“Previously Wrong” takes us week by week through the unpredictability of post-Golden Age television and how our hindsight is sharpening for contemporary series'. For this season, resident TV/film columnist Jared Marshall takes us week by week for the family implosion portrayed on the best show on TV, HBO’s Succession.
Birthdays.
This might be a morose assessment, but I've always viewed birthday party debauchery as a defense mechanism against the cold slap of sudden mortality that those same birthdays have to offer–not just for the party host, but also for anyone who agrees to participate in the whirlpool. Any attempt to unwind is in direct contrast with the unwelcome sense of reality that a birthday has come to evoke.
"Too Much Birthday" seems to agree.
"It's my birthday!" Kendall screams from the balcony at the top of the hour, a siren call that reverberates through the rest of the episode. Kendall's 40th serves as the episode's set piece. With the entitled birthday boy screaming at pedestrians from a rooftop, it begins as it will end: a self imploding disaster in which rubberneckers can stare with aghast. Le Kenfest, inspired by Burning Man and Kanye West's 2016 Life of Pablo tour according to episode director Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), offers an allegorical plunge into Kendall's psychology.
Succession is focused on the here and now. While its characters are anything but, the series has always been firmly grounded in reality meaning little time for dream logic. However… Kendall is a billionaire. He's invested millions of dollars into an "immersive theatre" experience where Elon and Jeff (he so modestly name drops) can peer around his unconscious mind for a night–which means so can the viewer for a change.
The guests are shot through his mother's birth canal (more wombic imagery for those of you keeping a tally this season) and into the party where they can find a hall of verbal affirmations–many of which Kendall probably longed for growing up–a super exclusive treehouse where only the birthday boy can deem you worthy of entry, his father's office set ablaze by holographic fire–a flame Kendall is going to have to extinguish one way or another if he wishes to move on with his life–and a plethora of other (un)earthly delights (?). If Kendall was trying to avoid the birthday blues, he probably should have picked some better tableaus.
Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgard), the lizard-like CEO of GoJo (an apparent analogue for Netflix or Hulu), seems to have the right idea by retreating to the treehouse; there's no fun to be had at this party. It only serves as an exercise in psychodrama for Succession's miserable ensemble; an objective correlative for the turmoil that has been stewing inside these characters all season.
Shiv tries to exorcise her demons on the dancefloor to no avail, demons which include her marriage continuing down the path of self-destruction with the news that Tom will not be going to jail; her father and her brother continuing to oust her from the family business; and the existential realization that she may have sold her soul to the devil that is Waystar. Roman continues to plunge forward on his crusade of being Daddy’s new favourite, continuing a villainous descent while also detonating a hectic encounter with Kendall's security, brokering an awkward bathroom encounter with Lukas, and taking continual jabs from his siblings relating to his sexual dysfunction. And then there's Tom, who took the wrong drugs in the wrong order, now facing the cocaine-induced realization that even though he isn't going to jail, he is still stuck in the prison of his existence.
Suffice it to say no one goes home with a goodie bag. It's a horrendous and surreal blast of birthday reality for everyone involved–culminating in a vicious argument between the siblings to end the night. Roman goes as far as to physically push Kendall over, a cruel move against the brother who has always tried his hardest to defend him from their father’s physical abuse.
"...just a party," Naomi says to a distraught Kendall as she wraps him in a child's blanket, "let it fizzle." It's a moment of kindness we rarely see in Succession. Naomi offers Kendall this quasi-maternal comfort that he and his siblings never received from their absent mothers. It's a better ending to the night than Shiv and Roman get, the former having to go home to her dissolving marriage while the latter waltzes merrily along in a wind of his own delusions. The party ends, not with a bang, but, as Naomi puts it, a fizzle. Kendall's night of excess and partying brings him, Shiv, and Tom more in touch with their meaningless lives than they've ever been while sending Roman on a terrifying spiral of which bodes horribly for himself and everyone around him.
Too much birthday indeed.
