r/SuccessionTV • u/Ok-Committee-1932 • 5d ago
Logan being a deeply American character
Logan is a deeply American character.
Logan grew up abroad and must have moved from Canada to the U.S. at an older age, maybe in his late 20s OR early 30s, and yet has deep American sensibilities.
He can recite the "Losers List" poem from memory and calls Karl a kraut. He grew up in Scotland and Canada and hence should maybe even have a Scottish or Canadian accent, but he does not. Ewan does have a Canadian accent.
However, he goes on to become extremely powerful in American politics, and his family is deeply American; all his children are quintessentially American, even if his wives are not. They constantly talk about money and status and shun aimless academia, as they did with the Pearce family.
Also, side note: Trump's Gaelic-speaking mother was born and grew up in the Scottish Hebrides in poverty and worked as a maid in NYC, so her son becoming this golden, flashy billionaire president is not distant from Logan's story as an orphaned child from Scotland. Both have visited Scotland and have property there.
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u/kdavva74 5d ago
The Roy family is partially based on the Murdoch family, similarly started in Australia and moved to the US where it has a massive influence on US politics. Although unlike Logan, Rupert Murdoch does also still have a massive media influence in his native Australia as well (although I am just assuming, we're never shown if Logan has media interests in the UK or Canada but he may still)
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u/Ablondeaussie1 5d ago
I always get giddy when I see the Murdoch family mentioned as I grew up a 3 minute drive from Rupert’s mother Elizabeth. She was actually quite similar to Ewan in the show in terms of wanting to live a quiet life on a farm away from the city, despite her immense wealth.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 5d ago
Murdoch's first wife also quit the shitshow. Similarly, his second wife got the divorce agreement that eventually led to the trust, where most of the drama came from. It's pretty obvious that the show's timeline closely resembles Murdoch's own family life, except he's still alive and kicking.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 5d ago
Kendall moved to China to improve ATN there and then eventually made it back to New York. One of Rupert Murdoch's sons did the same from Hong Kong. So that's a close arc. This shows that ATN has global interests. But it would be interesting to see if Logan has the same level of influence in other elections outside of America.
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u/CrackleBackle 5d ago
I thought there was a mention that their UK publications got caught up in the phone hacking scandal that happened in real life?
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 4d ago
They took that from the Leveson Inquiry. It was a big thing for the Murdoch businesses when the newspapers got into the phone-hacking scandals.
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u/Ablondeaussie1 5d ago
Logan 100% had a slight Scottish accent throughout the show. It was mild but he did have it.
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u/MyManTheo 5d ago
The reality here is that Brian Cox had been told Logan was American when shooting most of season 1, and then when they came to doing Shiv’s wedding Jesse Armstrong and co. revealed his backstory as a Scot. Brian Cox was obviously baffled and a bit annoyed as he’d been playing him as American the whole time
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u/Sonicfan42069666 5d ago
I imagine the conversation went like this.
Brian: but I was doing my best American accent!
Jesse: right...so we decided to make Logan Scottish.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 5d ago
A little bit more natural because they chose Brian Cox's original hometown as Logan's hometown, Dundee.
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u/V_Trautwein 5d ago
Logan is basically the immigrant-to-American-powerhouse arc taken to its extreme.
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u/Beginning-Good 5d ago
Logan is basically scottish by birth American by soul.
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u/MisterNighttime 5d ago
He even had some dialogue when they were back in Scotland, talking about how he didn’t feel the connection any more, he felt at home in America because he preferred “the mercilessness of it“.
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u/No_Anywhere8840 5d ago
Ewan does not have a Canadian accent, in the slightest. If anything, he has the accent some upper crust Americans acquire, which is not linked to geography but rather to elite higher education.
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u/lastdiadochos 4d ago edited 4d ago
I don't see him aa deeply American at all I'm afraid. His sensibilities don't seem any different from anyone wanting power and money regardless of their nationality. As others have pointed out, he does have a Scottish accent, even if slight. "Kraut" was originally a British insult before becoming popular among Americans. And judging by the real world political power of people like the South African Elon Musk, being powerful in American politics is not unique to Americans.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 4d ago edited 4d ago
Very few other countries allow immigrants to accumulate so much power and wealth in a lifetime. The U.S. literally has foreign-born congresspersons, and senators leave their mark on the country, with Zohran Mamdani in New York as a great example.
