Sunday, June 28, 2026

“Succession” Post-Mortem with Spoilers: Alexander Skarsgard Gets Not One But Two Meta Jokes

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SPOILERS INCLUDED

Ok. Now that episode 5 of “Succession” has ended, there are a couple of meta jokes at Alexander Skarsgard’s expense. I didn’t want to give them away during the week.

The first is when his character, Matsson, tells Shiv that he’s been sending blood to his comms lady, Ebba. Forget that he’s involved in a big MeToo situation. Skarsgard is famous for playing a vampire on “True Blood.” He hasn’t given up his vampire ways.

Second, at the retreat Matsson is surprised to learn Greg is a cousin. “Are you all related to each other?” he asks. “How many of you are there?”

This is really meta. Of course people keep saying this about the Skarsgard family. Father Stellan is a very busy respected actor, known from “Good Will Hunting.” Brother Bill has emerged as another busy actor, currently in “John Wick 4.” There’s another, Gustaf, and who knows how many are waiting out there? It was very funny.

Great episode. Shiv and Roman were heartbreaking. Greg may know more than he’s saying — how did he know about the Kill List? The writing remains impeccable, as does everything else.

And somehow they’ve pulled off two episodes without Logan.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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