The Watch - ‘Succession’ Is Back and Better Than Ever | The Watch

Episode Date: August 12, 2019

Apple Plus has finally released a teaser trailer for their flagship series ‘The Morning Show,’ and we still have a lot of questions (2:12). ‘Succession’ is back for its second season and it looks like there won’t be any slow starts this time around (14:48). Plus: our ‘Succession’ aftershow, ‘Number One Boys’ (28:48). Host: Chris Ryan Guests: Andy Greenwald and Jason Concepcion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Get tickets at lionking.com. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Watch. Basically all succession talk today. Greenwald came on in the first half of the show. We talked a little bit about the morning show trailer, the Apple TV Plus show with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Corell that is debuting at some point and is about something. I guess it's about morning shows. I don't really know. There's voiceover.

You can watch that trailer and hear Andy and I try to dissect why it is that Apple is not really showing us what's happening with this show. But it's interesting. Huge megastars about like an important story of the media, the modern media. So I guess it's a lot more dramatic that I think either of us anticipated. So we're going to talk a little bit about the morning show. We talked a little bit about the first episode of the second season of Succession in Broadstrokes. And then you can listen to the rest of the pod is me and Jason Concepts.

you know, breaking down the episode, essentially line by line and piece by piece and character by character. So that will probably be the plan going forward on Mondays is a chit-chat about Succession. You can also listen to the number one boys show. You can watch number one boys on YouTube. You can watch it on Twitter. You can find it anywhere. That goes up after Succession airs on Sundays. And obviously next week we'll probably be getting also very heavily into Mind Hunter because it's only been, what, like three weeks since we last talked about Charles Manson. So let's get back into it. All right, let's get into this with Andy in today's episode of The Watch. I need sports to have to clear the run.

Stand up and walk now. Hello, and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I'm an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line. He always pays fair market price for raccoon removal. It's Andy Greenwald. But I also accept fair market price for raccoon placement. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Yeah. How you doing? Yeah, man. Hey, buddy. Miss you for a week. We were apart. I mean, we're always apart these days, but I was off last week. You were on vacation. It seemed like you were doing well. Yeah, I guess. I had a couple of real, like, reckonings on this trip, I have to admit. Did you? I've not heard this yet. No, I mean, so there's this beach in Tahoe called Sand Harbor. Very nice. Very cool.

It's like, you go to Tahoe and like it's about, I don't know, it's on the eastern side, kind of up towards the north a little bit. and it's got like all these little beaches and then it's got these cool rock formations out in the lake that you can swim up to and climb up and then dive off of you know and I love adventure everybody knows that about me I'm kind of an adventure sports guy

and you know but like sometimes you're confronted with something and like you're having like almost a Proustian moment where you're like I'm swimming up to the rock and as a child I would just like scale this rock and then leap into the cool waters and so I should be able to do that

at 41 too, you know what I mean? And it turns out you can't do it. You can't go home again. I've fucking face planted almost off this rock trying to scale up it. Meanwhile, all these like 12-year-olds who look like they're cut out of like

granite are just like leapfrogging me and like get out of the way weird old man trying to climb on this thing. It was a bummer. It was a bummer. See, what people might not know about you, Chris, is that water is your natural habitat. Like, when it comes to

athleticism, when it comes to Joie de Veevese, like, you take, you take to open water like fish to a fish tube. My name rings out in the record books of Pennsylvania 13 and under freestyle sprinters. Yeah, I know, so the fact

that this is, you're finally hitting your wall is disheartening. You know, I mean, and you didn't even get like a farewell season, like Vince Carter and the hawk. I know. I know. I know. It just got taken away from you. I'm so sorry, I should be able to go to, like, a bunch of bodies of water and have them present me with, like, gifts, you know, for my appreciation for my career, like Dwayne Wade. Oh my God, it would be amazing if you went to the Jersey Shore and they shut down the Jersey Shore so they could run a tribute video on the Jumbotron of you at the Jersey Shore.

And just people giving me saltwater taffy, yeah. And shower you in saltwater taffy. How are you? I mean, I have nothing to follow that up with. I'm fine. Thank you for asking. I'm speaking you from my office. We're shooting on stage today. We're in the fine on Wednesday. I just have, the only personal business I have is that, you know, over the weekend, I made an appearance on another podcast.

You did. On a podcast we both love and admire the rights to Ricky Sanchez, the only. And you are a veteran of that podcast. And I was honored to finally be invited on to it. And I believe there was some reaction, you know, in the brain. Bransky community. Why do I have time for a basketball podcast? I'm barely able to make time for you.

