Mark might have lost his faith in capitalism as he wonders what makes the final season of Succession so cruel, how every season of the show follows a similar story shape, and how this could have all been avoided if Kendall just sat in the dark and drank some damn whiskey.
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Mark might have lost his faith in capitalism as he wonders what makes the final season of Succession so cruel, how every season of the show follows a similar story shape, and how this could have all been avoided if Kendall just sat in the dark and drank some damn whiskey.
https://markoveranalysesfilm.buzzsprout.com/
https://www.markoveranalysesstory.com/
https://twitter.com/overanalysefilm
https://markoveranalysesfilm.buzzsprout.com/
https://www.markoveranalysesstory.com/
https://twitter.com/overanalysefilm
Hi everybody, and welcome to Mark Overanalyses Film! Today, I’ll finally be finishing my overanalysis of Succession by looking at season 4 and then the shape of the series overall.
Before I begin analysing Season 4, a quick reminder that as far as I’m concerned, it feels like the protagonist of this season is Shiv rather than Kendall. I think the Want, or the smart goal, or the external objective that drives the long second act is probably Kendall’s, but the only person really flirting with substantial internal change here I think is Shiv.
So, as with all seasons of Succession, the first 2 episodes act as an Act I, placing all the characters in position for the second act. So, the siblings are all out of the business and all together, but it’s Shiv who at first can’t quite let go. She’s already eyeing the exit door when she discovers that Tom has had dinner with Naomi Pierce. Their conversation is arguably the inciting incident for our entire season, or: the event without which our story as it is would not happen. When she chases it down, she finds that Logan is trying to buy Pierce and immediately blows off her own project with Kendall and Roman. She is finally delighted to learn that she has indeed spited her father and ignited his ire. Perhaps because of this, after Shiv has told Tom she wants a divorce, Logan gives Tom the names of the most effective divorce lawyers in New York. This in turn triggers Shiv to try to tank her father’s deal for spite… oh, sorry, I mean, for a few extra million. The central tension of episode 2 really belongs to Shiv: “Will she succeed in organising the siblings to tank her father’s GoJo deal?” Logan eventually has no choice but to come to his children, but while Roman and Connor are open to his attempts to apologise, Kendall and especially Shiv remain spiteful and petulant. Not without good cause, but still. And I must confess, I feel sorry for Roman here. For one thing, he actually is trying to use his brain here. In episode 1, he questions spending an extra half bil to end a conversation. And it feels on point when he says that the siblings are treating him like George Harrison when he’s actually John Lennon. For another, he really is at this point trying to get out and do something with his siblings, and they just cannot bring themselves to leave Logan alone. And yet, when Logan comes to make nice, Shiv and Kendall refuse to play ball. And so, finally fed up of being sidelined and played by proxy, Roman changes sides and goes back to Logan. And at the end of episode 2, it looks for all the world like it might be Logan and Roman against Kendall and Shiv for our season 4’s second act. Which is clever, because Ken and Shiv have never, ever been on the same side, and if they could just stick together, at any point, they really could win.
Now, I think you could really argue whether or not Act II of season 4 really begins at the end of Episode 2, or if it begins 13 minutes into episode 3, when the Roy siblings’ lives are turned upside down. But either way, the question or tension of Act II is more or less the same I think. One way or another, we’re wondering: “Will the Roy’s kill the GoJo deal?” The goalposts move a little on that question throughout, but really, who doesn’t think Kendall is going to try to take over? He lasts maybe 24 hours of being in charge before he decides that he is the chosen one. Now, I think there’s an argument to be made that the tension, or part of the tension at least, is “Will the siblings manage to maintain their relationship?” They certainly are trying to. But the hugs become less and less warm and sincere, until they eventually stop altogether. This tension also feels definitively answered at the end of episode 8. But still, I think the deal is the tangible SMART goal that is driving the middle act.
But whatever the objective is, the siblings’ lives are about to be turned upside down, when we discover that Logan is very, very ill. He’s collapsed on a plane, which he took to speak to Matsson, which he had to do because his kids might scupper their deal, which happened because Shiv wants to spite her father, which happened because of advice he gave her husband, which happened because she told him she wanted a divorce, which happened after he told her that he had been seen with Naomi Pierce. I’m absolutely not saying it’s Shiv’s fault (it’s not), but you can see why she feels so guilty throughout the season. Her inability to love truly has ruined her relationship with her father up to his dying day.
