Succession has long been one of my favorite shows of all time, and after the explosive season 3 finale and this dramatic season 4, ending the series, Succession cements itself as one of the greatest shows ever made. It’s a big business drama that I’ll be honest I don’t fully understand all the time but I can’t get enough.
Something about the show draws you in and it’s like a drug that you just want more and more of. It’s a masterclass in show writing because every single character is so despicable but you can’t stop watching. It’s no secret, Shiv Roy played by Sarah Snook is one of my favorite characters on TV of all time. It’s fascinating to me because she’s so vile, but I eat it up every episode.
Once we get to episode 3 of season 4 the show really takes off and it’s full on war within the family. The entirety of the show is like this but season 4 sees it taken to new heights. The backstabbing, the drama, the social moves, the business moves, it’s all painstakingly thought out and just magically put together.
Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy, Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy, Matthew Macfayden as Tom, and J. Smith-Cameron as Gerri are wonderful as well. Kendall is such a pick me business boy and his character has such a dramatic and sadistic downfall in the show. Roman is a sick and childlike sibling that grosses you out and makes you so incredibly angry but might be one step behind Shiv in terms of favorites for me. Tom is a silent killer who’s absolutely ruthless and with some hilarious lines. Gerri is methodical and professional and an honest relief with all of these sadistic characters. Brian Cox as Logan Roy might be one of the most brutal, heartless and misguided father figures I’ve ever seen in a show, but that man could RUN a successful company. All of his children had this aspiration to be him or be better than him, but nobody took them as seriously because they were handed everything on a silver spoon, and he knew that. He’s absolutely insane and you can’t get enough, all the way up to his signature phrase of “fuck off” is all gold.
Succession peaks with the creation of one of the best female characters in television Shiv Roy played by Sarah Snook. Throughout all four seasons of Succession we’ve seen this sister be underestimated because she is a “liberal” female. Which inevitably made her all that more dangerous to her family in the show.
She is seen time after time crafting some of the most important decisions behind closed doors and pulling almost every string imaginable in the show, whether it be good or down right despicable. Shiv has many moments through the show that will infuriate you, leave you speechless, or break your heart. Shiv is power hungry, mean, and a ruthless business person just like the rest of her family, but what makes her so smart and capable in this show is she’s able to hide it behind a disguise of a loving and devoted daughter and wife that we finally see start to crack in this final season. She delivers some of the most ruthless lines and backstabbing moments – especially this season – I’ve ever seen from a character and or in a show period. She’s also dealt some incredibly humiliating defeats like every other sibling in the show as she becomes too confident or too sure that it’s going her way. It’s when she’s at her lowest and her seemingly weakest when she’s able to claw her way back up to the top and back over her brothers with these sinister moves she’s willing to make for – let’s be honest- herself over anyone else.
The fact that they were able to create a show about this family in the 1% and make us feel like we can relate to our families as well is insane. We all have family drama and no matter the scale of that we can see it represented in Succession some way at some point. The unhealthy relationship between children and their parents and even between siblings. This all comes to a climax of this season filled with rivalry for the family business and for daddy’s approval between all the siblings. In reality they are all seeking approval and to be loved and once they feel like they’ve lost love or approval they will go to the darkest places possible and do some truly vile things to win it back.
Succession is a game of power and a game of winning to be the “best sibling” and it’s a losing game here. It’s also a story of incredible loneliness or not wanting to become what your parents were or to be better than your parents were. There are so many incredible layers to this show that are handled beautifully through the writing and the performances of every single actor.
All of that being said, to create a show with this much depth about a bunch of billionaires and trust fund babies is incredible. Why do we care so much? I have no idea. It just goes to show how well crafted the show is. You are meant to not like any of them, yet we grow this unhealthy attachment to this family like we would with our own.
Succession season 4 and Succession as a whole will go down as one of the best shows ever created. It’s an infuriating, thrilling back stabbing family drama of the 1%. We eat it up and can’t get enough every single episode. We root for their downfall, we root for their success, and succession is a wide range of things, but one thing is undeniable, it’s one of the greatest shows ever made.
I give Succession an A+