Those were all my burner accounts. Weekend. Yes. And that's the only, like, listen, I would be on the watch on the reg if we were just like Saturday morning 8 a.m.ing it. You know, Kai and I, nothing would give us more joy

than waking up at like a, like a 6 a.m. call time Saturday to just chat TV. But I think we're just going to, you know, we're going to keep it the way. way it is. Me and Kai, our Saturday mornings are really busy. Hey, when you are shooting on a soundstage like you are today,

do you ever say to yourself, why didn't I write this entire show on a soundstage? I believe I'm on record of already saying that to you. I am fairly confident that I have said that. It is a treat. Although I'll say we are filming a very involved fight scene today. I can't say any more than that, but the actor, hence,

this is intense choreography. And this person, he or she, was extremely winded. Like, it's very, very challenging. Yeah, can imagine if they had to do it outdoors. And I believe that, well, this heat, and I believe the words, this may be the third time I've puked from exhaustion

was said early on, like take one or two. I'm trying to guess who it is. It was Ed Asner. It was Kim Dickens. Yeah. but otherwise things are good. Good. Okay, so yes, obviously you can check Andy out on the rights for Psy-Sha.

Oh, yeah. I may have some, there may be some Breyer Patch and News to share on Thursday show. Oh, great. I'm just telling you that now. You're going to break some news? Maybe. Okay. We'll work it out.

I know, I know Ky's recording schedule is pretty, her window is pretty narrow from what it sounds like. I don't want to put you guys out. We could save that for the Saturday one, too. So today, Andy, I just wanted to talk a little bit. bit about the morning show trailer, which dropped, it's Apple Plus's... I think it's fair to say that this is the flagship show of a network with no Navy. Does that make sense? Am I using my naval analogies, right? Well, you know, I'm big on naval analogies. And you throw me now, because I'm trying to come up

with one. What is an example for a country's navy where there is no Navy, there's no boat doing? Right. That's what Apple TV Plus is right now in our minds, because We've seen limited amounts of footage. I think there was a trailer for the Ronald D. Moore show about the space race. For all mankind. For all mankind. And then today we got a one minute and eight second teaser for the morning show, which is based on Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning.

And it stars, most importantly, it stars Jennifer Anderson, Reese, Spoon, Steve Krell. And this was kind of their big foray in fact. into content. And it was like, it was a show of force to say, we can get one of the biggest television stars ever, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, one of the, and one of the other biggest movie stars in the world, and Karel Weatherspoon and Aston. And they'll play ball with us. And I, but the thing was, nobody ever really was like, what's, what's this show about and what's it going to be like? And we didn't really get that much more information from this teaser. I mean, far be it for me to tell the most valuable company in the history is that.

However, since this is a podcast, I would have advised against releasing a vague nothing burger of a trailer. No one actually believes exists. You know what I'm saying? Leper's got to meet the road and you got to like, and we used to joke that Apple didn't seem to actually be in the TV business. They were in the press release business because announcing a project like this with all these glittery stars and high-minded intention is a great way to signal to the town, not that you're in business. and this is a kind of like high level. Now that was a year ago, two years ago, Apple TV Plus, great name,

is that it was going to debut sometime this fall. Why can't we see more than that, right? Is that these are the people who know, and what actually weirded me out is, I don't know why it got in my head. Maybe it's the talent that they assembled, but I did think there was going to be some element of, not a workplace comedy,

but something pitched up a little bit, you know, to take full of a morning show too seriously, meet a contention of the West Wing crossed with the newsroom, which is a very dangerous corner to stake out. There's a couple of parts about this that feel just like, did this get vetted enough? Like, for instance, that's fine if you want to try and do something like that, but typically morning news programs are not where people go for their hard news.

Obviously, in moments of crisis, I think if it's on, the people who are hosting morning shows are covering those things. I'm not saying that's not the case. and there's good journalism done on those shows, I'm sure. But the fact that I'm 41, and I don't think I've watched a morning news show ever, doesn't bode well for this being a relevant show for a lot of younger people at all, right?

Right, yeah. Like, I'm not sure, like, this is a weird, this is such a strange first boat to push out into the harbor, if we can continue our naval analogies that don't make any sense. Well, but appreciating the difference between being in the press release business and being in the content business is that who are you trying to impress and who you're going to be in to this person who initially was announced as being the person

who's going to end up writing it. This is all really, really smart, splashy play. The challenge comes when then you actually have to other people in the business. And then that alter book, and I really enjoyed it. And what was interesting to me about it was about the still vibrant intimacy that exists between these millions of Americans. Sure. And that, it's a very, it's We are in no way going to be. We are prejudging the show because they didn't show us any. It's a series of shots of like a newsroom and a set with Jennifer Anderson, Rees-Wether spoon, and Steve Correll's VO.