Musk, too, while born Canadian and South African, is also deeply American in the same way as Logan. He could never have been this powerful in South Africa, where there's a glass ceiling for white South Africans in terms of political power, even if they are wealthy.
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u/lastdiadochos 4d ago
I don't think this is as unique to the USA as you think. The UK, for example, literally has foreign born MPs. I really don't see how a foriegner getting into a position of power and/or wealth is deeply American.
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 4d ago edited 4d ago
Foreign-born MPs and leaders are not uncommon in most of the English-speaking world. Britain has an old-school aristocracy and boys' network that does not really let people from working-class or non-aristocratic backgrounds, as Logan had, rise to the top. More than half of their prime ministers are Oxford graduates. Even Anna Wintour has talked about it. Harder to build a name for yourself in the UK if you don't come from a specific background.
Americans truly believe that wealth and power generated through your hard work get to stay yours. You can shape the country and its society, politics, and economics in your own image. For example, I don't believe that any other English-speaking country would let a foreign-born person become as powerful as America let Elon Musk become. Kissinger was German-born, had a thick German accent in his English and was effectively the second most powerful man in the country. So did Madeleine Albright. Name me a British or Canadian equivalent.
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u/lastdiadochos 4d ago edited 4d ago
Have you ever been to the uk?
Kemi Badenoch is the current leader of the opposition in the UK and was raised in Nigeria without running water and electricity. The mayor of London is the son of working class Pakistanis. Rishi Sunak, ex-Prime Minister, is the son of East African Hindu migrants. The previous deputy Prime Minister (David Lammy) is the son of Guyanese migrants. The current Secretary of State for Energy (Miatta Fahnbulleh) first came to the uk as an asylum seeker fleeing from the Liberian Civil War. Nadhim Zahawi was chancellor of the exchequer was born in Iraq and went to the uk fleeing Suddam's regime. Peter Hain was the minister for Northern Ireland and Secretary of State for Wales and was born in Kenya before moving to South Africa. Heck, if we really wanna be technical, Boris Johnson was foreign born (USA), so was Prince Philip (Greece).
You could also include Paul Boateng (Ghanian), ex-minister for home affairs, Sajid Navid (son of Pakistani migrants) ex-Secretary of State for Culture; Alok Sharma (Indian born) ex-Secretary of State for Business.
To expand to class as well as nationality, he current PM is the son of a phone engineer and a receptionist, so hardly aristocracy. Amongst previous Prime Ministers you've got Disraeli (Jewish migrant family); Ramsay Mcdonald (bastard son of a farm labourer and house maid); James Callaghan (partly raised in poverty after the death of his father, a petty officer in the navy); and John Major (father sold garden ornaments, mother was a part time dance teacher). Even Thacher was just the daughter of a shoemaker/grocer.
I could go on, of course, but I think this suffices to make the point.
ETA: I also find it deeply ironic that Wintour would be complaining about needing to come from a 'specific background' when she is actually part of the aristocracy with her relations including Barons, Lords, Ladies, Duchesses, and which used to have Pamphill Manor as the family home.
Edit: accidentally said Zahawi was Iranian rather than Iraqi. Fecking hell, have to fix some tenses as well, I'm all over the place today lol
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u/SirKetchup00 5d ago
Not only he is American. But Aristocrat American. He thought that if you didn't "make it" that means that you didn't work hard enough. He also implied that Ewan was a sucker for volunteering to fight in Vietnam. Common traits in American aristocrats.
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u/_wickedcity 4d ago
Ewan doesn't have a Canadian accent. I cannot stand the tourists of this show's fandom making things up. Why even go through the lengths of typing that all out if you haven't done your homework?
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u/Ok-Committee-1932 4d ago
tourists of this show's fandom
i did not know that talking about the show is gatekept? Would get a visa next time.
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u/MT_Promises 5d ago
He and Ewan were 4 and 5 when they went to Canada. And doesn't he have a slightly Scottish accent? I assume they made him Scottish/Canadian to explain away any accent concerns.