Emmy Catch-Up: Succession

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. This year, I’m getting a jump start to check out the entire season of some of most high-profile shows I didn’t watch when they originally aired.

Succession: Season 2, Episode 8 “Dundee” (B+)

There’s almost something worse about Logan seeming confused and surprised than him being truly angry. Kendall rightly took a shot at Rhea by telling her to invoke his sister in her toast, which didn’t make him happy at all, and Shiv seemed unexpectedly diplomatic when she told Logan that he should make his own choice about who to pass the reins on to in this announcement he felt like he needed to make. The person who was most blindsided by it and upset was Marcia, who’s been mostly absent this season, though I’ve been witnessing incredible work from actress Hiam Abbass in the second season of “Ramy.” It might be best that Rhea isn’t a member of the family, but the way in which she diverged from Nan’s wishes should be a warning sign that she forges her own path that doesn’t necessarily align with the person who’s supposed to actually be in charge of the company. I did appreciate the brief guest spot from James Cromwell as Ewan, who told Greg that Logan was worse than Hitler and promised to disinherit him if he didn’t immediately agree to quit. The crisis-mode meeting that happened on the spot at the party really represented an attempt at damage control that felt far too late, and there’s not going to be much recovery for this group that now has to work with someone who was never part of their inner circle. None of the Roy children are getting what they want now, and Rhea has managed to rub each of them the wrong way, which should make doing her new job moderately difficult, to say the least.