Faulkner

@AbcNbc247

Oy. I cut the cord, partially because my cable operator (Spectrum) didn’t offer TCM on anything but the highest tiers. Now comes news that Zaslav is gutting the network:

5 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Ummm...I think they have already parody days . Gays of our lives...I forgot who plays Will and Sonny.

I've always wondered about Ronan. Too bad these are fake.

Luke Macfarlane is a bonafide daddy 

14 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

How do you know about his social media tendencies?

9 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Ummm...I think they have already parody days . Gays of our lives...I forgot who plays Will and Sonny.

I've always wondered about Ronan. Too bad these are fake.

That photo was my inspiration lol. He’s apparently very cruisy on social media, so shoot your shot!  

The oldest, palest, whitest blond twink who ever twinked: Ronan Farrow. Actually these are AI generations but go wild @Soapsuds @AbcNbc247

7 minutes ago, Cheap21 said:

In RHOP news, its been announced that Monique filed for divorce from Chris. Im not surpised bc they havent posted each other in months and he's been losing alot of weight as he looks for his next wife. I wonder if she will return to Love and Marriage DC or even RHOP bc one of the reasons why she cited walking away from reality tv was to save her marriage as it wasnt worth it. Well she is ending up getting divorced anyway and there is nothing like making your own income. Im sure the radio gig isnt enough to afford her the lifestyle she wants and I dont see her making bank in this divorce

I remember they called the story about their breakup from last year fake news, but I guess they couldn’t hash it out. I know Chris’s mom is somewhere dancing a jig.

@Soapsuds

Ryan Hoang  

@AbcNbc247

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8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks for the article.

I had to laugh at the bit about people denigrating Yellowstone as a downmarket Succession. Actually, many in the media went out of their way to do just the opposite - denigrate Succession because it got outsized press coverage (which it did) while Yellowstone was a show for "real" America. The only reason this tapered off is because a lot of Yellowstone fans will tell you outright the show has sucked for years and was strangled by the creator choosing to do 500 spinoffs. Succession, while probably not a show that will be as remembered as Sopranos is by many, or Game of Thrones, generated much more genuine discussion and conversation on motivations and flaws and light and dark and humanity, or lack thereof.  

I'm glad they praised Sarah Snook, as I do agree her work is reminiscent of long gone soap anti-heroines, and the wonderful Sarah Brown. The show, like the best of soap writers, like Bill Bell with Jill and Nikki and Katherine and Lorie, Irna Phillips with Kim, Henry Slesar with Raven, never tried to make Shiv a saint - she hid behind the facade of "sisterhood" and progressive politics, but always chose what she thought was best for herself. Yet she was also generally not painted as some kind of hellbitch ruining the lives of the men around her - she was at times cruel and cold, other times vulnerable and heartbreaking. Her final scenes, the prison of her own making and yet one that had been built for her long before she had been born, were exquisitely done, and had an aching ambiguity to them that was the best of soap. And she and Matthew Macfadyen were just superb acting partners in a way that you took for granted on soaps in their heyday. 

I read an article not long ago talking about the increasing turns to open-ended finales on prestige shows, and I think that is also a reminder of the effects of soaps - not that Sopranos was seen as being a soap (at least not as the years passed), but that sense of life still going on, viewers choosing their own adventure once the final credit rolls, is there. More with Succession than just about any primetime show. In its own way (a much bleaker way) it's a sister to the end of Ryan's Hope, which Claire Labine and Paul Labine kept very open-ended with a few moments of closure peppered through to reward viewers for their loyalty and love. 

The nuance of the characters, the complexity of who they loved, what they could ever want or be, probably reminded me most of the Dobsons and their Guiding Light run - and if you take away the madhouse dialogue and absurdist humor, you get that same austere chic that stays with you from so many of the 1979 GL episodes. You could so very, very easily drop characters like Kendall Roy or Gerri Kellman into the Springfield of that era.

The moral and philosophical view of the show is what you would have gotten in a world where Irna and Harding Lemay had been able to collaborate - the show was stacked top to bottom with playwrights, like Lemay, exploring complex psychological profiles and cycles that are set as traps, yet like Irna, the show constantly feels torn between damnation and finding the light ahead - characters struggle and struggle with their worst selves and what made them who they are, they pay the price for being unable or unwilling to change, but there's still that glimpse of heart that makes you want them to be better, even if you know they never will be. 

(and my guess is Irna would have loved the Marcia character, who was just what Irna kept trying to make her matriarchs into [an extremely cold, controlled, at times very manipulative woman, hardened by a difficult past, who still has her moments of deep sympathy])

There's a scene near the end of the show where Kendall tries to simultaneously control and comfort his brother Roman by hugging him tight to deliberately pop his stitches, the physical abuse that their father had used to make him obedient and which Roman could no longer function without. It's such a gut-wrenching moment to watch, such hideous duality, yet done in just the right way, never seeming exploitive or like some kind of fetish material. It's very much a step further in the wheelhouse that a show like DAYS was set up for in the '70s.

The other tie to soaps is that even though Succession was not a show about romance (most relationships were transactional and incredibly broken - sex was almost always an afterthought), but in the era of increasing numbers of people who can't or won't accept more explicit portrayals of sexuality, this seemed to get a very passionate response from viewers. Similar to soaps of old, seeing so little allowed viewers to see whatever they wanted to see. The show had many, many fan ships, and even though the show did not pander to most of those, they also did not shut them down. The finale, surprisingly, left paths open to all of them, giving fans the chance to make their own worlds for them.

One of the most unique relationships was one that various soaps like AMC, Y&R and Somerset tried to tackle in the '70s, just within a much more corporate and toxic setting - Gerri, 25 or so years older than Roman Roy, was frequently on the receiving end of his flirtations and obsessions, and at times, outright harassment. She tried to form a business partnership with him, she did genuinely care about him a great deal, even as she used him as something of a buffer in the company, but he was ultimately too out of control and she wisely got out as she watched him burn himself to the ground. On modern soaps, like Guza's GH, she would have been presented as some kind of hag clinging to a stud and paying with her life, beaten, spat on. On Succession, she was (even if she was not a central character) a much more complicated figure that many viewers, especially older female viewers, adored - "representation" without actually being treated as such.

I talked to @Vee about this at the time it aired, but there was an episode that truly made me yearn for the lost world of '50s, '60s, and '70s soaps, the layers and the very specific mix of being emotionally overpowered while being chilled to the bone that reminded me of my beloved ATWT and GL. 

You had the three Roy children each giving a eulogy, each coping with the lifelong abuse by their father in the only way they could - either trying to bargain, trying to become him, or falling apart entirely. It was both grueling and enthralling for me to watch, and yet it also made me very proud of what soaps were before weather machines and couples on the run to nowhere, and a glimpse into what they could be again in some other time or place, after the few remaining daytime staples have taken their last line.

 

Dealing with some family stuff at the moment, so I’m not posting much. Just jumping in to say this was a wonderfully written post (as expected from you) that makes me want to give Succession another shot. At a certain point, I found the characters too horrible to watch (and some of the dialogue a bit monotonous) so I dipped out. I find a lot of HBO series insular, nihilistic, and fashionably bleak, but you’ve made me do some fresh thinking on this one.

I’m glad the writer of the article seems to genuinely value soaps and their performers, which puts it a cut above most of these pieces.

Another literary giant leaves us: 

Yikes.