But, as always, we begin our act II with sequence or stage III, the first attempts to solve the problem. So, the sibs have to react in the moment to the news they’re getting from the plane and get their shit together enough to be the ones to put out a statement. This is the tension of the episode and this stage of the story. And throughout this episode, we see both the refusals and the acceptances of the siblings’ respective calls. Shiv refuses to take Tom’s call when he tries to phone her first, then she’s shitty to Tom as he attempts to be decent to her throughout. But, she eventually asks Tom to accompany her at the end of the episode under fairly flimsy pretence. For his part, Roman stands up to his father by leaving a horrible voice message about having to fire Gerri before he then melts and refuses to accept that his father is actually dead. Finally, Kendall takes charge and corrals his siblings during the traumatic day, but is ultimately, ominously left alone at the end of the episode. Notice then: at the acceptance of the call, or the characters first unconscious move towards their needs here: the siblings have one final hug, then Roman goes off alone as a shell of a man after measuring his father as a fall in stock price, Kendall is left behind and alone, and Shiv chooses to leave her siblings for Tom. It’s an elegant foreshadowing of what is to come in the climactic action. By the way, as an Irish person, this whole season seems bizarre to me. If this lot were Irish, there is no question that they would all go see the body, Logan’s dead body would be visible in every episode until he was buried, and when Kendall asks what is he going to do, sit in the dark and drink Laphraoig? The answer would be of course not, you’ll drink Jameson or Powers and be glad to get it, you grandiose prick. But then, Irish Succession would probably not be a very good show.
Anyways, in American Succession this all leads to sequence IV: the greater attempts to solve the problem, as we wonder: “Will the kids manage to get at least one of them named interim CEO?” Now, this tension really belongs to Kendall, because as soon as it’s his name on the piece of paper, Shiv especially feigns utter indifference as to what is going on. It was relatively straightforward to stay together to put out a statement, but now they have to elect an interim CEO, and Kendall’s name on a piece of paper wrecks any sense of equilibrium. Now, Shiv is interesting here, because at this point, she’s not yet ready to embrace her final act, so she reluctantly backs Kendall and Roman as co-CEOs. But she hates it. She no doubt knows where this is going, and it’s interesting to wonder how much this moment is on her mind in the finale. In similar fashion, she refuses to allow Tom to comfort her in her mourning, which could be regarded as a movement away from her eventual Need. But, this episode is brutal on Shiv, and she ends feeling embarrassed as she trips rushing down the stairs. She feels railroaded in the boardroom and publicly humiliated. Even though she’s trying to behave one way, events and her own feelings are conspiring against her. And so, this is definitely a movement towards where she will end up. Roman is a bit more of a grey area for me. He is being pretty reasonable at this stage, standing up for Kerry when Marcia bullies her for appearing at the wake. He also stands up to Kendall to make himself co-CEO. But then, he won’t do what’s necessary in playing down his father’s role in recent times, and he gets outmanoeuvred by Kendall without even realising it.
For his part, Kendall certainly takes another step to being despotic and alone by leaving Shiv out of the CEO roles, and then agreeing to one approach with Roman before going behind his back afterwards. He might be in power or not, but either way it’s pretty clear he will do so alone. And again, this decision here is really the one that ruins everything. He’s probably correct that Shiv can’t be brought in with no experience as a 3EO, but Succession is really predicated on the fact that at no point can Kendall and Shiv ever be on the same side.
And that brings us to episode 5: the retreat to Norway, as we wonder “Will the kids agree a deal with Matsson?” And the answer, despite themselves, is yes. But more importantly, this is our approach to the midpoint, or the protagonist’s first conscious move towards their need. And so, throughout the episode the characters will really begin to experiment with this Need before fully embracing it. And we can see this throughout. Halfway through the episode, Kendall decides to oust Shiv from their plans and Roman foolishly agrees in his typical “Why not?” fashion. Most importantly though, Shiv makes a huge move towards her eventual climactic action. She begins to bully / flirt with Tom again. And then — at the end of the episode, the exact midpoint of the season — Shiv tells Tom she’s going to fire Cyd, placing him in a position of power, before she takes a call from Matsson and does his bidding to spite her forlorn looking brothers. Like so many midpoints, it heavily foreshadows the climactic action.
