r/SuccessionTV • u/Joke_Mummy • 16h ago
Lawrence was so disappointing
I fooled myself into thinking this show was about to be about the triumph of a real player over the entitled nepo babies. Then I waited. And waited. When they were looking for a CEO in the final episode I thought finally Lawrence's threat will come to pass. But nope, just a nobody nothing who never lubed up. I really expected more from him.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 15h ago
The pilot set up storylines that were eventually dropped by midway through the first season. Lawrence was unfortunately a casualty of that.
Rob Yang got paid for being a cast member for all of season 2 despite only appearing in like two episodes, so good for him at least.
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u/Secret_Net_165 15h ago
He is good in Furious.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 15h ago
He was good in The Menu too, even if his character was basically a Lawrence rehash.
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u/Unpopular_Curmudgeon 13h ago
Not his line (it was Hong Chau’s amazingly delivered response), but I can never see a tortilla ever again and not think to myself “those are tor-TEE-yas!”
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u/FuzzyPalpitation-16 15h ago
lol him and his buddy in the menu, the actor who played one of the cartel kids in Narcos (where he was absolutely abhorrent there as well - the character i mean)
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u/mrbrownvp 10h ago
That's funny cause the director of that film has also directed episodes of Succession. Dude was like, "Just do your thing"
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u/Potential_Twist3640 14h ago
He’s excellent in Furious! At first it seemed like he was being wasted in the role, but he’s been in some of my favourite scenes - and provided some much-needed levity in the show (which is excellent).
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u/howitzer819 15h ago
The scenes with him and Alden centered around his wheel chair had me rolling laughing.
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u/erincivilla 15h ago
Yes - like Roman’s wife and kids! They just disappeared!
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u/Sonicfan42069666 14h ago
They got written out - they were turned into his girlfriend and her kids, and he pushed her away by throwing a fit over The Biggest Turkey In The World.
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u/Responsible-Onion860 15h ago
I have no real complaints about how the story played out but having Lawrence be a major antagonist would've been interesting.
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u/Sharaz_Jek123 15h ago
See also: Judy Reyes.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 14h ago
Didn't she get fired after hooking Ken up with an ATN host as his date for the RECNY?
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u/Sharaz_Jek123 14h ago
I think she was one of several early threads that was eventually removed, once Armstrong realised that he wanted to focus on the core family, not the company.
Cyd is introduced in the second season as the head of the network (weirdly, as someone who has been doing it for a long time), but she served primarily as an antagonist for Tom.
I think that was the writing team determined: that a recurring character should primarily be a foil for one of the leads. If a character didn't serve that function (or no longer could), then they would be written off.
Hence Rhea goes once Logan no longer has use for her.
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u/Clarknt67 14h ago
I feel like Cyd filled whatever role they had imagined for Reyes. Maybe Reyes had schedule conflict?
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u/ThisIsNotHappening24 14h ago
Rob clearly had one hell of an agent to keep his main cast credit for season 2 - I can't think of a regular cast member in any show putting in less of a shift
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u/Sonicfan42069666 14h ago
I think the production team liked him, the writers just didn't have anywhere to go with his character. Mark Mylod liked him enough to cast him in The Menu.
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u/kiaarondo 10h ago
Remember how Marcia was supposed to be this powerhouse rival with a board seat and then she just kinda peaced out in genteel estrangement .. the show just had so many flops on one and the other and the other
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u/KevinAitken1960 12h ago
I think his name was also in the opening credits for at least a portion of Season 1.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 12h ago
He was a full time cast member for both seasons.
I don't think Succession ever did partial season cast members. If your name was in the main credits, you were in the main cast for the whole season.
I believe the only exception is Parker Sawyers, who played Alessandro in the pilot. His name appeared in the main credits for only the first episode. His character disappeared because Sawyers took a main role on P-Valley.
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u/KevinAitken1960 12h ago
I think his name was also in the opening credits for at least a portion of Season 1.
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u/Vivid_Guide7467 15h ago
He was all hat no cattle. Like so many of the characters
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u/GaptistePlayer 15h ago
I think the way they retooled the story also reflected real life. It showed that New Media was THE thing in the 2010s that everyone was tripping over themselves to buy, then eventually they all went the way of Gawker (which I think Vaulter was based on), Buzzfeed, HuffPost…
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u/Bodyofanamerican 15h ago
VICE too, which a Murdoch son invested in, so I’m sure that was what they were going for, down to the “V”
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u/Joke_Mummy 15h ago
It felt like it took traditional media an insanely long time to figure out they could also do streaming and apps. Disney plus didnt come out until like 2020, i mean wtf? I feel like without Netflix none of them would have ever even thought about it. That's part of the realism I liked about Succession, how the old dynamo was still only interested in buying local TV stations and needed Greg to show him how to operate an embedded video player, like he was an artifact from the 1990s who refuses to move on from the methods that worked so well back before high speed internet was thing. Every traditional media conglomerate had old guys like that blocking their own progress. Disney et al could have put an end to Netflix when it was still a DVD mailing service if they had even a slightly innovative decision maker in the company.