And what they're talking about is their journalistic integrity. And that signals that this is not, they're not leading with the idea that this can be a snazzy, updated version of broadcast news, which was about journalistic integrity, but the forward-facing part of broadcast news was also the interoperative. interpersonal relationships between Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks and William Hurd. Yeah, and it had a sort of a winking, at least, and I think that the creatively

from a podcast year ago was that their brand was going to be earnest. They wanted to be in business with Spielb. It's an interesting choice going to be harshly prejudged for a when it is a, right? Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about something that we can chew on a little bit, and that was the first episode of the second season of Succession. So we're talking about this now. Obviously, the second half of this pod is going to be the audio from me and Jason

Concepcion's after show number one boys that we put up last night after the episode aired. That will happen throughout the season of Succession, so you can check that out, and then we'll have the audio on the watch for people who don't get a chance to watch the video. And we kind of go through a bunch of our favorite lines and bits and the moves there were but I wanted to talk like kind of big picture with you first about, like, how you felt about the first episode, and then I had a couple of, a couple of conversation starters for you after that. Great.

I have to tell you, I loved it. I was so happy to have it back to a degree that I didn't expect. Like, obviously, you guys in the office and you and Jason, you've been thinking about it, processing it, hyped for it. The ringer's been doing it at hell. But I've been not watching television and not really plugged in. So I was almost surprised that it was time already. And when I turned it on, I didn't any time to even sort of, man.

I mean, coming back, beginning a season, the decision that Jesse Armstrong and his writers made to start on Kendall submerged in potentially boiling water. In fucking Iceland, which was a galactic level flex, the anxiety terror was baked into these moments that immediately got you back on board. And it didn't even culminate in the stress, nosebleed. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. it was, to my mind, everything that I do love about the show, which is that it is excruciating and exhilarating an equal measure. You know, a lot of the times I think we're trying to pull and stretch TV into all these different directions,

especially like the way we talk about it, and we're kind of always being a little bit like, well, what's really new about this, or why is this necessary, or what's just doing that other shows don't do? And I think that Succession is obviously a pretty, in some ways it's groundbreaking, in some ways it's groundbreaking, in some ways it does some things that I haven't seen before, but for the most part, what Succession does is be Succession at an elite level. And the second season thing is challenging for a lot of TV shows, and a lot of TV shows buckle under it,

especially if they're really conceptual, whether it's Westworld or what have you. You know, the idea of sustaining a certain level of narrative intensity around whether it's plot twists or adhering to the rules that you've, sort of set up in this world. And Succession doesn't really have to do that. It just has to be the best version of what it is. And so they can do what is essentially a soft reset.

Like they're essentially back to the place where Logan is the pattern of familias deciding how to divide up his kingdom. Kendall is a mess. And the other kids are sort of angling for his attentions, for Logan's attentions while the vultures are circling. And if we learned anything from the first season, it's to not take this show at face value in the first few episodes of a season that a lot of twists and turns are going to come

and a lot of characters are going to emerge in different ways. And that's what's so exciting about it. I agree. And I think that, you know, obviously at this point, I can't think about making TV without thinking about making TV or watching TV without thinking about making it. But I feel like that was the case when, and I think to me what it comes down to is that success is the language and feel the pleasure from the performance.

you can feel the pleasure. And, I mean, why not begin, or it would appear to be some sort of Japanese, it operates on a global level, and obviously that was not actually shot in Tokyo, but the ambition of it and the scale of it they could be spread out all over the globe still being in touch with each other for pizza

in a dining room is. And what you mention is the reset. I mean, this is just kind of what happens in second season. And it may seem a little bit TVE in a way that could be off-putting to some who expect everything to just sort of churn and churn and it's self-aware.

Kendall wasn't going to become Father John Misty. You know, like, it's like they're going to come, they're going to bring these people back to some sort of like starting line. When you make a first season of a show, you're trying to tell every single thing that you have to tell about these characters because you might never get a second chance. When you get the second chance, the odds are much greater that you're also going to get at third fourth.

Second season premiere really is a second. And you can look at that as a bad thing or you can look at it as enjoyable. I appreciate it that they've been 10 minutes because I, I'd rather watch this story than have the agonizing, holding it together, white-knuckling it. Ask me again if that starts how season three starts, right? But even his recidivism is kind of, it kind of makes sense in regards to the fact that the guilt that he's carrying around. It would be incredibly difficult to go through the recovery process in earnest if you couldn't actually make amends for the thing that you need to make amends for. I agree.