So, remember: at the first unconscious move: Shiv left her siblings behind to leave with Tom. Here at the first conscious move: she places Tom in power and sides against her brothers with Matsson. In hindsight, it suddenly looks really clear where this is going! Of course, the thing that might keep you guessing is that Tom and Matsson will end up being on the same team. But of course, not only is this the episode where Tom and Shiv start to reconnect, but it is also the episode where Tom meets Lukas Matsson. Which he does at the exact midpoint of the midpoint episode. The episode then ends with Tom not being included on the Kill list. And it should be noted: that Kill list is brought into effect at the very end of the finale. We are told that Hugo, Karl, and Frank will be fired, while Tom, Gerri, and Karolina remain.
This then leads into the honeymoon stage of episode 6: Living +. And again, the honeymoon period is where the protagonist is experimenting with their Need after their big breakthrough, so it’s often highly instructive as to what the story is about and how it’s going to end. And while the objective of the episode is “Will Kendall find a way to boost stock price to scare off GoJo?”, Episode 6 is full of this longer term stuff. Shiv begins the episode by meeting with Matsson in secret and then she meets later with Tom. The couple play a game of “Bitey”, where Shiv and Tom try to hurt each other… and Tom — for the first time — wins. They soon reconnect romantically. You’ll notice that their conversation here in the honeymoon period is not completely romantic, but rather a very honest expression of cynicism about love and what drives people. Tom effectively says he would choose career over Shiv, because really either way he feels he would end up losing Shiv, so he might as well have the nice stuff. And Shiv effectively agrees through sarcasm. It is a dark, cynical moment that feels extremely honest for these characters, and thematically redolent of where they will end up.
Of course, at the same time, Roman is acting like an idiot, because he’s got no brain and he can’t handle being in power. So, he fires the head of their Hollywood Studio, and then fires Gerri for questioning him. He knows he’s full of shit, so the moment he senses someone else draw attention to that, he lashes out. And notice again: it is during the Honeymoon sequence where he and Gerri fully split. And it doesn’t make the episode, but I’m pretty certain that there’s a trailer with this scene in it where Gerri tells him that they are over. And what is it that really puts the nail in the coffin? After all the things that Roman has said to Gerri, it is him accusing her of not being good at her job that she is really affronted by. Which makes perfect sense for the personification of Roman’s Need. And finally on this scene, notice also that Gerri tells him how this is going to end. She tells him that he cannot beat the money, so he should just make his peace with it. Oh, if only he listened to his Need! But he doesn’t. So what does he do in this Honeymoon period of an episode? After fucking up royally because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he rows in behind Kendall. And speaking of Kendall, after foolishly attempting to ride roughshod over everyone — and also reality — all episode, he effectively ends the Honeymoon period by giving a blow out presentation. Suddenly, it looks like he might just perhaps win against Shiv after all, and so we enter the next sequence: the bridge from the honeymoon to the lowpoint.
First of all in this stage, we have episode 7, where Shiv and Tom host a party for the political consultant class. The episode tension I’d say is something like: “Can Kendall find something to stop GoJo acquiring Waystar?” And because things are now working their way against where they will eventually end up, Kendall does get some juicy news on Matsson, who behaves erratically at the party. It’s a nice, horrible touch to have him say something homophobic here, as one of the first things we ever heard Logan Roy say was that Kendall “bent” for Lawrence. Perhaps this is the clearest sign yet that this evil bastard is truly the next Logan Roy.
Now, Roman is screwing up still, but he is trying to take charge. He gets told in no uncertain terms that Gerri will not come back and will take hundreds of millions with her, and then makes a scene trying to intimidate Connor. But, most importantly, as Shiv believes that Matsson and Tom will be on opposing sides, she chooses Matsson and participates in rumours that Tom will get fired. This is the sorest possible spot for Tom, so the two end up having a blazing row on the balcony. Things now really appear bad for Shiv. It looks as though Matsson is on the ropes, and she and Tom will not make it. We’re well on our way to the low point, and so we enter the panic attack of Episode 8: the ironically titled “America Decides”.