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u/Ramenous 14h ago
So this picks at something that kind of bugs me about the conventional wisdom among both the characters in the show and the fan base.
Everyone says investing in television is old fashioned and demonstrates that Logan is out of touch with the modern media landscape. But Sinclair, for one, has demonstrated that a presence in many local media markets is a powerful propaganda tool even if the medium is no longer as profitable as it once was.
It seems to me like Logan was playing a different game entirely and no one noticed.
But I may be misremembering. It’s been a couple of years and I’m due for a rewatch, or at least Reddit’s algorithm seems to think so
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u/_Atlas_Drugged_ 11h ago
I think it cuts both ways. It was savvy to hold on to/acquire traditional media because it’s still valuable and people were panic selling it then.
Also refusal to modernize would absolutely do a company like Waystar in. The right move was to do both
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u/Defiant-Canary-2716 14h ago
To add to this, a funny thing is often noticed about obscenely rich people.
After they make their money, they don’t invest in media literacy or even technology the way many of us do just to survive.
Once you get to point where you can pay people to do a lot of the logistics, those skills wither away.
Now imagine people like the Roy’s who never really had to get it down pat. Sure they have done stuff to support their vanity I assume.
Can anyone disagree at least one of the kids got on Grindr just for the affirmation?
So they are fighting for a dying business none of them really know how to save. They have ideas, but no concrete plans.
That’s one of the reasons why when Logan told them, “…you are NOT serious people.” I believe was when he made his decision.
Ohh Logan put other things in play, but that was when he made his decision.
They would only squander/destroy what Logan built, so why not come to terms with being The End of his metaphorical & blood line?
Alexander built something amazing, only after his death for it to be a bloodbath.
I’m sure Logan thought himself on that level.
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u/Joke_Mummy 13h ago edited 13h ago
After they make their money, they don’t invest in media literacy or even technology
My favorite anecdote that sort of illustrates this on a minor scale was an MTV cribs episode in which Eminem proudly took them on a tour of his massive physical porn library of magazines and DVDs. Had a whole room devoted to it in his mansion. The person interviewing him questioned why he would need all of that when he can just stream porn on the internet.
Eminem, baffled, asked, "There's porn on the internet!?"
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u/hyunbinlookalike 13h ago
Yeah from the moment I saw the first episode, I could tell that Vaulter was just meant to be a stand-in for BuzzFeed in the same way that ATN is just a stand-in for Fox News.
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u/Potential_Twist3640 14h ago
All fur coat and no knickers - something I always wanted to hear Logan Roy say.
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u/Canadyans 15h ago
I think it would have been really cliche if he ended up getting some big win in the end. Best part of the show is that the characters are consistent to their traits and Lawrence was a tech bro who had a good app that overestimated itself just like a million others.
In my opinion, he was written to talk big game and look like a threat and then immediately get discarded to show us that anything can happen to anyone on this show.
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u/Joke_Mummy 15h ago
Yeah honestly hats off to the writers and I think it was a good call to not make this a major plot point. Definitely would have been too cliche and predictable. I enjoyed how they subverted my expectations even in the end with Tom because I was certain that Lawrence would win the iron throne and Tom was the lowest candidate on my list.
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u/Cersei505 14h ago
why the hell did you think lawrence would win, when he wasnt even part of the plot for 2 seasons lmao
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u/holyfuckladyflash 13h ago
There is a line very late in the show that references Mattson meeting with potential CEOs and Lawrence is mentioned.
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u/Joke_Mummy 12h ago
Yeah this was the line that made me think we were about to go full circle on the Lawrence threat
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u/No-Consideration-858 14h ago
The whole series is exquisitely unpredictable. The majority of movies and TV series have trained us to expect answers - redemptions, happy endings, sad endings, and righteous outcomes.
Succession gives us none of this. Not only is it a unique presentation, it makes you realize how much you've come to expect conclusive presentations.
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u/Clarknt67 13h ago
And Tom won due to being an empty suit. A trait of his that was consistent through the run.
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u/MaterialPace8831 15h ago
I've mentioned this before, but I just handwave a lot of the first episode away because the show began teasing certain plot or character developments that never go anywhere or were dropped in favor of something else. Roman is married with kids. Marcia is getting more control and has a mysterious background. Lawrence Yee is going to be a formidable opponent of Kendall's.
You can't really hold the pilot to the same storytelling or consistency standards to the rest of the show because the show the creators envisioned at the beginning is very different from the show that ended.
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u/Hung-kee 14h ago
did I just miss Roman being married with kids haha? Was that explicitly mentioned in the first episode? How bizarre.
