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Reviews
Succession: Chiantishire (2021)
Best Episode Of Season 3
This was a great episode. For starters, Ken has lost and he knows it. At the end of the episode he looks suicidal. The meeting with Ken and Logan was tense, and Logan was as cold and hurtful as he has ever been.
Next we have the meeting between Shiv and her mother. This is every bit as uncomfortable as the meeting between Logan and Ken. Shiv leaves the meeting with a new determination to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Shiv then tells Tom that she wants to have a baby. She also tells him that she does not love him. Tom is whipsawed, and he has no idea of what to make of any of it.
Then we have Roman sending his father an inappropriate picture that was meant for Gerri. This leads Shiv to pounce. She tells Logan that Roman is a liability who is disgusting. She then tries to convince Gerri to file a sexual harassment complaint against Roman. Meanwhile, Logan is furious with Roman.
This is a transformative episode for Shiv. At the start of the episode she is not even willing to attend a board meeting. By the end of the episode she has decided to fight for what she wants, and she is willing to do anything to get that.
Good stuff. I look forward to the season finale next week.
Succession: Retired Janitors of Idaho (2021)
The Third Season Started Great. Now, Not So Much
Not much happens in this episode. There is an on again, off again, on again negotiation with major shareholders. While this is playing out, they stall for time at the shareholders meeting. It is beginning to feel like they are just jerking around the audience. Logan is weak, now he is strong, oh wait, now he is weak again. Shiv is up, now she is down, now she is up.
In the first episode of the third season, Logan flees to Europe to avoid being arrested. By the fifth episode of season three, we are expected to care whether a large shareholder gets three or four seats on the board of directors. Much like the speakers at the shareholders meeting, the writers are just playing for time.
Perry Mason: Chapter Eight (2020)
An Absolute Disgrace
Perry Mason wins a hung jury by bribing a juror. I will repeat that, Perry Mason bribes a juror. There are two other jurors who refuse to convict even though they weren't bribed, as if that somehow makes bribing a juror more palatable.
I suppose that you could make the argument that Perry Mason learns the lesson that he doesn't need to cheat to have success. And that learning that lesson costs him his relationship with Pete Strickland. Perry Mason's conduct is reprehensible. It is every bit as bad as anything that the wildly unethical prosecuting attorney does. Perry Mason likes to say that there are things that are legal, and there are things that are right. Bribing a juror is both illegal and horribly wrong. Any script that tries to soft-pedal the severity of the crime of bribing a juror is a badly written script. A VERY badly written script. It is also very lazy writing. Every single courtroom drama ever made could have been resolved by having the defense attorney win a hung jury by bribing a juror.
I feel duped. I feel cheated. I very much wanted to like this show. I was won over by the look and the feel of the show. There were a lot of great acting performances in this series. But all of that was completely wasted by an absurdly bad finale to season one. I can't believe that anyone thought that this was a good way to end this season. I am actually embarrassed for the writers.
I eagerly watched every episode of season one of this series. I will NOT be making the same mistake with subsequent seasons.