Succession: Effortlessly Flawless
Succession is a TV Drama series created by HBO, which is currently in its third season on air and most likely to be renewed for a new season. Saying that the show is well-written will be an understatement for the acumen and mettle with which it is written, it just keeps topping itself again and again progressively with each season and coupled with some outstanding direction, this show is a killer and once it reels you in, you are hooked.
I won't put out a lame-ass summary and bore you with words and alphabets, let’s switch it up and extract the latent potential technology is offering me.
Logan can be pegged as the protagonist of this storyline. A self-made multi-millionaire, narcissistic cunt, emotionally unavailable father, and a gruesome capitalist. He is the CEO of Waystar Royco, a cliched firm in New York with a high rise in Manhattan. Ticking all the token White Rich family boxes.
Next up is Kendall Roy, the so-called antagonist. The first-born to his mother, Kendall is the token fucked up, selfish brat, high on any drug you name, and seeking Daddy’s validation all the time. (The whole show is Pandora’s box of Daddy issues never opened.) He mirrors his father in being an absent father, while he attempts to take over the company by manifesting his inner Judas.
The next fucked up kid is Romulus, aka Roman Roy. The best-looking sibling turns out to be the most unstable or the most abnormal sibling of the family. The handsome stud reaks damage because of a neglected childhood, constant bullying by his brother, and a hidden child trying to keep the fire in him from dying out. The most outrageous, but the most likable. He is his Dad’s trusty dog. Also, Romulus? What a sexy name.
Siobhan Roy, called Pinky when Dad wants her on her side and called Shiv by the siblings is the sane one out of the lot. Having worked as a political consultant before getting involved in trying to run the company turns out to be just a pawn used by other white cis-het males to carry on their agenda. She packs serious firepower though with a layered grey character, marriage trouble, and her pain to do the morally right kind of puts her down.
Connor Roy, the fourth sibling is kind of weird. He is a total nut-job around whom people flock just to get a route into his Dad. He decides to run for the Presidential Elections of the United States, burning his Dad’s dollars like they were firewood, and his fan’s so correctly called the Conheads.
Alongside these main ones, the series has an ensemble cast with beautiful and mind-blowing performances from each and every one. Good writing backed by great execution is what this show is at its crux. The show has already won an Emmy which speaks for it. Season 3 provides an intricate arc for all characters which is weaved with threads of anger, fear, and greed.
What works for this show is how it makes unrelatable things relatable by making us care for these characters and feel like we also are the stakeholders in the matters of the company or their personal life. The private jets, the expensive car troupes, the A-list events, never become flashy, but rather make you feel you are missing out on these events.
The dynamic between the family, with Logan Roy the distant father who never cared for his children, and eventually the children growing up maladjusted and out of touch of the real world gives the viewer a small bait into their personal life. The show never goes into the past, except the opening theme of the show which is beautifully shot, capturing the essence of the family, disjointed and broken.
This leads to the biggest fuckfest of all time. A family riddled with distrust and fear for their dad. Everyone is looking out for them, their position, trying to get to vantage points, which makes the plot not linear but multi-threaded and opens up new dimensions with each character trying to get a one-up on their peers. There are no boundaries, no limits, the unpredictability hits you in the face like a crouching tiger, ready to pounce on its prey.
The Platonic Love Story: The Outsiders
This is the most brilliant part of the whole show. The bromance between Tom Wambsgans and Gregory Hirsch.
Gregory is a distant cousin of the Roy family and Tom is Siobhan’s husband, making him Logan’s son-in-law, putting them both in precarious positions. They have to blend in. These people aren’t corporate vultures ready to exploit a situation for their own benefit, but they have to project they are. Gregory in search of work ends up working as an executive assistant to Tom. The initial uncomfortable hazing of Greg and Tom trying to spook him but at the same time bonding with him, because he feels like he was in Greg’s position a few years ago is heart-warming.
Greg is the headless chicken, the wide-eyed novice, who is ready to eat any shit thrown at him. His overall dazed and “normal” approach to the high profile events and high-pressure situations makes me feel like it's the window through which we, as the audience, enter the Succession Universe. The indispensable cousin of the family is tactfully used by Tom to cover up some shady things going down at the company.
The idea of prison brings this couple together as I could never imagine. Like a bird trapped in a cage trying to get out and be free, they flutter around in the whole mess, conjuring up escape plans and hanging onto each other in times of vulnerability. When Tom outrightly tells Greg
hits all the spots. Tom frustrated by Siobhan wanting an open marriage, the impending imprisonment he might face, and being hung out to dry makes him something of his own. He and Greg, make the most beautiful duo written in the history of television.
If you haven’t heard about or watched Succession, HBO’s thriller family drama which keeps the viewer on the edge of his seat from minute zero to minute sixty of each episode, you are missing out on some of the most brilliant contemporary writing and screenplay you will ever witness unfolding in your lifetime.