So, here, Shiv finally tells Tom that she’s pregnant… and he doesn’t even believe her. And this is where the real turn is in their relationship. Up until this point, all Shiv had to do was hint at reconciliation and Tom would have been so servile and nebbish that he’d come running. But now, she’s betrayed him in his own home, joking about Tom losing the thing he most cherishes to a man she’s been flirting with and a man she’s slept with. So, ya, it’s fair to say Tom has grounds to be hurt.
And that’s just about the nicest aspect of this terrifying, horrifying, gross-feeling episode. Roman is suddenly in his element, ruling the ATN roost, and steamrolling everyone into declaring victory for Mencken. So, all of a sudden, Roman appears in a position of real power.
And not only that, but his machinations result in Kendall discovering that Shiv has been lying to them and manipulating him personally. Now, as far as I’m concerned, Kendall’s arc is pretty flat in this season. He’s pretty much the antagonist gaining power. But so far as he has a low point to his eventual argument, it’s here. He briefly considers doing the right thing by his family at the expense of his own route to power. This is the Kendall we saw at the end of Season 3, as he admits he’s a bad father and wonders the big question: “Does the poison drip through?” Of course, at least part of his motivation for this is fear of Roman’s power. And Shiv tries to encourage this rare appearance of introspection and conscience… for incredibly selfish reasons. And it blows up in her face, as Kendall discovers that she has been Team Matsson this whole time.
Despite all their attempts, at the end of episode 8 — the end of our long second act — we now have an answer to either question asked in episodes 2 and 3. For one thing, it really does look right now like the GoJo deal might be dead. But also, one way or another, these siblings could not stay together in the power vacuum left by their father. No matter who wins, it seems right now that they will do so alone. As for our protagonist, Shiv has now done irreparable damage to her relationship with Kendall and Roman, and with Mencken declared they now have real juice. And at the same time, she has also done seemingly irreparable damage to her relationship with Tom. As is so often the case, at the low point the protagonist no longer believes the counterargument of the story, but the argument seems impossible. Side note: if you think Kendall is the protagonist, this is also the case for him. He’s sold his soul to the devil, and it still looks like Roman’s the one who’s going to reap the benefits. And so with Shiv and/or Kendall at their lowest ebb, we end Act II, and we enter Act III.
So, episode 9: Logan’s funeral acts as our false resolution. Tom doesn’t attend the funeral, and when he finally does appear, he’s broken with exhaustion and Shiv still has the power. The episode then ends with Matsson seeming to agree to put Shiv in as an American CEO if the deal passes.
Meanwhile, Kendall collects himself and gives a powerful, compelling eulogy where he seems to summon the will and force of his father. He ends by telling Roman that he has a plan. Turns out, his plan is to beg and scrounge for votes, but we’re not to know that yet. Now, interestingly, in an interview, the director and producer Mark Mylod said that they knew at the end of this episode that they needed Roman to be utterly defeated, and I think this is because they needed to set up a final between Kendall and Shiv. If it could still go three ways, it would dilute the power of the finale I think. And Roman is ultimately the 3rd character, or the main B plot throughout. So, I feel like it’s no surprise that his true resolution as such comes first — at the end of this episode. As a masochistic screw up, he’s ashamed of his folly and lack of foresight in failing to manage Mencken. And so, he heads out — walking right past Gerri you’ll notice — to get his head kicked in by a mob of protesters.
And at that, with Shiv on one side and Kendall and Roman on the other, we enter our true resolution. And, as covered in part III, we see that just as we had at our midpoint in episode 5, when it really, really comes down to it: Shiv chooses Matsson and Tom over her brothers, while Kendall and Roman are left dejected and broken. That is story structure, and I love it!
