why everyone on Succession talks so weird

what's your favourite Succession line??

i knew my brain was broken when i nodded with Kendall over that $5 million mausoleum bit being a "good deal"

Line of the show: "You can't make a Tomlette without breaking a few Gregs"

I've always found it interesting that Succession is completely character driven. Plot points, buyouts, business deals, etc. are only relevant to the show because they create situations where the characters have to adapt, fight, switch teams, etc. When you're that rich, there isn't really material consequences, only personal ones.

As a former finance worker who led regular meetings with trustees, legal counsel and chief _ officers, I can confirm people in that sphere 100% talk this way (albeit with less swearing). It was like playing 3 chess games at once. This show was a salve on the scars caused by the doublespeak (and double-think?)

Logan Roy "smart people know what they are" Roman "You are BS, we are all BS" I guess Roman was smart all along.

I work for a CFO, I can confirm he loves it whenever he explains something in a way that no one understands

As someone who left the corporate culture after getting sick of it, this exactly how most brand managers and directors talk. They just think they're more impressive when they can't be understood. 😂

This is absolutely fantastic. I love the concept of "real people" or "serious people" and how their mindset essentially unpersons people based on how they are percieved. Like the finale of "we are bullshit" is the ultimate realization that they themselves are not "serious" or "real" people.

Tom and Greg's 'We here for you" is atop art of subtlety in a metaphor 😂

The wild thing about the show is at the end of the day they aren't really talking about anything. It's all anticipation of something big and meaningful happening but nothing concrete happens. Really the kids just wanted love and never got it the way they needed it. You have to wait entire seasons just to see someone get a hug that feels like it has any substance to it.

as a non native english speaker i got lost so many times while binge watching this show. This a masterpiece

I work in Corporate Tech. Succession-speak is really just a jaded, sarcastic, vulgar version of actual business / corporate-speak, but the latter exists for a reason. There are important, nuanced concepts that are unique to, or much more common in business contexts, and metaphorical language is developed to reference or illustrate those learned lessons. I could say, "let's not test every possible scenario, because not only is that unnecessary, but it would take far too long, require far too many engineering hours and pull resources away from other efforts", or I could just say "let's not boil the ocean". This is just one example of the hundreds of useful turns of phrases that compress information into fewer words. The downside of corporate-speak is that not everyone understands it equally, resulting in a breakdown in communication. It can also be deployed intentionally to remain vague on project goals or progress.

The short version: it's corporate speak. Corporate English is a distinct language from Colloquial English and is intended to speak with a emotionally distant tone that instead emphasizes the importance of economic and business cultural values. And it's not wonder Chat GPT is so good at corporate speak. There's so much of it and one of the most valuable aspects of corporate speak is the ability to say little while evoking good feelings.

I've unfortunately worked in so many places like this where people never say they mean and deny what they agreed to. I just stopped believing what what was coming out their mouth and kept everything via email and Slack. It's a perfect illustration of WASP speak. Best quote from this video, "Vagueness is a weapon." It absolutely is for those who lack of a moral compass and who emprace a transactional way of life.

I work in tech and this is just high-level corporate speak lol. you hear stuff like “I need to get altitude on this situation” or “potential upside is mitigated by the situational margins” all the time.

The main reason why I watch the show with Spanish subtitles is because they make a terrific job at translating these weird expressions to understandable language 😅

Something Important that you didn't overtly mention (although I assume you're implying it by those last two quotes by Logan) is that Logan speaks the EXACT opposite of this style of speech. And I think it's meant to showcase just how direct and meaningful his words are, and why he cuts through all the bullshit that these people otherwise are waist deep in at all times. It's also why the show and these kids just fall right off the rails after his death.

Yeah the use of buzzwords was funny and frustrating at the same time. I never heard people at work speak like this, maybe because i'm not in a high level position that requires riddle to communicate, idk. Also, i noticed the way Matsson speak depends on who he's talking to. He's an obnoxious tech billionaire with Ken, he's a misunderstood awkward guy with Shiv, a condescending bored apathetic rich guy with Roman, a straight forward businessman with Logan, a domineering control freak with Tom. He creeped me out 😅

For me, much of the relational dialogue in Succession is classic ‘narcissist word salad’. If you search for Narcissist word salad, there are many videos explaining what it is and how it sounds. I’d say it’s a conscious character choice by the writers and not just Jesse’s writing style.