And the other subtle things that I really started to appreciate in this episode was the, I think the show, is making, understands its actors better, very strong is such a profoundly different media. But now each has become such a fully real self on the show that when they meet, it, you know, that's... Yeah, I really like that moment when Romans, like, come on, fight back. Yeah. Yeah, because, like, that's not something

that I think necessarily would have happened in the first season. I think it was all, like, we're just going to throw 99 mile per hour fastball after 99 mile per hour fastball and just kind of get a lot of, like, action going that way. And this time there are these little dips and little crevices where you can find character in a really interesting way. And that's probably best exemplified in the Shiv Logan scene.

The Shiv Logan scene is worth. I mean, I think that there are legitimate criticisms to be made about the episode, I think, Munn. So they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Like what's at stake, basically, is not there. But also, I thought some of the language was not like that, but that was a pretty good one. But the Shiv Logan, terrific. Yeah.

It's terrific, and it's electric, and it's fun, man. And the visual language of the show perfectly compliments those performances because the cameras just get out of the way. And they're like, let's just let this scene go. Let's go, let's like just sort of hide out here in the corner or hide out behind his shoulder. And let these two just kind of have a father-daughter moment that is also like weighed down with deception and possible betrayal and faints one way or the other. And then you get to the end of it. You're like, is this a fucking sincere emotional moment on succession? Am I supposed to be feeling this? So yeah, it was really excellent.

I can't wait to see where the season goes and frigging Holly Hunter and Cherry Jones are going to be on it. So it's kind of like, what more do you want from life? Yeah, there was that feeling of like, oh, well, now we know what the show is and now we can get the actors to come on to it. Like, Danny Houston isn't Holly Hunter, but he's a pretty decent actor.

And then for him and just, you know, drain some threes on Brian Cox. It was pretty exciting. Hey, I was going to ask you, like on set, do people, are people like, hey, did you guys watch Succession less? night? Not yet today, but we had a really early start. Maybe things will warm up in the afternoon. Hasn't come up. There was definitely... Are there like lots of conversations about like what did you

get, what have you been watching or is it just literally the providence of you and me? Good question. There have been times when there's been more free flowing conversation about what people have been watching. I think today was and there's also a group, but there was like a lot of chatter about euphoria. People were asking, people were talking about that, checking in on that. Did you ever wind up Not dead. At all? No, not even a frame. I mean, like the degree to which I want to explain. Without any reason. I mean, I'm sure it's interesting.

Just, Chris, have you, have you ever seen Queer Eye? Yeah, yeah. I heard it's pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good, man. Okay, well, we've gotten to the bottom of the barrel then, I guess, unless you want some more Tahoe stories. Listen, you would just be proud of me because I did, I was writing. rewriting episode nine all weekend and, and I finished. Thank you very much. And the one little furlough I gave myself was to the used bookstore. I sent this to you, not only did I score a signed copy of James Crumley's. I was just, you know, I just saw it and I thought of you. I grabbed

Oh yeah. Have you read that one? I have. That's the later one, right? So people don't know from our double down days. Like McCarrie, as we think, is one of, if not the greatest spine. And then he just couldn't stop writing books about his does 10 years in a Chinese labor camp like it's nothing. Yeah. And I just started this page as like dinner at Paul roast beef and a decent Oregon

Pino Noir. And we... And then 50 pages later? Yeah. Yeah. I finished... Sometimes we like what we like. I finished somebody's darling as... Great. But we have to like, are we saving those takes for what will likely be the blockbuster Larry McMurtry pod

of the future? Yeah, I think we need to save it for like back to school. Yeah, no, that's a good one. That would be a good one for Kai to record on Saturday morning at like 5.30 a.m. just two guys talking about Larry McMurtry novels from the 70s. But to be clear, she has to come in from Redondo to record it. And yeah, okay, cool. And she has to read Lonesome Dove, even though we're not talking about Lonesome Dove.

And then... Also, I'm putting you on Blast again in public on this podcast. We got to get your dates. You got to come here to the desert, man. I got a snake hole with your name on it. Is that any easier than climbing rocks in, in Lake Tahoe? Emotionally, it's hard.

