Succession is The Crown for Americans
Capitalism, Tribeca, inheritence, oh my!
I understand that being late onto the Succession bandwagon is embarrassing.
If the show isn’t: A) produced by Bravo, B) under 40 minutes an episode, or C) riddled with romance and scandal, you’ll have a hard time getting me to watch immediately.
I was this way with The White Lotus as well, which along with Succession, has proven to me that I need to learn to get over it, and to have some sort of taste for genuinely fantastic television that doesn’t involve women from New Jersey screaming at each other.
Everyone who told me to watch Succession was absolutely correct. The acting is impeccable (hence the multitude of awards each year), the score itself has a similar effect to that of The White Lotus where it’s now a cultural phenomenon, and the plot line feeds into exactly what people love: a disgustingly rich family with the most incomprehensible problems one could ever have, and the worst decision making one could imagine.
I’ve been able to watch all three seasons in one week, and I have a theory as to why everyone is so obsessed with it. The Roy family is basically the closest thing to a royal family that America will ever have.
Mimicked off of most famously the Murdoch’s, but riddled with references to America’s other capitalistic first families, the Roy family oozes nothing but champagne problems that are utterly entertaining (from Connor not being able to afford his sugar baby’s play because he doesn’t have any liquid assets and wants to run as the Libertarian presidential candidate to the entire family almost calling off a deal because it contained a clause that they would have to give up their private jets), a zero sense of reality, and most of all, sibling rivalry that makes you question how far they’ll really go.
In the United States, these are the types of people that rule the world. They can get any presidential candidate they want nominated through ownership of news networks, they can get out of any legal trouble they encounter due to close ties at the DOJ and they can throw money at any issue. They also have not a single idea of what’s actually going on in the world, so they feel zero guilt at all. It’s fascinating to (hate) watch and leaves you nervous for what’s going to happen next.
Succession isn’t a very entertaining show. It’s riddled with corporate jargon and slow-moving plot lines, there’s never any action and the most salacious parts are often so lowkey that you have to rewind and ask yourself, wait, what just happened?
What makes it most entertaining by far is the acting, followed by how ridiculous it is. I didn’t pick up on the fact that it was a comedy until around season 2, which was when I really started to understand all of the hype. It’s not so obvious that they’re making fun of themselves, but there is a sense of mocking that you can only pick up on slightly. Most jarringly was Kendall’s birthday party, the underlying pointing and laughing at billionaire douchebags around the world almost jarring, screaming at you from the guest list to the theme of his overall life.
I’m a self admitted Kendall Roy apologist. Throughout watching, I would always text my sister expressing how I hoped for only him to come out on top, how Shiv was a spoiled brat, how Roman made me uncomfortable and how Logan was just…evil. There were some moments, of course, where I didn’t really feel as though I could stand by him anymore (i.e. any time he was mean to Greg and *cough* the accident), however, until the very end, I still saw him as someone I wanted to win.
Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Kendall has been subject to a lot of online fodder, most famously in the form of a New Yorker article that questioned how far he took his infamous method acting technique. In my eyes, Kendall Roy and Jeremy Strong are the same person. If I saw him on the streets of New York, I would think to myself: oh my god. It’s Kendall Roy. He’s so incredibly convincing that you’re left to believe, there’s no other way for this guy to act besides this being the way he truly is.
Succession is also really exciting for me to watch because they filmed a lot of it in my office (!). The town hall scene is where my office holiday party was, Kendall’s douche-lord birthday party is across the street where some of my coworkers and I have gone for drinks and Kendall’s apartment overlooks the building that I’ve frequented over the past few months.
That’s probably one of the coolest parts about living in New York. You start to recognize things close to home from some of your favorite T.V. shows and movies, which makes you feel for a moment in time a little surreal. Like, you live somewhere they talk about in movies.
Season 4 has been revealed to be the last season—and I know this is controversial—but that feels right for me. I’m looking forward to (hopefully) all of the Roy family drama being put to a head, giving us a nice little ending tied up with a beautiful little bow.
That’s probably wishful thinking, but a girl can dream. Here’s to another stacked HBO Sunday night, starting March 26th, I’ll be booked and busy.
Share this with someone who is also a Kendall Roy apologist.