Succession (2018-): Season 1-2

Title: Succession

Year: 2018-

Genre: Drama |

Season: 1| 2 |

Runtime: 60 min

Creator: Jesse Armstrong

Starring: Nicholas Braun, Sarah Snook, Jeremy Strong

8,6/10

The Roy family is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.

THE FAMILY’S INTEGRITY AT STAKE

Not that often since Game of Thrones you will notice the extent of explicit words and swears in all the way possible, but Succession makes it an exception on that subject. A lot of fucks, fuck you and fucking is on display here. Because if you cannot make the Roy patriarchy satisfied, you will get a fuck off. Because Logan Roy tells you to fuck off if he is not pleased. Logan Roy runs an entertainment industry, that includes a media conglomerate, theme parks, and cruise resorts. It is like HBO’s own parody of the Disney entertainment empire.

Logan, played by Brian Cox, plays the lead in a family of four children. Each child is avaricious than the other. There is a lot of insults between each family member where you have Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, and Alan Ruck among the siblings. It is first after the third episode of the first season where you can distinguish each sibling and their motivations. Jeremy playing Kendall, the rich successor to the family company. Snook takes on the children-only woman who plays double even when making deals with her father’s enemies. Culkin is the ordinary douchebag who insults everyone he can. Ruck plays the old, distanced brother to the family who owns a large ranch outside the city, living with a stripper.

The whole aura and tone of the series are that the black comedy is constantly dominated surfaced by the integrity of Shakespearean drama. The role Cox has throughout the series is that everyone fears him but still respects Logan due to his massive power and the CEO. Everyone seems to love and care for the family despite the constant insults and the explicit language. Then there is a balanced drama versus comedy that constantly contradicts each other, along with this it plays out occasionally absurd or over-exaggerated in terms of the logic.

Adam McKay, who is one of the executive producers behind the series, provides somehow interest and charm to these damaged characters. The fact that the almighty father intends to step down is dragged out throughout the first and second seasons. Despite the faked-out glamour that feels staged, it rubs off also on the series. It tries to be more expanded than what it is, and it sticks. It sticks in the not so well-done world-building. They do not sell that idea all the way through, which should be an improvement when the third season arrives. The strongest pursuit is the wacky dialogue and the acting where Brian Cox is the truest winner of this cast ensemble.