Physically, it is much easier to be here. I have a catered lunch in front of me right now. It's not that bad. We'll bring you back here for Thursday. You got some Briar Pratch News, hopefully forthcoming, and we'll have some other stuff to talk about. We've got succession with me and Jason, the audio from our after show,

number one boys, is coming up next. Probably next week, just as a heads up, we will be very heavy succession and very heavy Mind Hunter. Mind Hunter is back on August 16th. Dude, Mind Hunter is back and Glow is back. And Glow is back. This is a lot. So you've got a ton of television to maybe watch.

Yes. I just want you to know, I'm definitely thinking about maybe watching it. That's why you count on me, your number one most trusted source. Have a good day, man. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, everybody. Bye, Branskis. Today's episode of The Watch is brought to you by Discount Tire. When was the last time you thought about your tires? Tires are what makes the difference in how your car feels. and drives. Since 1960, discount tire has been keeping customers safe by taking care of all your

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appointment to skip the lines. That's discounttire.com. Discount tire. They'll get you taken care of. What is up, sex robots? This is number one. Boys, a Succession After Show from The Ringer. My name is Chris Ryan. This is my partner in high finance crime, Jason Concepcio. What's up, man? You know, I'm just back from Iceland,

where I've been, you know, just... Mud baths. Relaxing, trying to chill out from some light manslaughter. Some light vehicular manslaughter. You know, I just need a little straightener right now to get right for this show, but I am so excited to talk about Succession being back in our lives. Yeah, so what we're going to do for this

we're not going to do, like, hardcore, they eat dinner, then they go to this room, then they go to that room, recap-y stuff. We're kind of just going to basically give out a series of awards by, you know, just getting in a pod and floating above the episode, right? Should be highly leveraged. Jason and I, it's not, you know, not a lot of people know this, but we have really deep ties to the world of finance, the world of economics. We have slightly uncompleted degrees in both macro and microeconomics and freakinomics. That's right. I did two and a half years at the Royal Economic School of Antigua, and I'm ready for this. Yeah, I'm waiting. My University of Phoenix degree is kind of an escrow right now.

So we have a couple of debates going on about who owes who, what. But when that comes in, I'm going to open up my hedge fund. I'm taking investors. So let's talk a little bit about where we left last season, which was obviously Kendall goes down in flames. Yes. Logan Roy resumes control of his company. Stronger than ever, seemingly, after an attempt at a leveraged buyout by his son,

who, as you mentioned, you know, got into some light manslaughter. Yes, yes. And fronting a deal for Stewie, who was his longtime friend and running mate, and Sandy, who is set up as, like, Logan's chief rival in the world of media and rat fucking. And then, so we get into, you know,

We have all the other characters. Connor wants to run for president. Shiv is running Gil's campaign for president. Roman is blowing up satellites. Only one. Only one satellite. So there's a lot going on with the Roy family. And the second season pretty much picks up, right, where the last one left off.

Kendall's in rehab. Kendall's in rehab. Of a sort. Roman is dealing with the fallout from the blown-up rocket and telecommunication satellite and investigation in Japan ongoing. Yep. Jerry is busy running the company for everyone. Logan seems stronger than ever.

Yes, yes. And Connor is, you know, nursing his political ambitions slowly along and also collecting Napoleonic. Connor is sort of being set up as sort of a charmless Marianne Williamson. Extremely charmless. Extremely. It's the negative orb gang. So what we're going to do to kind of get into this episode,

summer palace, the first episode of the second season of Succession, is buy and sell. Just like the characters. We love to get into the markets and play around a little bit. So let's start with buy, Jason, who are you buying? Well, as you know, as a financial expert, as you know, you buy at the low point and you sell at the high point. I can I write that down? Yeah, yeah. That's how you make your nut in this biz. At the low point. So I should not have liquidated my 401k on Apple stock. It depends.

Being liquid is good. You want to be mobile, you want to be liquid, you want to be flexible. I have a lot of mine my currency tied up in sort of emerging cryptocurrency. So cryptocurrency that hasn't actually got like a solid foundation

of code yet. Like weed coin? Yeah. If I see a Facebook ad and it's like an advertisement for a new crypto, I like to just pump a few thousand. I love crypto. I'm going to buy Shiv Roy. I agree.

Potential successor to Logan as chief executive of Waystar. A lot of questions. Is this a legit deal? Is this real? She asks, is this real? And Logan is like, remember this. This slant of light.

