It’s hard to not keep going on here about the new Golden Age of TV when impressive and engaging series continue to be produced. They may be not that much harder to find amidst the blizzard of only OK to kinda good to downright lousy shows the proliferation of streaming has unleashed. more like finding time to bring them into your life.
Hence it took me a while to finally start watching HBO’s “Succession.” But once I did I was quickly hooked and mightily impressed. And my esteem for the show grew as I largely binge watched through its first and second season.
The quality of the show in many aspects places it in the upper pantheon of recent television gems, such as “The Sopranos” (the series that started it all), “The Wire,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” to name the immediate stand outs. But it is also important and even more so relevant.
There is a real-life model for “Succession” even if it should not be mistaken for roman a clef. As media baron Rupert Murdoch ages, he is in the process of handing over the management of his empire – which includes Fox News, which has had an undeniable impact on American politics and culture – to his sons.
At the core of the Waystar Royco media conglomerate is its ATN news channel, a conservative outlet similar to Fox News. Family patriarch Logan Roy, a native Scotsman who grew up in Canada, has four offspring who are all affected by the family business as well as their mega-wealth. The major plot line it the show follows the aging and declining health of Roy and what will be the fate of his company and the roles of his three sons and one daughter in what the future may hold.
Prime among the strengths of the show is its profoundly strong ensemble cast. Scottish actor Brian Cox superbly plays Logan Roy as a strong yet flinty father who insists that family comes first even if, as it becomes obvious, that business has always been his first priority above and beyond raising his brood. Special mention must go to Kieran Culkin, whose third son character Romulus “Roman” Roy oozes sarcasm and cynicism with all the dyspeptic glee of an overgrown adolescent, yet manages to be lovable and even show his below-the-surface kindness and on occasion common sense. Daughter Siobhan Roy, aka “Shiv,” is colored fully as a woman in Australian actress Sarah Snook’s rendering.
They and their also gifted thespian first and second brothers truly feel and behave and interact like a real-life family with all the complexities that come with the union, from dysfunction to a solidarity amidst all the second generation’s conflicts with one another. That their father is a demigod to them all, even with his often alienating and undercutting patriarchal ways and how they can resent and rebel against him, captures familial dysfunction in all its myriad dimensions. The cast brings genuine flesh and blood to the screen.
“Succession” also shows the lives and milieu of the top mega-rich one percent of the wealthy one percent with a stunning accuracy. It manages a similar believability to the business realm in the highest reaches of corporate gigantism. The show has also forged its own keen balance between drama and comedy.
All these aspects reflect major strains in actual modern life. I’ve yet to feel a false note in the first two seasons. The series feels as if everything about it is real.
Sadly, “Succession” hasn’t scored well in the ratings. But HBO has renewed it for a third season likely to premiere this summer. I strongly urge any and all who value TV at its best take the time between now and then to dig into this full-course meal of a series to be ready to savored.
Album: “The Center Won’t Hold” by Sleater-Kinney – The revered “Riot Girl” post-punk band take a great leap upward in terms of production and songwriting sophistication yet retain the passion of their earlier work. Smart, catchy and deep yet fun.
Movie: “The Laundromat” – Critics gave this star-studded film based on The Pentagon Papers mixed reviews. But I like the way it addresses the issue of money laundering from the bottom of the everyday people who got hurt upward.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.
From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2020
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