# Succession on HBO **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, hbomax-wb-dc\ **Created:** [June 4, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428 "2018-06-04T19:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/221 "2023-03-27T18:25:53Z")
Good call. Naive almost that I didn’t consider that. Indirect Clues presented in show that it’s true are: discussing about value of company (what’s it worth?, is it worth $10b?), discussing value of $500mil, and just the impulsiveness of it all. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/222 "2023-03-27T18:39:55Z")
Also: Logan Roy is a deal maker who “always wins”. He valued it @ $7 billion, but started with a $6b bid. He knew it was his kids at the other end and he knew they would ignore the downside - and they did so, paying a 67% premium to his opening bid just so they can ‘win’. But Logan knows. He knows they overpaid, he knows that acquiring a company is one thing, running one quite another… and now his goal is to kill them in the marketplace, hence the scene where he effectively fires the sportscaster because the sportscaster isn’t flashy enough. Logan may have been bored with being CEO before. Now that he’s competing against his own children, he is re-energized. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/223 "2023-03-27T19:06:57Z")
Yep. Good catch. All the kids are being reckless with money. Connor solely spending to just be in a presidential conversation, and worrying about the amount to maintain the 1%. Not sure we’ve seen them worry about money before and this episode made a point to show it. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/224 "2023-03-27T20:05:56Z")
I suspect Logan won’t be alive for the whole season. I suspect the reason he was amenable to being bought is that he found someone he could trust to run his company effectively after all of this children shit the bed at various points. He’s also pondering the afterlife with his “best pal.” I think he’s dying. JMO. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/225 "2023-03-27T20:08:59Z")
Wasn’t Logan’s mortality the subject of the very first episode of the series? I seem to recall bits showing his mental decline. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/226 "2023-03-27T20:10:43Z")
Yeah, he’s had some issues over the course of the series. But I think this may be how it ends. With Logan “picking” his successor (Mattson) and kicking the bucket at some point. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/227 "2023-03-27T20:19:56Z")
TV execs and show runners don’t like killing off the most popular character in a series. If Logan dies, it will be in the last, or 2nd to last, episode. I would have the show end with Logan, alone, muttering “fuck off!” ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/228 "2023-03-27T20:28:15Z")
Well unless Jesse Armstrong wants to use Logan’s death to drive the arc of the last season. Not saying it _will_ happen before the last or second-to-last ep, but there’s no reason to think it couldn’t happen sooner. I don’t think Armstrong necessarily cares more about a character’s popularity than the actual story he’s telling. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/229 "2023-03-27T20:48:56Z")
BTW, everyone thinks about Rupert Murdoch and his kids as the inspiration for this show, but if you’ve heard anything about [Sumner Redstone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Redstone), he’s clearly also an influence. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/230 "2023-03-28T14:00:28Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Logan Roy is a deal maker who “always wins”. He valued it @ $7 billion, but started with a $6b bid. But was willing to go to $9.5B, $10B before being told (well Tom being told) that the bidding is over. And then he has Tom call the kids to growl at them. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/231 "2023-03-28T17:01:56Z")
Yeah. That was a bad bit of writing. If I have two parties upping their bid on my property @ _half-billion dollar intervals_, then I’m not capping these fools @ $10 billion because I don’t want to deal with this anymore. Let them top each other all night, what do I care about one wasted evening? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/232 "2023-03-28T17:12:59Z")
Nan was always telling the kids that the bidding was closed _wink wink_ but kept it open for them. I think once she felt they were likely at their max, she really ended the bidding so that her family got the most they could without handing over their family business to someone she truly loathed. Her line was something like “Oh this is all so disgusting. All these number flying about…8…9…” Those numbers were _not_ flying about at that point. She was essentially leading them to the number she wanted from them. Roman followed up with “Hmm, I wonder what comes next…” She was essentially telling them to get it up to 10b, and she’d call it for them. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/233 "2023-03-28T17:18:11Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I would have the show end with Logan, alone, muttering “fuck off!” As a snow globe showing Scotland falls from his dead fingers… ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/234 "2023-03-28T17:29:26Z")