This is it, Shiv. Perhaps a betrayal coming, but I like where she's at. I think she's headed this way. I'm buying Shiv. This show is so corrosively cynical and sarcastic. that when there is a strangely unexpected human moment, like Shiv tearing up as her dad finally gives her the sense of affirmation that she's probably been looking for for most of her life from him,

that's weirdly affecting. It really was. The fact that in the other room guys are talking about Napoleon's dried penis. I have on my by list as well, Shiv. Who's your next bylist? Stewie, baby. Yeah, man. Listen, Stewie, pound for pound maybe has the most fire line.

of anyone in this show. Everything he says is it just nails it, puts a button on it. And Stewie as the frontman for Sandy's money and hostile attempt to takeover of Waystar, I think we're going to see a lot of Stewie and he's just going to be out here throwing nails. We cannot see too much of Stewie. Cannot see too much of him. And he also has this funny relationship to Kendall where he's both the devil and the angel on Kendall's shoulder. Right. Where he's like, let's do a ton of blow, but

Then he's also like, why can't you just talk to me? Like, there's a real human being card to play here. The fact that he's out here being like, you can play a friend card. You know that, right? Like, you just need to tell me that. And yet, in season one when Ken is like, I can trust you, right? Stewie's is straight up like, no. No, Ken.

You can't, no, you can't trust me. My second buy, and this is somebody that I've had my eye on since the middle of the first season, is Marsha. We do not really know a lot about her, but there's a crucial moment in the first episode of the second season where, you know, Logan is kind of whining a little bit. He's kind of like shuffling around, and he's just like, maybe I should sell, Laird, my financial, my advisor told me to sell.

And she's just like, oh, yeah, you should sell. Maybe you should sell, because you're an old man and maybe you should just rest. And it's obvious that, like, diverse psychology really plays a part because he eyeballs her in the final dinner scene where he's like, I'm staying, we're going to be the last standing legacy media conglomerate in the world. So I'm always just wondering what Marcia's long game here is. It's a great point.

And aside, we're going to see a lot of Laird, huh? You don't cast Danny Houston. No, you don't just have him sit there. Yeah, we're going to see a lot of Laird. I like that a lot. Yeah, Marcia is, listen, she is in for a penny in for a pound with Logan. and she's not just going to let the kingdom like evaporate. Right, right.

What about selling? Selling, I have a couple of things. One is I'm selling on Hampton's contractors. Do you think he did it? Do I think he put raccoons in the chimney? Do you think he put three raccoons in a garbage bag and put them in the chimney? I feel like that might be Chekhov's contractor, and he comes back later in the season for some reason.

But I also think that that was partially an exercise of pure power where he's just like, I'm going to pay you one third of what I actually owe you. I'm going to blame you for something with no evidence linking you to the crime other than the fact that you had access to the house. And if you want to sue me, sue me, my guy worked for the justice department. I will say,

it's three raccoons, one for each one for each hundred thousand that he was supposed to pay. Yes. So that seems like a really bad beat. Anacdotally, I have never really like chased down the story, but there's even like a thing in my family where I think like

uncle of mine did like a ton of air conditioning work for Harrods. Ooh! This is actually probably libelous. Allegedly. He never got paid. He never got paid and it drove him nuts. Wow. Yeah. Good story. Unbelievable. What else are you selling? I'm selling, now this is going to be, I think, a little, this is a hot tape, but I'm selling Logan Roy. Logan Roy...

So you're selling high. I'm selling high. This is like his peak. He's vital. He's strong. Chris Davis hitting 40 homers. That's it. We're seeing absolutely none of the symptoms of whatever it was that happened to him last season. Storming around. Storming around, peeing on floors, pouring coffee, and forgetting to stop pouring, slapping children. We're seeing none of that.

He is ready for a fight, and I'm selling high. I think this is the strongest we're going to see him. I think that this show is at its best when everybody is at their strongest, when everybody is like a viper. And, like, I even think we'll get into Kendall, obviously. Part of the reason why some people were like, oh, it took me a couple episodes to get into succession. It's because Logan was incapacitated. That's because he was in the hospital.

Once he's up and running, this show jumps up a level, but you think this is as good as it's going to get. I think that we're going to see Logan start to fall apart at some point. Maybe not in the first half of the season, but in the back end. This is going to be a vicious fight to the death, and Sandy's ready for it. I'm selling Park Coke, not personally. That's not what I meant. Ooh.

But that is like the world of succession obviously gets the financial details really well. But just little things. If you are a New Yorker, you are familiar with the idea. Allegedly. Of drugs in the park. Yeah.

And then being offered to you and even somebody from out of town would probably be like, I bet this guy. This guy seems cokey. Yeah. Now, I don't know about that. I don't know either. But I'm just saying that that is a thing that happens in New York.

and I thought they got that detail very right that that is exactly the kind of place that cousin Greg, the motherfucker, egg with the egg, to go get drugs. He's looking for that backup source and just started walking through Tompkin Square Park like eyeballing dudes. So we've got our buying and selling.