Epilogue
So, there’s two things I’d like to look at before I finish with Succession. First of all, I’d like to look at how the individual seasons work. As I’ve said, each season has a really clear 3 act structure. The first 2 episodes set up the situation, episode 3 includes a refusal of the call and the first unconscious move towards the protagonist’s Need. In season 1, Ken tries to act like his Dad and tells a banker to fuck off before having to play nice later on and then being told he’s a fucking idiot by a Logan who can barely speak. In season 2, he does his father’s bidding before frequenting the roof first thing at the start of episode 4. In season 3, he’s high as a kite, telling a reporter he’s excited and happy in his headspace before ending up hiding in a machine room after reality and the cruelty of his family catches up with him. In episode 5, there is always a midpoint where the protagonist makes their first conscious move towards their Need or Flaw. In season 1, Ken decides to take a vote of no confidence against Logan, which he will lose. In Season 2, he tells Naomi to do whatever she needs to to get away from her family. In season 3, Ken is effectively fully excommunicated by his father. Episode 6 acts as a honeymoon period, foreshadowing what is to come. Ken loses the vote in season 1. In season 2, the cruises scandal breaks and Kendall stands up to Logan for striking Roman. In season 3, Kendall gives a disappointing deposition and then fails to convince Tom to side against Logan. There’s always a low point at episode 8, or episode 7 in Season 3 where there’s only 9 episodes in total. This also sets up the third act mission. In Season 1, Ken decides to act just like his father and try to aggressively take over Waystar. In Season 2, Shiv surrenders the CEO role to Rhea as they discover there’s a whistleblower, while Kendall literally sings Logan’s praises as he dumps a girl for not sufficiently impressing his father. In Season 3, Kendall has a total breakdown at his birthday after it’s revealed that no one is going to go to prison and that Logan has offered to buy him out. The final 2 episodes are then a double header for our act III’s false resolution and true resolution. It looks like Kendall is going to take over at his sister’s wedding before his lack of courage and conviction totally destroys him. It seems as though Kendall is willing to take anything from Logan, even being sold out by his father in front of Congress, before he eventually emancipates himself by turning whistleblower. And then, in season 3, Logan refuses to buy out Kendall before selling out all of his children in the final episode. Now, I’m only mentioning the main story here, but as I’ve covered previously, each sibling has their own character arc which shares the same shape.
The final thing to note on the individual seasons is that Succession works very clearly in inversions. At the start of Season 1, Ken is about to take over from his father. At the end, he is under his father’s thumb completely. At the start of Season 2, Kendall is broken and controlled by his father, but then ends up breaking free and trying to take his father down. At the start of Season 3, Kendall is high as a kite and at odds with his siblings. By the end, he’s broken once again but working in concert with his siblings. In Season 4, we have this again. It begins with all the siblings moving on, doing pretty well, and together. It ends with them all left behind, broken, and apart.
Ok, so what about the story overall then? If each episode and each season has this same broad shape, does the series in its totality? Are there 3 clear acts? Is there a first unconscious move, a midpoint, and a low point? Well, it seems clear that Jesse Armstrong thinks mostly in terms of seasons, but I do think there is an overall structure that you can see. Season 1 works as an Act I, seasons 2 and 3 as an Act II, and season 4 as an Act III. And further, if you split these 4 seasons into 2, they work pretty well as the 8 sequences that I normally talk about on this podcast.
Season 1 really sets up the middle part of the series. With Shiv staying in politics throughout Season 1, it is the beginning of Season 2 that acts as the first time where Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are all finally in play to succeed Logan. Episodes 4 and 5 here work quite well as a first unconscious move for Kendall. Just as he does in the final moments of the series, Kendall spends episode 4 seeming to consider a suicide that would eventually be denied him. At this point, there is plexi-glass put up. In the finale, as Jesse Armstrong has himself pointed out, Logan’s former bodyguard Colin would not have let him commit suicide. In the next episode of course, he tells Naomi to accept a buy out and leave all of the family stuff behind her. Of course, I’m always obsessed with midpoints, and Succession’s midpoint is arguably the highpoint of the whole show. But does it work as a midpoint for Kendall? This one I’m less sure about on the face of it. But there’s no denying that this is his last big attempt to take over before Season 4. More intriguingly though, Kendall appears to do this because Logan tells him it would never have been him because he’s not a killer. Which, is a funny kind of foreshadowing to Kendall’s final denial in the climax of the last episode. Most interestingly for me though is that at the end of Season 2, Logan makes Shiv pick between Tom and Kendall and Shiv chooses Tom. If that’s a coincidence, it’s a big coincidence. There is then a Honeymoon period, foreshadowing the climactic action, where Kendall acts as a pumped up jackass and tries and fails to convince Shiv to side with him once again. And just like she does in the honeymoon period of the final episode, she spits in something of Kendall’s in this period. But season 3 then ends with a low point, where the protagonist no longer believes in the counterargument but the argument seems impossible. Kendall finally, finally gains the courage to admit to the murder to his siblings, and partially as a result, the siblings actually trust each other and seem to believe that they could actually split the empire evenly between the 3 of them. But no sooner do they achieve this then the company appears to be sold from under them. And just like that, the question that was raised at the start of season 2 appears to be definitively answered by the end of Season 3.
