Succession (#19)

If you want to make a Tomlette, you're gonna have to break some Greg's

Succession, my 19th favorite show of all time, holds a fairly unique spot on this list - aside from Survivor, which is a game show, it’s the only show that’s still being aired. Indeed, it’s only been on for three seasons - this means it could go even higher - or plummet off the list entirely if future seasons go awry.

But for now, it’s easily in my top-25 because there’s never been anything quite like it on television. Plenty of shows have featured anti-heroes, people we know we’re not supposed to like but we root for anyway. Very few shows have successfully had a whole host of characters who are truly horrible people, who we don’t really want to root for, and made it both hilarious and compelling.

For those who haven’t seen the show, Succession is presumably about Logan Roy (Bryan Cox) the Rupert Murdoch-esque media magnate who seems to be about to retire from his company Waystar RoyCo in the pilot episode, with his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) poised to succeed him as CEO. Instead, Logan pivots and says he wants to stick around for awhile, and Kendall’s world - already shaky - begins to spin out of control. Soon, his brother Roman (Kieran Culkin) worms himself into an executive position at the firm, and their sister Siobhan “Shiv” (Sarah Snook), who has been working as a consultant for a Democratic politician, tries to insert herself into the process as well. Everyone wants their piece of the pie.

It doesn’t matter that all of them are already worth hundreds of millions of dollars each, they want power and respect, and Logan refuses to give it to them. (His signature phrase - “Fuck off!” - is used frequently and aggressively.) Swearing is integral to the show. (In fact, the second episode is literally titled “Shit Show at the Fuck Factory".”)

The show is a send-up of what capitalism has turned into in this country, of so many corporations that reward folks who don’t rock the boat but may well lack any actual competency, and the culture that reveres the wealthy even when those with wealth can be truly horrible humans.

Take, for instance, the two characters I referred to in the subheader - Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), Shiv’s husband and WayStar executive and in short order, the boss of Cousin Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun). Tom - who gets short shrift from the Roy family (including Shiv, who tells him on their wedding night that she prefers an open relationship), hazes downward and belittles Greg to a shocking, traumatizing level. For awhile, it seems like Greg is the only “good guy” in this whole story - except he soon makes selfish decisions that make that a lot harder to accept blindly.

But in the meantime, it’s so goddamn funny.

One of the funnier moments involves, on point, the company going on trial for some truly horrible things - that they are absolutely guilty of. Tom ropes Greg into the entire mess and Greg’s testimony in Congress is way better than a simple GIF could show. That said, I rarely laugh OUT LOUD at a TV show, but this moment - where Greg is talking to himself to test a wire he’s wearing as a mole (not a spoiler, as it turns out) gets me every time:

The full quote, for fun:

Hello, hey, hi, hi, I’m involved in a criminal conspiracy. Oh, really? Yes. Yes, I am. I destroyed some papers that I shouldn’t have. Oh, did you? Yes, I did. Is that bad? Uh yeah, that’s bad. Yeah, that could be bad. You could go to jail. Would you like that? Would you like that, pretty boy like you? Would you like it? You might even like that. Male rape. Rape of the male.

A lot has been written about the process of actor Jeremy Strong, whose portrayal of Kendall is both laughable and truly tragic - watching him rap at his fathers birthday party is one of the funniest, most cringable moments ever on television. Watching Culkin’s truly insane body language (just watch how he “sits” at any given moment - it’s bizarre and somehow works) while he works out his truly twisted sexual issues while trying to fool himself and others that he’s the logical successor to his father - so good.

Shiv, who we are fooled into thinking is on the right side of things, is despicable in her own power hungry way, willing to throw quite literally anyone under the bus lest they get in her way. And their oldest brother Connor (Alan Ruck), who thinks he’s Presidential material and espouses the literal worst libertarian philosophies possible, while paying his ex-prostitute/current playwright girlfriend Willa (Justine Lupe) to stick around, is one of the low key funniest parts of the show.

Everybody is horrible.

One scene sticks with me, and it’s from the pilot episode - in it, the family flies a few helicopters out of the city to a softball field. It’s extravagant in every way, to celebrate Logan’s 80th birthday. At one point, Roman casually tells the son of one of their employees that if he can hit a homerun, he’ll give him $1,000,000. To the boy and his family, this is life changing money - to Roman, it’s an amusing game. The kid hits the ball, but doesn’t make it to home plate and Roman’s team loses the game. Roman rips up the check in the child’s face with obvious glee in the cruelty of it all.

And, in a subtle nod, Logan realizes this is horrible - but how does he make it right? By telling the boy it was a ‘magnificent effort’ and patting him on the back. (He later gives the kid a grotesquely expensive watch that Tom gives him for his birthday, but that’s more to spite Tom than to be magnanimous.) To Logan, his benevolence to the kid is worth as much as a check - because he, after all is a billionaire, and therefore a better person. I was looking for a summary of this episode and found this description in Decider that is so good I’m gonna quote it:

“Magnificent effort,” he tells the kid, extending his hand; the boy thanks him, sincerely, and shakes it, before returning to his parents for comfort.

That fucking crushed me, I’m not going to lie. It crushed me that this billionaire maniac could sit and watch his offspring ritualistically humiliate a child and think to himself “I know how to make this right: I will congratulate this young man on a job well done, and he will be grateful for my noblesse oblige.” It crushed me to see that he was right: The kid did respond, almost instinctively, to the praise of an Important Person.

It crushed me that this all took place as part of some kind of performance of family — a group of people with money in their veins instead of blood, continuing some kind of yearly tradition none of them have probably actually enjoyed in decades, spending most of the time scheming about (titular concept alert) succession in the outfield or the ersatz dugout while employees get paid to cart around a custom-made scoreboard that I’m not sure even gets used.

So, why do I like this show so much? My wife certainly doesn’t - she doesn’t enjoy shows where everyone is horrible and disgraceful, and I get that. I do. But it’s so, so funny. The smaller characters like Stewie (Arian Moayed), Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron) and Karl (David Rasche) stand out for me, but everyone who shows up is great. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how many layers Adrian Brody was wearing in his episode last season.

Can this show last forever? I suspect it has only one or two seasons left - after all, Logan can only find so many new ways to kneecap his children (though they’ve kept this relatively believable and fresh thus far). It’s probably the only show that holds the Water Cooler title right now. (Editors Note: In the Before Times, people went to work in office buildings, which often had water in replaceable coolers in break spaces, where people would gather and chat about cultural moments, such as the latest must-see television episodes.)

Succession is a massive success and yet not for everybody. It just got a massive amount of Emmy nominations, all well deserved. For me (and Emmy nominators) it’s brilliant and I can’t wait to see what comes next. For now, it’s my 19th favorite show of all time. Who knows where it will eventually end up?

Here’s my countdown thus far: