphones,
does the slow motion walk,
has the scene with the dad.
And you were saying he does the Judas kiss.
It looks like a Judas kiss to me.
Yeah, absolutely right.
He's like, why wasn't it in me?
And he's like, you're saying,
you don't have it in you.
You're not a killer.
You're not a killer.
He gives him the Judas kiss,
goes back to the table,
says it's me.
They say,
Roman, you're the new,
what do they call?
Chief Operating Officer.
And he gives him, like,
Roman, that proud look.
Like,
you do a great job,
Ron.
Like,
it felt sincere.
It did.
The relationship between the siblings,
I thought was handled really well.
Me too.
The over and over again
tapped into,
and you have a bunch of siblings,
so you get this.
Like,
there's moments where it feels like
they're all like 10 years old again,
right?
the way they fight, make fun of each other.
It's just, I, you know, not to keep saying the word authentic, but very authentic.
Well, the shared experience that they have, the damage that each of them suffers at the hands of their, you know, insane sociopath father.
Oh, I think you're going to say insane sociopath.
And it turns out the damage isn't from their father.
It's from their mother.
Who's way meaner than the father?
She is a tour of force.
Yeah, we're going to get to her in a second.
So many good Kendall moments.
I like when
before he kills the waiter,
when Greg
goes and basically insinuates
he has Blackbone. He's, look at you.
You little McAvellian, fuck. I see you, Greg.
I see you, Greg. I like it.
It's really good.
He does. I think it means they think of me as a cockering
made from Calamari. Frank, like the deadpan
of it, he
is just really great.
Yeah. Great character.
Oh, it's all time.
I can't wait to see season three.
So how was he not in the top four?
Well, I have Roman at four.
I'm starting to vacillate now.
I kind of wish I had Roman 5 and Kendall at 4 just from what you said about Roman earlier.
But Roman, they figure out that character about halfway through season one.
And I think a lot of it probably would do with ad lipping from Culkin.
But he gets off more funny one-liners.
Oh.
I mean, you can do a YouTube clip, but it would be like 20 minutes long.
he becomes almost like if it was Kirby enthusiasm,
he's like what Super Dave met to Kirby enthusiasm.
But if Super Dave was a much more important character on the show, right?
I seriously, if I ever met Kieran Culkin,
I just don't know how I could have a conversation with him
and not feel like I was talking to Roman Roy.
Like how does he operate in his room?
I've seen him do like behind the scene stuff and he's explaining the character.
And it's still to me in Roman Roy's voice,
I feel like Roman Roy is explaining Roman Roy.
It's an amazing, amazing character that he inhabits and is just his body,
his physical, the physical way that he presents that character is so on point and powerful
and believable.
And it makes me, this is the experience I said when we talked about it,
I resent that character through the first four or five episodes because it wasn't until
I went back and rewatched it to see.
I feel like they did him a disservice a little bit.
We didn't get to see like all of the rich,
complex, you know, more complex possibilities for him
until really season two.
But man, it's a great character.
Tremendous job by that guy.
He's, it's like, he's probably closer to Fredo
than Kendall is.
But Connors.
They start there.
Him and Conner kind of share the Fredo thing.
Connor's the Frado.
It's not even close.
But like the boardroom scene when Kendall's trying to do the overthrow.
And Roman just doesn't have, ultimately just doesn't have the balls to go against his dad.
And they show him in the table and he's like, his body language, he's like slinking in his seat.
Because they treat him like a baby.
I feel like they short changed him a little bit.
Yeah.
But by the end of, by the, basically the bachelor party episode.
is when he comes into his own.
And honestly, the whole thing that goes down in Turkey feels like the,
where they use that as the vehicle to give him the seasoning, the gravitas, like, you know,
because he almost delivers an out for the family.
But then it's smart enough to realize it's probably a house of cards and they can't do it.
And it actually shows some real business acumen.
It was awesome.
It was a great, great character turn.
And it's just in the last two episodes of season two.
I think my favorite Roman moment was after he got rid of the fly guys and he goes,
all right, who wants to fuck a hobo or whatever?