There is then a false resolution where the kids are really trying to play nice with each other, and Kendall might just escape this and become his own man after all working with his siblings. But then, of course, it turns out not to be the case. Kendall can’t resist trying to be his father, and Shiv can’t stomach supporting him. He ends destroyed as a person, like his father was, but without any of the success or vigour.
Now, I have some minor quibbles with Succession. As I’ve outlined earlier, I think Season 4 and the finale kind of switches protagonist to Shiv, and I think that’s really because the show ran out of road with Kendall. Once he rose again at the end of Season 2, I just don’t think they really knew what to do with him anymore. There are certainly some reasons built into the show for it, but Kendall is such an idiot in seasons 3 and 4. Much more than in Season 1 especially. I remember somebody asking how the board could ever realistically vote for Kendall in the finale, but the board approached him in Season 1 to take over. Twice. And it’s really in season 3 that I stopped asking “Could Kendall change?” and asked only the far less interesting question “Could Kendall actually win?” At this point, there was more things happening to Kendall than because of him. All Kendall does in Season 3 is act terribly and fail. The only time when he flirts at all with being a decent human being is at the end of Season 3 when he totally breaks down. And this only became increasingly evident when Logan exited the show, and there was no clear antagonist for him to fight. There was no real question of “Can Kendall be a bigger man than Lukas Matsson?” At the same time, this is when Shiv became more important, as she still had a personification of her Need in Tom, and there was the real tension of “If she can forgive Tom for betraying her, can she truly change and love vulnerably?” Or: could she really let someone in? Now, Shiv is a great character, but I still think it’s a slight issue that Kendall ceases to threaten to change. In terms of the all-time great shows, the first scene of the first episode of The Sopranos involves Tony telling his psychiatrist that his life is killing him… but it is impossible for him to change. At the beginning of the final season, Tony redoubles his efforts to try and change after surviving a near death experience. What follows is his final failure to do so, which results in his getting whacked.
In Mad Men, the argument is that the American Dream is a lie, and it is personified in Don Draper: an advertising man who is living a lie. When Don runs out of road and is forced to meditate for the first time, he does not change. He finds a way to sell the hippy movement.
In The Wire, the first scene takes place after a violent incident at a poker night. Detective Jimmy McNulty asks why a troublemaker was always allowed back, and the answer is “Because this is America.” In the end, Jimmy overplays his hand and must step away. He can only look on while the system around him renews itself.
I really wanted to see that with the finale of Succession. I wanted it to invest this question that it asked in episode 1 in Kendall, and have him really struggle with it. But, in truth, I don’t know how it would have done it. Kendall would have somehow had to choose between the company and his family or something. And, well, that ship had sailed, and then fell off the face of the planet or something. The fact that the show then divested this question to Shiv, and have it happen more to Kendall felt a little less satisfying. Now the question of Succession was “Will Kendall have the courage to be his own man?”, and in the end he does fail a test of courage. But I’ve really stopped asking at that point if he will pass it. And again, he and the show become a little less interesting to me for that.
But of course there’s no doubting that Succession is a great show, and it should come as no surprise that there is structural integrity and a thematic unity across the entirety of a series this good, even if it moves across protagonists a little. And it should probably also come as no surprise that a show as cynical as this, with a writer as sceptical as Jesse Armstrong, asks the unifying thematic question “Can you really move on from traumatic childhoods and grow as people?” and answers firmly, and for all parties: “No.” In the world of Succession, the poison always, always drips through.
This has been Mark Overanalyses Film on Succession. It’s finally time to move on from Succession and look at something new, so next time, I’ll be looking at the story of 3 siblings trying to overcome their traumatic childhood caused by their awful father. The eldest boy is obsessed with business and can’t relate to his own children. The daughter is emotionally closed off and is having an affair on her pathetic, disempowered husband with a friend of her brother’s. And the youngest boy is an impulsive, soft-hearted choker who says completely inappropriate things to his sister. Hmmm... it is of course The Royal Tenenbaums. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, rate, follow, recommend, and whatever else it is that’s good for this kind of thing! A special thanks to Mary Kate O’Flanagan who taught me everything I know about film, including these methods. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourselves, and see you soon.