Thoughts on Succession's Season 3 Finale, Hawkeye's Disney Plus TV Show Season 1, Matrix Resurrections, and More

 Happy holidays!

Hope you guys have had a happy and safe holidays.  Here are some thoughts I had regarding the Succession finale, Hawkeye Disney+ TV series, Matrix Resurrections, and about Omicron.

The key to winning Logan Roy's heart appears to not be a child of the Roy family or born into there, but instead it seems to be loyalty.  
(Photo: Screenrant, via HBO)

Succession’s Season 3 Finale

It turns out that Kendall Roy didn’t drown after all.  He was saved by Comfrey, and so he lives to take part in another season.  Season 3 was a very interesting and entertaining nail biter.  Kendall gains the sympathy of his siblings, and together, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman team up to try to stop and block their father Logan Roy from selling WayStar RoyCo to Lukas Matsson that would prevent the kids from having any sort of power or meaningful position in the company.

Unfortunately for them, they are both unable to talk their father out of selling their media empire, and their father effectively cuts them off from having a future stake in their company.  The most heart wrenching aspect of knowing that the siblings would fail in their dealings with Logan Roy was the interaction between Roman and Logan, where Roman pleads to his father with love, and his father emphatically rejects it and dismisses his kids' behavior as poor business planning and disloyal behavior.  That the Roy kids would lose to Logan was probably inevitable since it seems that the ruthless Logan Roy always wins, but to me, it was a pretty sad end to Season 3, nevertheless.  

Over the course of the season and in terms of gamesmanship, the big winner turns out to be Tom, who goes from being jail bound to being in Logan's good graces and in a position to be in his inner circle.  It seems that the mistake the Roy kids made was that Shiv told her husband Tom Wambsgans about their plans to block their father’s impending sale of the company to Lukas Matsson, and Tom is implied to have relayed the information to Logan Roy so that he could call up his ex-wife to change things around so that their kids don’t get any leverage or power to block their business dealings.  What makes Logan a bad father makes him a good businessman, at least on the show of Succession.  Logan makes a cold business decision to both sell off the company and also decides that he will not want to deal with his children’s behavior any longer after they teamed up to try to unsuccessfully block the sale.  For Kendall, Shiv, and Roman, it seems that they will have to start up their own company and use their own funds and means to do so, all while Tom and cousin Greg move up the ladder to gain more power within WayStar RoyCo.

Overall, I liked the finale, and it was both gripping and intense.  The characters didn’t fully get everything they wanted on the show, but that is also what makes this show interesting, and it will provide a nice jump off point for the start of Season 4, to see how things unfold from the end of season 3 and onwards.

Disney Plus' Hawkeye season 1 was a roaring success, and it was a fun-filled season that had both  endearing and gripping moments along the way.
(Photo: Indian Express, via Marvel Studios)

Hawkeye TV series

I also watched all of the episodes of Hawkeye.  Kate Bishop (played by Hailee Steinfeld) is a young woman who ends up at her mom’s holiday party, and she poses as a waitress at an underground, black market auction in which they sell off Avengers and Ronin gear.  When a truck comes crashing into the auction, Kate makes a decision to put on the Ronin uniform that was once worn by the original Hawkeye, Clint Barton (played by Jeremy Renner).  

Meanwhile, Kate runs into all sort of problems, as she has to fend off the Tracksuit Mafia, and suspects her mom’s boyfriend Jack (played by Tony Dalton of Better Call Saul fame) of murdering Armand, a rich elderly gentleman who was also an acquaintance of their family.  Moreover, Jack seems to be too suave for his own good and is exceptionally skilled with the sword, and is also Kate’s mom’s mystery boyfriend and fiancée, so Kate immediately is suspicious of him.  In addition, Kate has to deal with the Tracksuit Mafia, who had their previous run-ins with Clint Barton when he was Ronin during his time where he lost his family and was grieving them due to the Snap (also known as the Blip), and so Kate gets entangled in this affair because the Tracksuit Mafia think Kate was the Ronin that they had faced off against years ago.

