Succession Season Three Ends Tonight!
Sounds Good!
There’s only one television show worth talking about today – and that’s Succession of course. Its season three finale will appear on New Zealand screens, hopefully, tonight. Last week there was a technical glitch meaning a late delivery. It gave Twitter a new topic.
So, I guess, here’s your warning – SPOILER ALERT: This contains discussion of the show Succession, up to and including season three’s penultimate episode…
So click out of this now if you’re not a fan, or not up to date.
Okay.
Succession debuted in 2018, created by British screenwriter and producer Jesse Armstrong. He was best known for the brilliant Peep Show – and his largely British writing team (you may remember I recommended Georgia Pritchard’s “anxiety memoir”) have, over three seasons, done the most amazing job of pitching black-as-the-inside-of-a-coffin-on-a-moonless-night comedy that satirises the Trump/Murdoch-level arrogance, entitlement and grotesqueness of being Business-AF; of being dastardly rich and lacking in any sort of true human compassion.
Some people watch Succession through their fingers, some can’t watch it at all (I don’t understand why, I believe it’s a masterclass in writing – and often in acting) and of course so many people are so glued to it that there are podcasts devoted to weekly episode-unpacking and discussion; Google gives me “about 2,700,000,000 results” for Succession inside of 0.54 seconds. More than a dozen pages pump out options for stories relating to this show. And here you are reading one more. Because here I am, finally writing about it too…
I have loved Succession from day one. Its first episode hitting like a ton of bricks – the ultra-wealthy, and ultimately unfeeling Roy family flown via helicopter for a birthday celebration because the media-tycoon alpha-male dad (Brian Cox’s Logan) is CEO of the media conglomerate Waystar RoyCo. And his shark-children smell a hint of him stepping down. He of course tells them no such thing will be happening. And, well, cue three seasons now of these Professional Children circling and covering up and positioning and begging for scraps…. of attention, of business promotion, of love… LOL!
It’s been a cringe-joy to watch this family all but eat the poor out of contempt and boredom.
These are the worst people on television.
There is no single likeable character, no one to empathise with, nor relate to. They are loathsome and brutal, and it is excruciating. And I love it. And you do too.
Right at this minute we begin the long, boring day in wait of season three’s finale. Season three, like most of life, was delayed by Coronavirus. Most of 2020 was a waiting game as the third season sat on the backburner. But now, in late 2021, we have nine episodes (instead of the usual ten). The ninth will air tonight.
Season three has been a continued waiting-game though. Its whole point is to eke out the slow-torture of a pretend-united family forever punishing the one rogue that spoke out.
Kendall Roy’s explosive season two finale move – where he threw his father under the bus, ditching the script that would have him accept blame for misconduct and instead telling the world that his father is the bad guy, responsible for the company’s crimes and corporate bungling – hovers over season three. Kendall must have had some big moves to follow, right?
We sat waiting for a year to see how this would play.
Turns out Kendall had no moves after that. It was an elegant bluff. It was so much bluster. There’s nothing below the surface.
And as we wait to see how season three concludes we have left Kendall with his head in the water, his addictions back in the picture, his season one manslaughter cover-up bobbing about him – and the continued wonder around just what sort of metaphorical bullet it takes to put Logan on his knees. We’ve seen more wobbles this season but also more defiance. He’s not going anywhere. He’s not prepared to use or lose Kendall – keeping him close like an enemy, leaving him lost and alone.
The Roys are TV’s worst family. So bad, that daughter Shiv (played brilliantly by Sarah Snook) almost makes you feel sorry for her loathsome toad of a husband Tom Wambsgans (a smirking, winking, skin-crawlingly good Matthew Macfadyen). Her motivations are only to move herself up the ladder. She’s not seen as the serious contender she is so sure she is – her gender plays against her. Her father is so old school that early in the season he barks about not wanting to be seen “running like some slapped girl”. The harsh poetry of Succession is always to be admired. But since Shiv has no real chance playing with the big boys she must tear down any other woman that might almost be in the way. So she’s using Gerri’s real, actual sexual harassment (her brother Roman – played by Kieran Culkin – sent a dick pic, impossible, but let’s not let logistics stop us from suspending disbelief) and Shiv instantly positions herself as being the likely replacement for Gerri in the CEO role, what with Roman shooting himself in the, erm, foot…making a literal dick of himself…
As season three crawls to its close, we have watched this Professional Family care only about itself, joyless, all of the members invested only in the positional play for themselves. And as excruciating as it might be, it’s absolutely hilarious, revolting and gloriously tension filled.
These bad people can make you feel good about yourself on your very worst day.
I haven’t followed any of the commentary around Succession. I’ve just tuned in each week for each episode of every season.
The one piece I did read right through was the now much talked about New Yorker profile of actor Jeremy Strong (Kendall). It’s getting a bit of backlash, people calling it a hit piece. I loved it. I had Strong pegged as this sort of actor right from the first season. How could you not. This profile was the confirmation I didn’t exactly need, but absolutely wanted. It makes me respect his craft – and dedication to it – even more. And it confirms what I always figured. He must be awful to be on set with…
I wonder, too, its timing – the marketing move of it – is it the jigsaw puzzle telling us, slightly ahead of time, that tonight is when we find out that Kendall never makes it out of the swimming pool?
Succession’s third season wraps tonight on Neon.
