So on to Succession Season Two!
And just 48 short hours on from Tom and Shiv’s nuptials, we’re back with the Roys.
Or to be more precise, we’re back with Kendall Roy who, rather than heading to the desert as his father suggested, is in a rehab facility in Iceland. That is until he’s summoned to speak to the media on Logan’s behalf, to explain away his dalliance with Stewy and Sandy and so bolster the company’s share price. Little wonder he develops a nose bleed - going from 60 to zero to 100mph can do that to you.
A new season brings with it new cast members. As played by Danny Huston, who has something of his father’s charming villainy about him, Jamie Laird’s a financial adviser with both the acumen and the physical size to intimidate Logan. Jamie thinks the old boy should sell. Logan thinks he should run the idea past the kids.
So it is that the clan’s summoned to the Roys’ mansion in the Hamptons. No matter that the Wambsgans-Roys are on honeymoon or that Kendall really ought to be receiving the help his dad promised him. And what about that dreadful smell…?
The stench, it turns out, is from a bag of dead racoons that someone has thoughtfully rammed down the chimney. Convinced the culprit is a contractor he’s short-changed, Logan summons the man to the mansion where he’s told that Mr Roy now expects the job to be completed for little more than the cost of materials. Remember those stories about how Donald Trump’s screwed pretty much every contractor he’s ever hired? I’m assuming he did so by paying close attention to the Logan Roy playbook.
Seeming all the better for having had a good shout, Logan gets down to business. After a series of one-on-one meetings with his offspring, he winds up promising the role of CEO to Shiv. She’s thrilled, but under instruction not to inform her siblings or her husband. Tragically, her learning this news will be the last time the promise of becoming CEO grants Siobhan even a hint of pleasure.
As for Kendall, he’s to return to Manhattan with his father for a meeting with Stewy and Sandy. Except Logan decides to give the convo a miss, leaving his son - still coping with withdrawal and the accidental death of Andrew Dodds* - to explain to his former allies that they’re fucked if they try to go toe-to-toe with his father. And he should know…
Succession Season 2 - like Succession Season 1, only more so.
*Speaking of the Dodds tragedy, Logan’s body man Colin (Scott Nicholson) takes Kendall to one side at the Summer Palace to explain how the matter has been swept under the carpet. Colin being Colin, the degree of reassurance Kendall takes from these revelations is minimal.