For Clint, he must deal with the trauma of his past, as he has to help Kate fend off the Tracksuit Mafia, and he also is tasked to find out who murdered Armand.  Echo, Yelena Belova, and Kingpin all play pivotal roles in the 6-episode first season, and we also get treated to good moments with the LARPers and Lucky the Pizza Dog, as we get treated to a nice mixture of action, fun, humor, and grippingly intense drama that keeps you engaged and interested in the series.  I enjoyed watching Hawkeye’s Disney Plus show season 1, and for those of you who already have or get to access Disney Plus, I recommend giving Hawkeye a viewing.

The Matrix Resurrections serves as a refreshing update that both reboots Neo and Trinity in a way that gives us a newer, younger Morpheus, a different version of Agent Smith, and Neil Patrick Harris really turns up the smarm as he steals the show as a secret major antagonist of the movie.

(Photo: Games Radar, via Warner Bros.)

The Matrix Resurrections

I also saw Matrix Resurrections starring Keanu Reaves as Neo/Thomas Anderson, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity/Tiffany, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good this movie was.

It was not only refreshing to see that they continued the storyline from the previous Matrix trilogy, but it also served as essentially a fun and intriguing reboot.  Neo comes back into the Matrix as a successful video game programmer, and he is credited with having created the Matrix video game that was essentially based heavily on his life.  He has recurring bouts of depression, loneliness, and trauma, and he dreams of Trinity, but he doesn’t know why.  In this world, he doesn’t really know Trinity, and he has to piece together moments of his old life and figure out that he actually lived that life.

Neil Patrick Harris was really good in a villainous role as Neo’s therapist and as the Analyst, and he really plays a smart, witty, smarmy antagonist character to perfection.  That was a really good addition to this series, and Jonathan Groff also embodied the character of Agent Smith and gives him newfound depth that makes him seem both like a credible business partner and Neo’s old enemy from the past.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II gave a refreshing swagger to playing Morpheus, and he’s basically channeling Morpheus from the very first Matrix movie.  Jessica Henwick also played an important role as Bugs, who helps explain to Neo his importance in paving the way for the future, all while explaining to him that they need him in the present.  As for Jada Pinkett-Smith playing old Niobe, I thought that was a bit of a disappointment.  She essentially was playing an old, wise veteran character that started up a new city called Io after the collapse of Zion, but she comes off as overly protective to the point where she doesn’t seem to want her citizens to take risks.

For the fans that love the Matrix trilogy, especially the first movie, you guys should tune in to watch Matrix Resurrections.  For those that didn’t really care for any of those movies though, maybe you don’t have to watch this, and you can elect to sit this one out.  I liked Matrix Resurrections.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was an entertaining and thoughtful movie that serves as a nice modern update.

Thoughts on COVID-19 and Omicron, and Other Things

Lastly, I wish you all to be happy, safe, and to be healthy.  These are some tough times as the world is dealing with the Omicron outbreak, but make sure you take precautions to be safe and healthy in the meantime.  

Anyways, those are my thoughts for now, and have a happy and safe holidays!  Thank you for reading.

Is Kendall Roy Succession’s Jimmy Darmody?

Hello readers!  I decided to write up my thoughts on the latest Succession episode. 

For those of you who haven’t watched Succession’s season 3, or episode 8 Chiantishire, I’m just going to give a heads up, SPOILERS are below.

(Photo: HBO, via Uproxx)  Kendall Roy looks passed out in his pool at the end of Episode 8's Chiantishire after getting another verbal beatdown from his father, Logan Roy, as his dad won't let him out of the company.  Should we be concerned about Kendall?

I’m worried for my man, Kendall Roy (played by Jeremy Strong).  There's a real concern that Kendall might not make it to Season 4 of Succession.  He’s not in a good state, and when we last saw him, he was dozing off to sleep in a flooding pool with a beer bottle that left his hand.  He really should not have gone to Tuscany.  He should’ve stayed home.  And where the heck is Naomi, who was his bed rock at the end of season 7, when his birthday party crashed and burned (though unfortunate, it was expected that his party would ultimately be a disaster)?  

