Season 3 of Jesse Armstrong’s Shakespearian drama Succession is gearing up, and the Roy family is closer to all-out war than ever. The best show on television right now, Succession is the latest in a line of literary TV events that included classics like The Sopranos and Mad Men. In many ways though, the story of the battle for control over Waystar Royco is the most vicious drama yet.
Great American TV is about illusions and the lies we tell ourselves. The golden era of television features prideful men dealing with their failures and insecurities through delusion and increasingly destructive cycles of dysfunction. Surprisingly, the characters in Succession are far more flawed.
Tony Soprano sees himself as an oppressed, down on his luck outsider feeling sorry for himself and taking it out on his family in his suburban mansion in North Caldwell. Don Draper also looks at himself as a perennial outsider. Growing up without the privilege of his business associates or family members, the ad man believes himself to be poisoned by the things he had to do to get to the top. He weeps about his lack of love all the while rejecting and neglecting his friends and family.
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These men are spoiled and self-centered. The Sopranos and Mad Men are not criticizing the idea of social mobility, or the institution of psychotherapy; they are condemning the way Americans use these ideas to shield themselves from personal responsibility. The modern antihero up to this point has pretended that he’s about business, that he’s about family. The Roys however, have no such illusions. Throughout Succession, the media magnates express nothing but derision towards the work their company does. As for family, I think we all know how that’s going. They seem more normal than the Sopranos or the Drapers, they are not. This means the protagonists’ falls to rock bottom are going to be even more tragic.
The characters in Armstrong’s show are a new generation. They exist at such a height of privilege, are so isolated from everyday people and their lives, that they are illusionless; that’s what makes them worse. These are lizard people with no loyalties, having a knife fight to get power for the sake of power. Although you never actually see anyone murder anyone, Logan and his children are much more vicious than anyone in The Sopranos. It’s within this viciousness that Armstrong’s dystopian vision of corporate America emerges.
If you think that a family struggle over business might have something to do with family or business, think again. Succession is about children scrabbling for the scraps of an empire. For all the power struggles over the reins of the business, characters spend precious little time doing any actual work. Shiv is constantly roasted for her political career in the first two seasons. Roman is lost at his management training. The one time a character actually cares about his product is when Lawrence balks at selling his website to Kendall in Season 1. In response, Kendall fires his entire staff and liquidates the site for sale to the highest bidder.
The Roys don’t avoid work, escape into work, or protect their family through work, they disregard it entirely. American art has always been about professions. The fact that Succession is so uninterested in the ins and outs of a media company signals how far past the pale these characters are. The one family member who seems committed to rendering any sort of service through Waystar Royco is Kendall, our one, mostly… almost, kind of sympathetic character.
The only competent Roy child, we’ve always sort of known that Kendall is the number one boy. His problem is that he still has a tiny spark of goodness in him. He still thinks the empire is about work. He tries to convince shareholders and siblings with “business plans.” This is what’s standing in his way of actually taking over. Battling with Logan Roy is never about good work; it’s about power, and intimidation, and humiliating your opponent.
This show is uncompromising in his vision of capitalism. The system isn’t going to change in the end, so Kendall will have to. The former C.O.O. has been struggling to keep his head above water for the entire show. Whether it be drug addiction, media coverage or his poisonous family, we’ve watched the one likeable character fade further and further from the light.
The war has begun, and to win, Kendall is going to have to become unrecognizable. Think Michael Corleone Godfather II. Over the next season or so, this show is going to lose what little humanity its characters ever had. Kendall isn’t likely to take Roman on “a ride” out on a boat in Lake Tahoe, like Michael with Fredo, but Succession’s characters are so isolated, so incredibly unmoored from values and loyalties, that their evil is much purer than even murderous mobsters. One could also argue their terrible decisions hurt more people (see Uncle Ewan, Season 2, Episode 8).
We all cheered for Kendall going cutthroat in the finale of last season. For me, this was because the nice(ish) guy was finally hitting back. The thing is, in order to win, he’s not going to be the nice guy anymore. To take down Logan, take control of Royco and heel his meddling siblings, Kendall might just have to become the coldest, most brutal character in television history. After all, he’s from the most vicious family.
At the end of the novel version of The Godfather, Michael’s wife Kay visits a church. She forgets about her bitterness, angers, and discomforts with her husband’s new position in the Mafia. She prays for him, an all-encompassing act of devotion to her family. This is something no member of the Roys will ever do. So, to paraphrase Kay, “we should all say the necessary prayers for the soul,” of Kendall Roy.