At least The Hundred isn’t going to see the light of day. “It’s Substack meets MasterClass meets the Economist meets the New Yorker.” “It’s like a private member’s club but for everyone.” “We have the ethos of a nonprofit but a path to crazy margins.” It’s like a parody of new internet startup bullshit, but it’s also perfectly in character. My question: what’s the worst that could happen to the kids? If they truly snuff it with the new company, how destitute can they really end up? It seems like people at this level of wealth are never truly betting it all. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/235 "2023-03-28T18:33:19Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Nan was always telling the kids that the bidding was closed _wink wink_ but kept it open for them. I think once she felt they were likely at their max, she really ended the bidding so that her family got the most they could without handing over their family business to someone she truly loathed. > > Her line was something like “Oh this is all so disgusting. All these number flying about…8…9…” > > Those numbers were _not_ flying about at that point. She was essentially leading them to the number she wanted from them. > > Roman followed up with “Hmm, I wonder what comes next…” > > She was essentially telling them to get it up to 10b, and she’d call it for them. Yep, that’s how I saw it as well. And once she hit her $10b then she would sell it to them and not have to worry about Logan getting it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/236 "2023-03-28T19:20:03Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > But Logan knows. He knows they overpaid, he knows that acquiring a company is one thing, running one quite another… and now his goal is to kill them in the marketplace, hence the scene where he effectively fires the sportscaster because the sportscaster isn’t flashy enough. But remember, at that point, Logan will only own the network for another 40 hours or so. Everyone is humoring him until he sells the company. He was basically another old crank complaining about TV. I think that Logan will pull out if the deal at the last minute just so he can fight with the kids. In a dysfunctional family, any interaction is good interaction. The worst thing that can happen is to be ignored. I think Greg will continue to fall up and end up owning the empire. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/237 "2023-03-28T19:26:46Z")
Good points, all. But I don’t think for a second that the GoJo-WR deal goes through, Logan (or the kids) will fuck it up somehow. Once he sells the company, what’s there to succeed in a show called _Succession_? I would like to see the plot go to where LR has his company, the kids have theirs, and they go down together, firing shots at each other and destroying their wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/238 "2023-03-28T19:52:18Z")
They’re already destroying wealth, when the kids were bidding against Logan to buy that company. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/239 "2023-03-30T12:25:26Z")
I watched the episode twice. Was it clear that Logan was going to bid 9.5billion? I couldn’t tell, and I think it makes a big difference in how I view motives, etc. I know he bid $7b. Then there was discussion on Logan’s team of 8, 9, 9.5, but I don’t remember if they actually bid that or said they would (if given the chance). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428/240 "2023-03-30T15:52:17Z")
Ok, rewatched the bidding and took notes. In short, the kids fucked themselves: In the first meeting with Nan, Nan floats “nine… what’s past nine”, with Roman responding “B? 9B?” Nan suggests the kids go to the terrace while she talks with her team. The kids on the terrace, with Nan in her drawing room, the bidding begins with a phone call between Nan’s team and Tom: Logan starts @ 6B “find something we have lost confidence in” The kids agree to $8B. Tom bids $6B, Shiv comes in immediately after with $8B. Tom: They weren’t excited. Logan: Is it them? Kerry! Let’s talk! Logan “I don’t want to lose this Tommy”, has Tom call Shiv. Tom calls Shiv: “it would be crazy to add an emotional premium” Shiv says “our ceiling is 12B” Tom says “Ours too” (hangs up with Shiv, relays this # back to Logan). Kendall suggests “10B” Roman says “we think Dad is at 8.5, 9” _(He isn’t- Logan’s bid is still @ 6)_ Roman balks at $10B, but they convince themselves to bid $10B Shiv bids $10B Tom tells Logan they received a “conversation ending offer.” They speculate that it’s $10B Logan calls the kids, congratulating them at “saying the biggest number, you fucking morons”. So, there were three bids presented to Nan: 1. Logan bids $6b (he never got a chance to bid $7b) 2. The kids bid $8b 3. The kids up their bid by $2b, to $10b Yeah… congratulations, you fucking morons. You bid against yourself and you overpaid by $3 billion! (Assuming Logan would have gone to $7B.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/succession-on-hbo/815428.md?page=13)