Kendall is in Tuscany with his kids, but he doesn’t seem to have any adult allies in his corner.  He’s also depressed, on the losing end of his fight with his father, and that’s not a good recipe at all for him.  He should be concerned about his mental health, and people close to him should be worried about him if they care about him at all.  

(Photo: HBO/Newsday) Kendall's plan to leave his father's Waystar Royco company did not at all go as planned, and just like everything else for him this season, ended up being disastrous for him.

For most of the episode, Kendall sought his father to have a big sit down meeting with him.  As expected, it didn't go well for him.  His own father has blocked him from his phone.  His father doesn't even trust him enough to send him a plate of pasta, and he has Kendall's son taste it for him to make sure it isn't poisoned.  Kendall's treated like he's only a member of the family in technicality, but it feels as if he's been disowned in every other sense of the word.  After being on the losing end of the fight to his dad, Kendall wants out of the company, but his dad won't let him.  Kendall will be tied to Waystar Royco until he dies or quits, it seems.

He’s not a perfect person by any means.  At the end of season 1, he accidentally killed a waiter by wrecking his car into a pond while swerving from oncoming traffic after he and his newfound friend (the waiter) were high on drugs.

Kendall is a man that has been beaten down, and has gotten back up many times before.  He’s survived verbal abuses from his powerful father, Logan Roy (played by the brilliant Brian Cox), drug addiction, and he is one quirky individual that is fond of parties.  He had the cringe-worthy rap in which he rapped about his love for his father (which looks weird and ironic now), and he also had the equally disastrous 40th birthday party that was hailed as “the Notorious Ken: Ready to Die” party.

There’s something really tragic about him.  He’s habitually had problems with drug addiction, he’s lost a big fight and case against his powerful father in Season 3 where he sought to take him down in their cruise ship’s harassment case, and he’s been tumbling down into depression, ever since his siblings went behind his back to try to do a deal with Lukas Matsson (played by Alexander Skarsgard) at his birthday party in order to finish a business deal.  Add insult to injury, not only does his brother Roman Roy (played by Kieran Culkin) sneak into the treehouse without Kendall’s permission, Roman insults Kendall to his face and pushes him just as Kendall is on his way out of the party.

One of the subtly more tragic things is the supposedly funny headlines at Kendall’s birthday party about his family’s demise, but we’ve come to know that none of that will happen to them.  Instead, the very real demise could be Kendall’s own, as he was depressed, drunk, and fell asleep in his pool at the end of Episode 8’s Chiantishire, and he is at the risk of drowning and dying in the very next episode.

Jeremy Strong is a very good, yet has been since as a mercurial and intense method actor.  He’s one of the best actors most people don’t really know about, but if Episode 8 was the last episode we see Kendall Roy alive, the greatest sendoff for him would be if he wins an Emmy for his strong performance of Kendall in Season 3 of Succession.

Kendall Roy was supposed to be the most woke Roy, if there was a thing.  But as the show has progressed, that may not be necessarily good for him.  He’s an idealist at heart in a world full of cold, calculating business people, and he is essentially like a big fish in a sea of sharks.  He took a big chance by calling out his father at the end of season 2 by calling him a malignant figure, and he was willing to take down him and his company, Waystar Royco to try to expose their company’s cruise ship’s corruption scandal.  

However, he really struggled to give his side of the case at the deposition when he was with his then lawyer, Lisa Arthur. As a result, Kendall had a meltdown immediately afterwards, and his meltdown led to Lisa's chagrin, which disagreed with Kendall.  In turn, Kendall's meltdown and his public firing of Lisa Arthur doomed any chance of him winning against his father or the company.  As a result, Kendall was basically surrounded by enablers, and he didn't stand a chance to win the case once he fired Lisa, who was a powerful lawyer who remained objective throughout the process.

