The New Season of Succession Exposes the Dark Soul of a Corporation – The New Republic

Clearly high all the time but hiding it, Kendall barrels forth on his quest to take down Logan on a mission that, almost as soon as the big moment has passed, seems ill-conceived.

Jeremy Strong is perfect as the dark Kendall. Clearly high all the time but hiding it, he barrels forth on his quest to take down Logan on a mission that, almost as soon as the big moment has passed, seems ill-conceived. Refusing to acknowledge that hes in trouble, however, Kendall pursues his self-destruction with such classic accompaniments to cocaine abuse as being incredibly rude to his ex-wife and his (largely female) staff. For Rava (Natalie Gold), his ex, he reserves his choicest bits of foolishness. After commandeering her apartment as an operations base without really asking, for example, he coyly tells her about his big speech: You know, it was kind of like, for you guys.

Rava smiles but narrows her eyes in mute disbelief at his gall, inhabiting one of the many, many moments in this season when women bite their tongues while we, the viewer, scream into a pillow. When he hires an adviser, Berry Schneider (Jihae), for example, he interrupts her so frequently she never gets to deliver her initial pitch for their publicity strategy. When she tries, Kendall interrupts, to say, The headline needs to be: Fuck the weather, were changing the cultural climate, and to demand that some Bojack guys be hired to punch up the quality of his Twitter feed. Smaller incidents of this kind happen continually with Kendalls unflappable assistant, Jess (Juliana Canfield), and his lawyer, Lisa (Sanaa Lathan), except that Lisa eventually loses patiencethough not her cool.

Although I dont think we explicitly hear the hashtag #MeToo spoken aloud, Kendalls strategy is clearly rooted in a cynicism that has nothing to do with actual care for the vulnerable. Shouldnt you be on a rainbow soapbox somewhere, screaming Times up? Stewy (Arian Moayed) asks him, in one of the seasons many lines whose deliciousness and brutality satisfies some deep, hard-to-reach place.

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The New Season of Succession Exposes the Dark Soul of a Corporation - The New Republic