“Previously Wrong” takes us week by week through the unpredictability of post-Golden Age television and how our hindsight is sharpening for contemporary series'. For this season, resident TV/film columnist Jared Marshall takes us week by week for the family implosion portrayed on the best show on TV, HBO’s Succession.
Birthdays.
This might be a morose assessment, but I've always viewed birthday party debauchery as a defense mechanism against the cold slap of sudden mortality that those same birthdays have to offer–not just for the party host, but also for anyone who agrees to participate in the whirlpool. Any attempt to unwind is in direct contrast with the unwelcome sense of reality that a birthday has come to evoke.
"Too Much Birthday" seems to agree.
"It's my birthday!" Kendall screams from the balcony at the top of the hour, a siren call that reverberates through the rest of the episode. Kendall's 40th serves as the episode's set piece. With the entitled birthday boy screaming at pedestrians from a rooftop, it begins as it will end: a self imploding disaster in which rubberneckers can stare with aghast. Le Kenfest, inspired by Burning Man and Kanye West's 2016 Life of Pablo tour according to episode director Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), offers an allegorical plunge into Kendall's psychology.
Succession is focused on the here and now. While its characters are anything but, the series has always been firmly grounded in reality meaning little time for dream logic. However… Kendall is a billionaire. He's invested millions of dollars into an "immersive theatre" experience where Elon and Jeff (he so modestly name drops) can peer around his unconscious mind for a night–which means so can the viewer for a change.
The guests are shot through his mother's birth canal (more wombic imagery for those of you keeping a tally this season) and into the party where they can find a hall of verbal affirmations–many of which Kendall probably longed for growing up–a super exclusive treehouse where only the birthday boy can deem you worthy of entry, his father's office set ablaze by holographic fire–a flame Kendall is going to have to extinguish one way or another if he wishes to move on with his life–and a plethora of other (un)earthly delights (?). If Kendall was trying to avoid the birthday blues, he probably should have picked some better tableaus.
Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgard), the lizard-like CEO of GoJo (an apparent analogue for Netflix or Hulu), seems to have the right idea by retreating to the treehouse; there's no fun to be had at this party. It only serves as an exercise in psychodrama for Succession's miserable ensemble; an objective correlative for the turmoil that has been stewing inside these characters all season.
Shiv tries to exorcise her demons on the dancefloor to no avail, demons which include her marriage continuing down the path of self-destruction with the news that Tom will not be going to jail; her father and her brother continuing to oust her from the family business; and the existential realization that she may have sold her soul to the devil that is Waystar. Roman continues to plunge forward on his crusade of being Daddy’s new favourite, continuing a villainous descent while also detonating a hectic encounter with Kendall's security, brokering an awkward bathroom encounter with Lukas, and taking continual jabs from his siblings relating to his sexual dysfunction. And then there's Tom, who took the wrong drugs in the wrong order, now facing the cocaine-induced realization that even though he isn't going to jail, he is still stuck in the prison of his existence.
Suffice it to say no one goes home with a goodie bag. It's a horrendous and surreal blast of birthday reality for everyone involved–culminating in a vicious argument between the siblings to end the night. Roman goes as far as to physically push Kendall over, a cruel move against the brother who has always tried his hardest to defend him from their father’s physical abuse.
"...just a party," Naomi says to a distraught Kendall as she wraps him in a child's blanket, "let it fizzle." It's a moment of kindness we rarely see in Succession. Naomi offers Kendall this quasi-maternal comfort that he and his siblings never received from their absent mothers. It's a better ending to the night than Shiv and Roman get, the former having to go home to her dissolving marriage while the latter waltzes merrily along in a wind of his own delusions. The party ends, not with a bang, but, as Naomi puts it, a fizzle. Kendall's night of excess and partying brings him, Shiv, and Tom more in touch with their meaningless lives than they've ever been while sending Roman on a terrifying spiral of which bodes horribly for himself and everyone around him.
Too much birthday indeed.