For most of the show, I’ve felt cousin Greg and Tom to be more or less the voice of the commoners in a land of the rich and powerful, and we need them to be heard more.  Unfortunately, cousin Greg has made some very questionable choices in season 3, as he decided to sign an agreement with Logan Roy and Waystar Royco, and he lost his inheritance from his grandfather to Greenpeace.  He ended up planning to sue Greenpeace, and he’s strayed further and further away from seeming to be the common man.

(Photo: HBO via Uproxx) Does Roman Roy really have the inside track to be WayStar's future CEO?  In Season 3, it seems that he'll do one thing to get in his dad and his company's favor, and he'll do another to sabotage himself.

Roman Roy has been one of the more intriguing, oddball characters on the show.  He’s showed business acumen and savvy by being able to rope in his political candidate, Jerryd Mencken to get his father’s seal of approval, and he also managed to get Lukas Matsson back in talks with his company to try to get the merger done.  But every time he makes a step to be Waystar's future CEO, he does something odd and really strange that makes me think that he won't be.  Roman's perverseness and oddball quirks have taken him sideways, and he ended up sending NSFW photos of his junk that went to his father, and that could result him getting fired from his company, or at the very least ostracized and humiliated.

(Photo: HBO/Inverse) Shiv Roy (played by Sarah Snook) really seems to want to be the CEO or at least get a board seat on WayStar Royco, and it seems she'll do whatever it takes, whether if it's rolling Roman or Gerri under the bus for her own gain, or by trying to do her dad's bidding and conduct business at Kendall's birthday party. 

Lastly, Shiv Roy has gone a 180 from working for a very liberal politician to really wanting the CEO position at her father’s company.  Of all of the Roy siblings, she might potentially the shrewdest and the coldest sibling of them all.  She went with Roman to try to do a business deal at Kendall’s birthday party even when he explicitly told them not to.  I wanted to naively believe that she was one of the most progressive of the Roys in the family, but that has been proven to not be the case at all, and she has been ruthless in pursuit of a higher position at Waystar Royco.

Shiv did help expose Roman for his photo gaffe to his father, but she also tried to push her interim CEO, Gerri around to use their secret relationship as leverage so she could gain a higher role within the company.  Lastly, she claimed to remember her mom leaving when she was 10, but her mother told her that Shiv was 13 when she told her mom that she wanted to live with her father, Logan.  

We’ve always known Shiv wanted to be the CEO, but the lengths she goes to is far more than most would be willing to go to get there.  While her mother seemed to make Shiv try to become a mother via reverse psychology, I’m still not convinced Shiv wants kids, and her husband Tom desperately wants to have them.  At some point, Shiv is either going to have to decide whether to have kids and get what Tom wants (Tom, who always seems to be emasculated by his wife and never gets what he wants), or to not have them and potentially leave Tom altogether.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the show Succession for now.  Thanks for reading.

Side Note: 

For those of you who don’t know who Jimmy Darmody is, he was a central character on the HBO show, Boardwalk Empire.  Spoilers are below.

Jimmy Darmody was a main character on Boardwalk Empire that was played by Michael Pitt in season 1 and 2.  Jimmy Darmody was a protégé and surrogate son of Nucky Thompson, and he was a former soldier that came back from war.  He was born after the Commodore had forced himself and impregnated his mother, Gillian Darmody (in which the affair had been arranged Nucky).  When I watched the first season, I thought that Jimmy would end up supplanting Nucky to be his heir apparent to run the mafia, but that did not turn out to be the case at all.

Jimmy’s life was a very tragic one.  His mother seemed to have a stunted emotional maturity of a child, and Jimmy and his mother seemed to have an incestuous relationship.  Jimmy enrolled at Princeton, but was kicked out after getting into a fight with his teacher after his teacher wanted to date his mother.  On top of that, he was burdened by memories of war, 

Jimmy worked for Nucky, but then later worked for the Commodore, and after he didn’t call off a hit on Nucky, he ended up getting killed by his surrogate father Nucky Thompson at the end of season 2, who more or less disowned him by then.