Season 3 of Jesse Armstrong’s Shakespearian drama Succession is gearing up, and the Roy family is closer to all-out war than ever. The best show on television right now, Succession is the latest in a line of literary TV events that included classics like The Sopranos and Mad Men. In many ways though, the story of the battle for control over Waystar Royco is the most vicious drama yet.
Great American TV is about illusions and the lies we tell ourselves. The golden era of television features prideful men dealing with their failures and insecurities through delusion and increasingly destructive cycles of dysfunction. Surprisingly, the characters in Succession are far more flawed.
Tony Soprano sees himself as an oppressed, down on his luck outsider feeling sorry for himself and taking it out on his family in his suburban mansion in North Caldwell. Don Draper also looks at himself as a perennial outsider. Growing up without the privilege of his business associates or family members, the ad man believes himself to be poisoned by the things he had to do to get to the top. He weeps about his lack of love all the while rejecting and neglecting his friends and family.
These men are spoiled and self-centered. The Sopranos and Mad Men are not criticizing the idea of social mobility, or the institution of psychotherapy; they are condemning the way Americans use these ideas to shield themselves from personal responsibility. The modern antihero up to this point has pretended that he’s about business, that he’s about family. The Roys however, have no such illusions. Throughout Succession, the media magnates express nothing but derision towards the work their company does. As for family, I think we all know how that’s going. They seem more normal than the Sopranos or the Drapers, they are not. This means the protagonists’ falls to rock bottom are going to be even more tragic.
The characters in Armstrong’s show are a new generation. They exist at such a height of privilege, are so isolated from everyday people and their lives, that they are illusionless; that’s what makes them worse. These are lizard people with no loyalties, having a knife fight to get power for the sake of power. Although you never actually see anyone murder anyone, Logan and his children are much more vicious than anyone in The Sopranos. It’s within this viciousness that Armstrong’s dystopian vision of corporate America emerges.
If you think that a family struggle over business might have something to do with family or business, think again. Succession is about children scrabbling for the scraps of an empire. For all the power struggles over the reins of the business, characters spend precious little time doing any actual work. Shiv is constantly roasted for her political career in the first two seasons. Roman is lost at his management training. The one time a character actually cares about his product is when Lawrence balks at selling his website to Kendall in Season 1. In response, Kendall fires his entire staff and liquidates the site for sale to the highest bidder.
The Roys don’t avoid work, escape into work, or protect their family through work, they disregard it entirely. American art has always been about professions. The fact that Succession is so uninterested in the ins and outs of a media company signals how far past the pale these characters are. The one family member who seems committed to rendering any sort of service through Waystar Royco is Kendall, our one, mostly… almost, kind of sympathetic character.
The only competent Roy child, we’ve always sort of known that Kendall is the number one boy. His problem is that he still has a tiny spark of goodness in him. He still thinks the empire is about work. He tries to convince shareholders and siblings with “business plans.” This is what’s standing in his way of actually taking over. Battling with Logan Roy is never about good work; it’s about power, and intimidation, and humiliating your opponent.
This show is uncompromising in his vision of capitalism. The system isn’t going to change in the end, so Kendall will have to. The former C.O.O. has been struggling to keep his head above water for the entire show. Whether it be drug addiction, media coverage or his poisonous family, we’ve watched the one likeable character fade further and further from the light.
The war has begun, and to win, Kendall is going to have to become unrecognizable. Think Michael Corleone Godfather II. Over the next season or so, this show is going to lose what little humanity its characters ever had. Kendall isn’t likely to take Roman on “a ride” out on a boat in Lake Tahoe, like Michael with Fredo, but Succession’s characters are so isolated, so incredibly unmoored from values and loyalties, that their evil is much purer than even murderous mobsters. One could also argue their terrible decisions hurt more people (see Uncle Ewan, Season 2, Episode 8).
We all cheered for Kendall going cutthroat in the finale of last season. For me, this was because the nice(ish) guy was finally hitting back. The thing is, in order to win, he’s not going to be the nice guy anymore. To take down Logan, take control of Royco and heel his meddling siblings, Kendall might just have to become the coldest, most brutal character in television history. After all, he’s from the most vicious family.
At the end of the novel version of The Godfather, Michael’s wife Kay visits a church. She forgets about her bitterness, angers, and discomforts with her husband’s new position in the Mafia. She prays for him, an all-encompassing act of devotion to her family. This is something no member of the Roys will ever do. So, to paraphrase Kay, “we should all say the necessary prayers for the soul,” of Kendall Roy.