And Tom's like, what?
There are too many of those kinds of lines.
Roman is a fantastic character.
All right.
Number three, the mom, Lady Caroline.
Yeah, Lady Caroline.
Now, you talk about incredible PR and usage rate.
Every time she's on the screen, she's insulting somebody.
The insults, I got to say this, scares me to say this, but she reminds me a little of my mom.
This is when my mom, my mom after like four drinks where she's just like this just could kind of get a little vicious.
But this, just everyone is terrified of her. It's so funny that she's the one the kids are all afraid of not their own dad.
Their dad who's one of the biggest villainous, most feared media titans of the last 30 years, at least the
show makes us think. And the mom is the one that has everybody just on pins and needles.
Because she cuts right to the core. She sees through every single one of them and has them all
figured out immediately. She's going around the wedding, asking people how long it's going to last.
With a twinkle in her eyes. Yes. She's mean for sport. She's the everyone on the show is incredibly
mean, which I think is the biggest criticism against it. She's the one who's just like, I'm mean.
this is who I am.
I'm owning it.
You can all pretend you're somebody else.
I'm the one who's going to pretend nothing.
This is who I am.
I am a mean person.
It's great.
Her toast where she says,
you know,
I want to tell you how much I love you
because I don't think I'm going to be around
for your second wedding.
But that punchline,
it's fucking devastating.
Incredible.
And then,
you know,
the big payoff when Kendall goes back
when they're in England
and he's fucked up
because he's in the house of the kid he killed.
And then he wants to convide in his mom that night.
And she's like, you know, what's doing in the morning?
I'm a little tired.
Like she just has no empathy or any sort of sense of her kids being in danger,
in trouble, what their moods are.
She's a monster.
She's the biggest monster on the show.
And I'm here for it.
And an emotional distance, right, that's not going to be bridge.
We never really do.
It's not distance.
It might be, she's on another point.
Yeah, that's right.
She has, but it's just great job.
What's her name, Lady Caroline?
Lady Caroline Collingwood, I believe.
Yeah, I hope we get to see her again.
All right, well, the top two for me, this is really Bird versus Magic.
This is Brady versus Manning.
This is Ali and Frazier.
Tom and Connor in the final two.
I have Tom at two.
Tom, some of the best lines in the show.
You can't make it.
Tom, without breaking some greggs.
I didn't cheat all the sperm
stayed in my own body, like a closed loop
system. Close loop system is
you don't really hear about syphilis.
You much about syphilis anymore. It's very
much the MySpace of STDs.
He has like 40 of those.
He's, I think,
gets the most out of
a character of anybody on this show.
Like, even like we talked about Culkin,
that guy, Romans, pretty close
to Culkin, right? Tom in real
life might be a completely different human being
than he is on this show.
The single biggest, you know,
I don't know if it's a shock
to the system, but like watching
the behind the scenes
and hearing him and Shiv
talk in their natural British accent.
And Shiv's Australian.
I mean, Shiv's Australian and he's
English, right? He's from the UK.
Yeah. And hearing their accents
is like, wow!
What a wow that is.
He's so, it's such a complicated character.
He might be gay.
We're not, or like he might have,
they're like,
he's clearly like kind of in love with Greg,
but I don't,
I can't unpack that relationship,
but he gets so mad when Greg tries to leave him.
He's like,
you're mine!
Yeah.
He's, you know,
obviously a climber,
but I also think he really loves Shiv.
I agree.
He's made that trade.
He's made a trade where he,
understands that he
for the purpose of the life
and lifestyle that he wants
he's hit he's
shib is a lottery ticket
he's won the lottery ticket
he has her affection
he thinks that he's prepared to accept her
and really the whole family on whatever
terms they serve up even when Logan
insults him and says you've buried a man
who's beneath you right in front of him
it's perpetual humiliation
yeah they humiliate him to his face
relentlessly and he takes it
and he takes it and he takes it but you can't feel bad for him
because he's also a bad person
he's complicit in that when they think
there's a shooter in the in the building
in that episode he's ready to like bowl over
I mean he deliberately
knocked over executives coming
and he's running he pushes people
out of the way
great character
superb absolutely I think one of my favorite
HBO characters ever
wow yeah okay I really think
I really as good as everybody is
I think Tom and Connor, for me, are up there with some of the greats over the years, like, Atabisi.
