Thursday, April 13, 2023

Coming round to Succession

Record-breaking heat: 26 yesterday, 29 today, and 27 on Friday. 29 on April 13! Absurd and bewildering. But 18 on Sunday, 8 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday. Welcome to spring in Ontario! Poor trees and plants. Luckily everyone is planting pansies which are indestructible.

It's 8 a.m. I go to bed as usual at 11.30, but for some reason, I'm now waking at 6 and getting up at 7, therefore exhausted by mid-afternoon. But I teach tonight so will definitely need a nap. Being taken for lunch by a writer friend at the Art Gallery - how's that for a treat? 

I tried to watch the series Succession - well, I watched one episode early on and decided they were all vile people and of no interest, as I've decided about a bunch of shows, White Lotus et al. Tried again when this season started; fifteen minutes in, I turned it off, they were all just as vile. But the latest episode was getting such buzz that I watched a rerun last night, and they're right, it was extraordinary. Spoiler alert: the alpha male patriarch, brought to life by the magnificent Brian Cox, dies suddenly on an airplane, and his children and colleagues have to deal with it. The dialogue is a confused jumble of bits and pieces, half phrases, stunned, confused people with no idea what to do or how to react — at least his kids, the businesspeople simply move into crisis mode with no emotion whatsoever.

How you'd learn those disjointed lines and rehearse them — or perhaps they improvise? In any case, it was a powerful piece of television, fantastic acting, script, production. 

A friend who lives in Copenhagen just wrote, "Thanks for sharing so much on your blog, I feel part of your family." How wonderful — welcome! You're a bit far to join us for the feasts, but thank you for joining in as I recount. Let's hope for an actual visit one day. 

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