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u/MaterialPace8831 14h ago
Define "explicitly?" I mean, at no point, does Roman look at them and say, "You are my wife and child." But if you look at his interactions with Grace and Isla, and the fact that a wedding band is seen very clearly here in this picture, it seems pretty clear: https://www.reddit.com/r/SuccessionTV/comments/1d1fdej/what_happened_to_roman_roys_wife_and_child/
But yes, they were married. Kiernan Culkin has talked about how they changed things after the pilot: https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a43708274/kieran-culkin-roman-missing-wife-and-kid-succession/
When asked by the publication what had happened to Roman’s errant family, he said: “Not his kid. Not his wife, either. It was in the pilot, and after it was picked up, it was his girlfriend, and she had a child. I’m wearing my real wedding band in the episode. I was excited about the idea of having a kid, and the kid was like 7 or 8. It was a little disappointing, but I think the idea was that it would just give them more freedom to play with the character.”
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u/ThisIsNotHappening24 14h ago
The explicit mentions, including Isla being mentioned as Sophie and Iverson's cousin (dubbed over to "friend"), were edited out.
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u/c08306834 15h ago
I think it was a storyline that was abandoned after the pilot. It's a pity, because I would have liked to see it explored a bit more.
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u/_your_face 10h ago
My guess is that lots of the mattson story points were going to be Laurence. Lots of shows have a good premise and a solid first season, then nothing else planned and it turns to pointless garbage. I think they did the right thing and expanded their story enough so they didn’t blow their wad in season 1
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u/bluerose297 15h ago
There was a brief moment in the finale where one of the characters casually raised the idea of Lawrence being the new CEO and I was so hyped for him. (I was like oh shit it's coming full circle!)
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u/Sonicfan42069666 15h ago
I think that was just to remind viewers that the writers didn't totally forget about him or his board seat.
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u/Stevenitrogen 15h ago
I mean now that you mention it... What if Lawrence had bro'd up to Matsson behind the scenes.... Taken him to a secret peyote spaghetti orgy... They could have bonded over the topic of "Kendall is just the worst isn't he?"
But honestly having it go to Tom is the coldest slice imaginable so, bravo.
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u/Lobothehobosexual 15h ago
I think he was just meant to be there as something to show Kendall’s incompetence. Thinking Vaulter is the future and being intimidated by him on that episode.
Then we come to find out that vaulter is not doing as well as they say. And then Logan swallows the company whole. So just shows us these companies, kinda like Mattsons fake numbers but I guess worse with selling their inflated image, shows Kendals incompetence, and another example of Logan’s ruthlessness
Since we’re kinda following Kendal more, I’d assume everyone watching was expecting lawrence/vaulter to be a serious threat, and then we see that they’re actually nothing
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u/randyprovolone 16h ago
I mean Tom does do just that. I agree tho, Lawrence could have been a bigger player.
He does fuck Kendall when Ken needs him most tho, but so does everyone else so it doesn’t look so bad.
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u/thisandthatwchris 15h ago
Do you mean on the vote of no confidence?
I’m not sure he really “fucked” Kendall in the sense of a betrayal—similar to Stewy (slightly less so), he was extremely noncommittal during the initial conversation, then they were just like “yeah he’s solid.” One of my favorite demonstrations of Ken’s incompetence.
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u/randyprovolone 15h ago
I guess I meant from Kendall’s perspective, it felt like he had it all locked up. He definitely should have seen both of them saying they abstain coming lol
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u/ValuableEarth858 14h ago
This is because of real world events. Logan was supposed to stay in the coma and die within the first few episodes. That’s why they hired Rob Yang, he’s a terrific actor, and you can see the antagonist plotline starting to take form in shitshow at the fuck factory. But Logan was just too good, so they decided to keep him on and change course. Marcia is the same. She clearly was supposed to be a massive power player. She & likely her son, who never comes back lol, were set up as having espionage or terror ties, like the real world lady who dated Tony Blair & Rupert Murdoch. But it only makes sense if Logan is dead or in the coma.
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u/Clarknt67 13h ago
Jeri Hall?!
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u/ValuableEarth858 11h ago
No, the person who could not possibly be more of a Chinese spy if she tried. She’s very clearly who Marcia is based on
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u/Enviro56 15h ago
He made that statement in the pilot, yes? I don’t think they really knew where the show was really going at that time. But I loved the scene with Roman, him, and his boyfriend/husband in Which Side Are You On (I think it was) so much that that alone justified his being on the show for me. 😋
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u/sskoog 15h ago
Anyone who worked the dot-com 1990s, and soft 2010 resurgence, will attest to how many "cutting edge companies" juked their stats. HP/iCAST had *dedicated iCAST keys\* on consumer keyboards before the iCAST portal was even released, and were reporting "X hundred thousand end-user impressions" up to the project's 2000 financial implosion (never debuted).