We loved Atabisi.
Who was better than Adam C?
Speaking of an emotional and rich, you know, a depth.
What was Marty Funkhouser?
Marty Funkhauser's sister?
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh, God.
You're going through the Polly Walnuts.
I mean, we've had some great ones over the years.
I would have Tom and Connor alongside all of them.
Tom great.
In the ship thing, it's like you almost don't want it to work out.
I know Tom's a bad person, but I also know Shiv's going to destroy him and he's probably
to end up committing a murder or something bad's going to happen to him.
I don't know why I'm rooting for him because it's not like he's redeemable, but I just,
the actor is so likable.
It's great character.
And he loves her.
That's the thing, right?
We actually see a real affection.
He doesn't want to do a threesome because he just wants to.
wants to be with his wife.
Yeah.
She tries to, you know, give him the threesome as a way of making peace for the fact that she told
him on their wedding night, that she wanted an, she didn't want to be monogamous.
She wanted an open relationship and maybe the threesome is, you know, a way to.
And he's like, you know what?
I'm not a hippie.
I just want to have my wife.
I just want to be with my wife.
And then that scene on the beach is just devastating.
the sad that I am with you.
I'm not sure that the sad I am without you is going to be worse than the sad that I am with you.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, Tom can pull off that scene.
He can pull off walking over to Logan and just taking his chicken.
Well, that's what he does next.
And then he can pull off the ate his own sperm after getting blown at his bachelor party.
And then it's just reconciling with it for the next.
I was hot.
And he's just like searching for approval from anybody that it's okay.
Okay.
Amazing.
Fantastic.
All right.
Connor is my number one.
Okay.
I'll give you some reasons.
This should have been the worst character in the show.
All of these shows have the one character that doesn't quite work, but they're kind of stuck going down the road.
I said last week with Joanna that like Billions, Axe's wife was that character.
They just couldn't figure it out.
And eventually they kind of had to nudge her off.
But they all have them.
Every show has that one where it's like, ah, this one.
Even the Sopranos, you know, when they would detour sometimes with like, what was the priest that Carmelo was in love with?
We had to deal with that guy.
We had to get like Furio and, you know, they all kind of detour in the wrong ways.
This show, it's perfectly cast.
The detour has never really happened.
But then Connor is the one who's like, all right, I get it.
It's the Black Sheep half-brother.
He's the flat pancake.
Yeah, I get it.
All right.
Calls him.
But Alan Ruck is.
playing him. So it's like, that's a good sign.
Had a good history of that guy.
Some of the highlights.
The Oster Litz Ranch had to change the name.
Apparently it was offensive in the 1800s.
He debates Gil and he goes, I fucking smoked him.
He funds a hooker's terrible play.
He runs for president.
He does the presidential, what's that weird video he did?
Yeah.
The hype video.
He does the speech at Moe's funeral. He does the speech
for his dad's work event.
I love you.
Super much.
Super dad.
Whatever that thing.
He's just, he's always on.
It's like he's hitting a home run every time.
So the counter argument would be that he is,
he's written in a one-note way,
but I think that Alan Ruck just fills him with a level of surreal insanity.
That he just inhabits.
He is the eccentric weirdo, out of touch, black sheep, older sibling belongs to a different mother character.
Got it.
Okay.
That guy I know.
But what Alan Ruck does with him then inhabits him.
There's always a twinkle in his eye.
I always want to hear what he has to say.
I'm always up for a conversation between him and Willa.
Oh, yeah.
It's like they can, you can spin.
