‘Succession’ is a series that deceives. Many think it’s a ‘Dallas’-style soap opera, but, although there’s something to that, the secret to its success is that works like a great black comedy, a misanthropic satire that ridicules the very characters with whom we are involved. Created by Jesse Armstrong and produced by HBO in 2018, it follows the life of the powerful Roy family, owners of a media conglomerate called Waystar Royco.
The intricacies that used to move the plot is to contemplate how the patriarch of the family, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), decides who will be his successor among his four children: Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck), sparking an internal power struggle filled with betrayal and manipulation. But the dynamics to which we were accustomed have blown up in the season 4 episode 3.
SPOILERS in the rest of the text
The event that has dynamited the status quo of the family made us think that what was left would not live up to what we have witnessed, but its two later chapters prove otherwise. The first half of the season deserves the media impact it has achieved and justifies why at this point it has become a phenomenon acclaimed by critics and the public as one of the great series of recent years, including its Emmys for best drama series. in 2020 and 2021. But what makes it so good?
Logan Roy’s death was a television masterclass. Seems the consequence of everything we had seen up to that moment for all the characters. Their world is blown up, they show us their loneliness, the evolution of the affections of that family at a key moment like the death of a father. A not free choice, after two episodes that still dealt with the consequences of Logan’s great strategic move.
A new stage for the fight for the power of Waystar
Nothing quite fit, nobody found their place, everything seemed to get tangled up to start over with a configuration of alliances and betrayals that we had already burned in the first season and, suddenly, the bomb. For some reason Roy’s death wasn’t on anyone’s mind, but had been prepared in infinity of moments, from the first health hug in the first episode. Perhaps she was contemplating an episode near the end, but not the third.
However, it happened, and in addition to being the one episode that will take all the Emmys possible, its position seems increasingly organic. Not only because of that wonderful farewell to the character in the previous one, with the phrase “it’s as if Santa Claus were a hitman”, but because, in reality, gives us a chance to see what we’ve really come to see with an appropriate number of episodes. And the later two are proving it.
The series is called ‘Succession’ and so far we have seen the attempts of the sons to seize power in a give and take struggle with their father, in a game of loyalties that always had the security umbrella of experience and the Logan Roy’s determination. Now, with my ass in the air in front of the coyotes inside the company and outside it, their children must show if they are up to that succession and resolve their interest in staying together or fighting for their interests and egos.
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But if it’s working in the collective mourning for Roy, it’s because it’s still written with the same intelligence and scathing dialogues, its narrative structure always keeps the tension to the limit, like the episode ‘The Blacklist’, which seems like a rehearsal for ‘The Menu’. ‘, or this seems to have inspired it, but in one way or another the kinship of both is evident. He cast is at a spectacular level, knowing how to adapt the history of situations between characters with simple expressions. Sometimes ‘Succession’ manages to say more with what they don’t say than with their texts.
And the one who has achieved excellence in expressing a lot with looks is Sarah Snook, who is putting Shiv Roy at the center of the season. Roman had the big moment last episode with a great monologue to take down Alexander Skarsgard’s Lukas Matsson on top of the mountain, but Shiv has shown his true power, making good on his friendly loan to his brothers, who take over the co-roles. -Waystar CEOs, but just to show you know how to pull the strings from behind.
Despite having been relegated to the lower levels, her position allows her to negotiate on her own and fix what the clumsiness of her two brothers can destroy. She is getting the face of being the true rival for both, and everything is probably starting to gravitate around her without us realizing it. Meanwhile, ‘Succession’ continues to generate debates, threads of conversation, analysis from episode to episode, despite the absence of Brian Cox. In addition, its episodes continue to be among the highest rated in history on imdb and it is on its way to being the great reference series of the streaming era. Will the end live up to so many expectations?