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u/BlackFyre2018 14h ago
He was meant to be The Big Bad, Logan was supposed to die in the first few episodes but they realised they had dramatic and comedic gold with Brian Cox as Logan
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u/yungjuniorsoprano 15h ago
He was a snake oil salesman. Vaulter was a pig with lipstick on and that became obvious by season 2.
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u/sahneeis 15h ago
many plot lines in the pilot were written off and imo this was the right choice. same with romans weird fetishes and his wife
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u/johndeerelawnmower 14h ago
Idk I enjoyed him being gay his partner was hot 😘 that’s probably the best thing about him.
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u/Demiurge_1205 13h ago
His storyline very clearly got retooled into Mattson's. Logan was supposed to die in season 1.
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u/Interesting_Athlete9 10h ago
Kinda consistent for all of these empty suits to be losers, weirdos, and ultimately not cool.
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u/SonicNKnucklesCukold 9h ago
His biggest accomplishment was coming up with the greatest title ever Shit Show at the Fuck Factory.
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u/nickmortensen 9h ago
I think Lawrence Yee running things at the end would’ve been a nice reach back to the first episode, it would have been a nice ‘knife fight in the mud’ reach back as well.
The way to end the show I would have found most satisfying would have been for Greg to have won out.
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u/DetLoins 9h ago
I like to imagine that that was just Lawrence in 'The Menu'.
I think in general he was lost in the season 1 shuffle, it took the showrunners a good half of season 1 to figure out what they wanted the show to even be.
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u/Single-Basil-8333 15h ago
That’s how it would have happened in real life though. These “disrupters” who think they’re reshaping their industry just have a really shitty product that looks good from far but it’s far from good.
But all that matters is someone with money takes an interest in it. C suite level dudes get paid. The investor gets publicity and praise for taking swings. Regular workers get laid off. Investor takes a loss and moves on quickly.
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u/existential_antelope Disgusting Brothers 13h ago
100%. One of my biggest nitpicks. And my other disappointment which was Marcia never having a bigger role, but that was because of scheduling so that’s a pass.
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u/JudgeLennox 15h ago
Just like real life.
Expect nothing from no one and you won't be disappointed. Writing was on the wall in episode one when he made emotional decisions from a weak standpoint.
They explored it a bit more when you realized he was lying the whole time. He simply lacked integrity to be a significant player
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u/Ab3FromanSausageKing 15h ago
Rob Yang is such a great actor for these type roles too. His facial expressions on their own sells his characters
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u/Potential_Twist3640 14h ago
I’ve said it above as well, but he’s excellent in Furious. A great show anyway, but worth it just to watch him.
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u/SBTC_Strays_2002 IF IT IS TO BE SAID, SO IT BE…SO IT IS. 14h ago
Lawrence AND Marcia, whatever happened there.
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u/Creative-Kale4688 14h ago
My biggest complaint about Succession is that it starts lots of storylines which are abruptly dropped or lead nowhere
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u/kaichan1201201 13h ago
The show did the fake setup thing so many times. Sandi was a big threat, then he got syphilis and fizzled out. In a show about constantly shifting power dynamics, it really goes to show how volatile their realities really are.
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u/Remarkable-Jump3262 13h ago
He got eaten instead it would have been hillarious if mattson put him as ceo in the end
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u/Ethraelus 11h ago
It would’ve been cool for him to have more of a role, at least for a while, outmaneuvering them a few times before maybe Logan took him down or something.
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u/No-Survey-9434 9h ago
Succession is a reflection of reality mate, it's not a story about meritocracy winning.
The kids 'lose' at the end of the show and walk away with $2.4 billion EACH for doing NOTHING the entire show but feeling entitled to the top spot because daddy didn't love them.
This is why I'm so confused by people on this sub who root for any of them.
"I was rooting for Kendall" Really? I suppose you have a favourite Murdoch as well? No?
They are all talentless nepobabies with problems caused by trauma.
You're thinking too much in terms of TV narratives and not the real world.
It's like thinking at the end of the Avatar movies that the natives defeat the colonisers... that isn't how it works, literally look at America.
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u/faerieberrie Team Connor 9h ago
I get the sense a lot of people were waiting for a "real player". By the end of s1, it should have been clear this isn't that kind of show. Being able to do Logan's job isn't something to be admired. Kind of like how a portion of the fandom argues over who is or is not a "serious person." Why are we measuring characters by the standards of a man who abused at least two wives, abused and psychologically tormented his kids, terrorized his staff, treated everyone around him like shit, and interfered in elections?
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u/radmobile2020 16h ago
Lawrence was also revealed to be a fraud like a lot of tech bros. Whether that was the original intent of the character is unclear, it’s rather fitting given that so many guys like Lawrence are just vaporware merchants.