Oh, I got one more sell. Kendall. I'm going to sell Kendall because... Do you think this is as good as it gets for Kendall? Well, I think he comes back stronger. All I'm saying is that body, the body of the body of the... that poor young man. It's out there lurking. That case is going to hang over him. And there is no

way that it comes out. It's coming out. He killed a guy. That scene with the security was Colin, the security director in the laundry room where he's like, I just want you to know some serious Michael Clayton vibes. That I know everything about this. And that there are a couple of people in the information loop that we've got control over. But that That is such a flex. It just be like, don't even think about it. It was an unbelievable flex. And when they found him, he had unbuckled his seatbelt.

So he was still alive at the time of the crash. He had to be alive to do that. And then Kendall's just like, oh, okay. Do you think that guy immediately called into Francesa after that? He's like, yeah, Mike, listen. I don't know about a gliba. You think he's in the fall? Anyway.

All right, so that's who we're buying and selling the seat. season. Let's talk a little bit about our next segment, the number one boy. The number one boy. Basically, this is our MVP of the week. That's right. The person we think has won the week. And we talked a little bit about it by itself, but I'm going to go with shit. So there's a way in which succession could just keep on going on the way it is. And like every week there's a little bit of up, a little bit of down, people ripping into each other. But the reason why I thought this show really separated itself from everything else last season was the character of Kendall, pushing him out on the

plank and then actually pushing him into the ocean and seeing what happened with that. And I kind of wonder if Shiv is the new Kendall, which would make Shiv our number one boy of the week, because what if they took each season and focused on one of the Roy kids and their psychology and their life and what was happening with them? And I kind of wonder whether Shiv would be like a really good experiment for this. I 100% agree. I think back to the scene in the boat house from last season where it's the Roy children minus Connor. And you really see that for the first time a kind of, you know, they're all

vampires and vipers, but in that moment you saw like a real emotion, a real human emotion and kind of like a actual familial bond from them, and you saw it in that moment where she is offered the chief executive role, and I think

having that empathy for her is just setting us up for some real dark stuff. I mean, she is lying to Gil, who she is advising. who she is supposed to tell everything to. She's lying to her husband, Tom Wamsgams, the great Tom Wamsgams.

He's ready for the big boy pants. Ready for the big boy pants. It's great to see it. Real pinnacle for her, and the knives are out. Somewhere the knives are out. It keeps her on the inside pissing out, which is where he wants her.

He does not want her advocating for basically liquidating the company and getting rid of everything like independent movie studios and news and just keeping the park. and the things that make money. So, yeah, keep an eye on Shiv this year. Because I think that this show could be excellent if it was just Kendall doing a faceplant every other episode.

But I wonder whether or not sustainability questions come into play there. So that's who our number one boy is. It's Shiv. Let's get into our next segment. So succession's complicated. That's right. They pull no punches when it comes to the economics,

when it comes to the finance stuff. And I think it might be easy for the layman, your everyday Joe, to get lost. in this dream. And that's why Jason and I are here. When we thought about wanting to do an after show, it wasn't just to be part of the television conversation. It was because we felt like we were sitting on, like basically assets of our own. And that was our financial brains. It's a wealth. It's a treasure trove of knowledge. And we want to share it. We want to invest in you. That's the thing. So we're going to talk about some of the terms in the show this week. That's right. Jason, why don't we start

with poison pill, which Logan briefly mentions to the CFO and a means. Logan briefly mentions to the CFO and a meeting and how to explain a poison pill. You have to think of it as a pill, right? Let's start there. Right. So, and you go to a CVS or a RAIDA and something, you look at the ILS and you're like, I need a pill. There's various pills. You don't necessarily want one that's poisoned. Right, because if the poison is bad. That's right. So if you have something that's not good for you, that would be poisonous. And if you have a pill form, that would be a poison pill, I don't think that that would be good. It's a negative. So, like, okay, take a, take a a macro view, right? So 30,000 feet up. You're looking down and you see, it's like, think about

Jeremy Lynn. Great. Darry Mori Ball, Money Ball, Billy Bean, advanced metrics. Efficiency. And threes and layups. That's right. So I think that's pretty covered. What do you got for financial one-on-one? Asset swap. This is what Logan, you know, in like the trade machine. Right. Before Logan, you know, Logan is talking through Kendall to Sandy and says, hey, how about an asset swap first? So assets are, both sides have assets. Sure, and they want, and they like, it's like a pen and a bottle of a lot. Sure, like, let's say this is, this is Logan's asset and this is Sandy's assets. And you go, hey, that's a great phone. Yeah. I've got a pen. Oh, I need something to write with. Do you, my phone doesn't do that.