The great thing about this show.
you could have spun off Greg and Tom
and you could have spun off
it's not too late
it's not too late you've two spin off shows
on the show
and the flag guys obviously
well that's a backstory show
yeah
flashback show now it's just
every time he's in a scene
he never
it's like if you're playing basketball
with them
he only does what he can do
he's never interested in doing
anything other than helping the team win
he's in the right spots
if you hit if you pass up
the ball in the corner
he's hitting the three
he's getting the big rebound he's just he's just fun to play with well he's willing to do
anything i mean he he he's so out of touch that he he'll go do any he asks his father for a hundred
million dollars right because he's that i'm a little cash straps you know i'm a little illiquid at
the moment if this play isn't great can i get a hundred million dollars
like he doesn't ask for five million dollars you don't ask for a million i need i'm
I think I need a hundred million.
A hundred million.
It's so good.
He's a little cash trap.
He's a little liquid at the moment.
I like when they're talking about Greg getting the money and he goes,
hey, you can't do anything with $5 million.
Five's a nightmare.
You're the strongest dwarf.
He just has, he just rattles it off.
It's so good.
I think his best episode is probably safe for him, but just in general.
Tour de Force.
Great job by Alvarez.
look forward to him. We love that guy. All his moments. I get it. So my top five was five Kendall,
four Roman, three Kendall's mom, two Tom and one Connor. What would, what would, would your list have
been different? Who would have been? Yeah, because Logan have cracked the top five for you. Logan's in the
top five for me. Jerry's in the top five. Jerry's in the top five. I have Connor further down because I still,
notwithstanding the richness of his comedy, how funny he is and like how surreal everything that he says is.
I still, he's a bit player to, you know, the, the true stars of the show.
I mean, I'm not just going to put all five of the Roy kids.
I mean, the Roy family.
And I think Marcia deserves a much more prominent role.
And I think she's going to be in season three.
I have no basis for this.
I mean, I don't have, I'm not an HBO guy, right?
I don't have the advanced screeners like some of us.
But I'm anticipating a bigger role for Mark.
I don't want the screeners.
I want to watch it.
each week along with the rest of America.
All right, good, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, I'm not jumping ahead.
I did that.
I got screeners from Mayor of East Town,
and I watched the first five.
And then I was so far ahead of it,
I couldn't have conversations with anybody.
You feel like you're guarding like this information.
Anyway, success-
Good us a weekly, right?
Let's have another weekly.
That's a good time.
I like that.
There's still something to be said for,
a show comes out once for an hour.
you get to digest it, think about it, talk about it, read stuff about it.
And we get the text on Monday about it.
Podcast, text, then we head toward the end of the week.
Now we got another show coming.
So there you go.
That's why in The Ringer, we're going to be doing deep dives on Wednesdays
with Sean Fantasy and Joana Robinson.
Awesome.
And we're also going to be doing precaps on Fridays with Chris Ryan and Big Was
heading into the next episode, a little pregame show.
Wow.
For succession.
And then on Mondays, after Succession,
the watch, Andy Greenwald, Chris Ryan, different feed, one of the OG pop culture podcasts.
So we're covering Monday on the watch and then Wednesday and Friday on this pod.
And by the way, well, you and I will probably talk about succession.
It goes without saying.
I look forward to people getting upset at my list.
What do you think will be the most upsetting to people?
Connor number one.
Connor number one would be upsetting to people.
I think so.
Conner's a legend.
That's just terrible take by everybody.
I don't know what to tell you.
I stand by it.
Connor.
Best character on the show.
Shib at 7.
Although Shib is...
No, I had Shib lower.
I had Shiv at 12.
Shiv at 12.
That's it.
Shib, not in the top 10.
People get mad at that.
Listen,
Shiv,
stick with a plan
for more than 45 minutes
on the show.
Maybe we'll get it in season three.
Maybe season three.
Yeah.
I know what else you're hoping
from Shiv in season three.
I'm not...
Lots of affairs.
You like when Shiv gets a little
Randy.
Randy.
Yeah.
The only sexual relationship I'm interested in is Jerry.
It's Jerry and Robin.
That's the only one I care about.
So when you see the SSC strong sexual content at the start of the show, you're like,
maybe this is it for me.
Fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed with Jerry.
I hope it happens.
Thank you.
That's it for the Prestige TV podcast.
We will see you tomorrow with Sean Fantasy and Joanna Robinson.
Until that.