What do you think about swapping these and then, and then we're good. And then you would, it on your hand. And then, but then you would come back and say, wait, hold on a second. A phone is like at least a couple bucks more expensive than a pen, depending on what kind of pen it is. That's not, and then you get into the negotiation of the swap, of the assets to value them. That's why I spend all the money I make at the ringer on pens.

Yes. Because that way they're worth as much as phones. That's right. And then if I get into a situation like this, I can be like, no, sir. All right, succession is nothing, if not a burn festival. It's Burning Man. So let's just throw out some of our favorite burns from this week. Jason, why don't you go first?

Kendall encounters Stewie after not seeing him for an unknown period of time since pulling out of the deal. And Stuie's, and he makes an excuse for why his dad is not at the meeting. He says, he's got an important call he has to make. And Stuie says, had to make an important call? That's like a 1997 power move, dude. What are you like his shirt by now? You're like the skull tied to his belt? That is me.

Skull-type. Kendall does at this point look like a skull on a guy's belt. Just a decapitated trophy that Logan carries around. Kendall takes it from all sides in this episode, especially from his siblings,

as per usual. And my favorite is at the beach house or at the summer palace. Kendall reintroduces himself to his brother and sister. Obviously, they can see that he's been going through a really hard time. And Shiv says,

Dad is going to play Mary tune on you and then throw you out the fucking window to which Roman says, he's like a sex robot for dad to fuck. Shiv, he's an old beaten dog, Roman. He's both of those things. And also a piece of shit. This show is the best thing on time.

It's really an incredible show. I love when she calls him pure carcass. What do you think is the line of the week, though, outside of the Burning Man? Who? Well, I'm going to go, this is, So obviously, Roman blew up a rocket last season, which luckily did not cause any deaths,

but did cause the loss of two thumbs from workers on the rocket. And he's having the press conference to announce the investigation, and he says, he's asked some questions about it. And he says, you know, obviously, blah, blah, blah, I don't want to say too much. And then he says, I don't want to be facetious, but I'm not a rocket scientist. Two guys lost fingers in this accident, and Roman's out here just with jokes. Roman had a great episode. Roman's press conference was amazing. Roman's explanation to his dad

about what they should do in repel of the hostile takeover from Stuie and Sandy was as in Scooby Do It, dress it up like a ghost in a theme park, use the lawyers, the PIs, the honey trap hookers, all the unpleasant people at our disposal, call in all the favors

fucking President Raisin, the Senate cock suckers who owe us fucking kill, kill, kill. That's Deadwood good. Yeah, that's good. For our last category, we're just going to talk a little bit each week about rich guy shit because we love watching people be disgusting Marie Antoinette's on the show.

The Let Them Eat Cake Crazy Rich Moment of the Week. Jason, which one's yours? I don't think anything tops Connor taking a text from his Napoleonic dealer about buying a shipment that includes does not, includes, is not

all, but includes Napoleon's dried peat. Yeah. Yeah. Which, to be fair, is not anything a serious collector is interested in, but as a curio. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. I also want to just point out the long 30-second montage of all the marbled steaks and fresh lobster being hand-selected by the catering staff, the chefs, and then all of that stuff getting dumped in a trash can. For pizza. And I thought it was crucial that Kendall watched that. Yeah.

Because I think Kendall is still ultimately somewhat disgusted by his own family, but they toss it all in the trash because it has the stink on it. I think that's one of the things that this show does so well that I was really impressed with last season. It's hard to do a show about wealth and bad people without glorifying it, but this show really just is like, look at how bad this is. Look at how terrible this is. Yeah. Wealth is an illness sometimes. Let's do season predictions before we wrap up.

I think I'll just sort of circle back to the Shiv one, which is that I think Shiv is going to be the main adversary of this season. I love it. I will go with, you know, we don't know what Logan told Roman at the end before he left. Oh, yeah. Do we think he told Roman something similar? Like the same thing. The same kind of deal and is just like, don't tell anybody. That is my prediction.

Is he offered something very similar to Roman and told him, keep it quiet. There's a betrayal coming. We'll be here all season after every episode of Season 2 of Succession. You can watch us here on number one boys. Thanks for checking us out. Get me some Park Coke.