I bore easily. When we steam series, my wife often has to remind me to "let it build" during the first season as the groundwork for the story is being laid out. There were probably 3 times during season 1 where I asked her "another one?" when an episode was over and I'm really glad she encouraged me to be patient. It took me nearly the whole first season to connect to the show but once I did, there was never a point that I was bored again. We have watched a few series with more seasons leading up to this one and I often remarked about how they were dragging things out, but I did not feel that during Succession. The series length was perfect. The episodes were filled with quality without a ton of needless filler and irrelevant dialogue.
On its surface, it's about a billionaire business legend near the end of his career and the impending question of which of his kids are going to take over as CEO. The tension this creates really drives the show.
Underneath, it's really about an incredibly dysfunctional family dynamic. The parents are cold, manipulative, and lack empathy and compassion. The father has mastered the ability to triangulate in order to keep his children divided to prevent them from undercutting him.
The children, who are now adults, at their core are emotionally deprived and traumatized kids who are incapable of dealing with emotions in a productive manner. Yet they find themselves repeatedly getting into intensely emotional situations.
Yes, they are incredibly wealthy and out of touch with the working man. They all have aspects about them that make them easy to dislike at times. BUT if you watch through the lens of understanding what they've been deprived of in terms of love and emotional connection, it gives you an empathic outlook which makes the show what it is.
There is a constant longing for intimacy and zero understanding of HOW to achieve it or what to do with it when they do.
I thought the final episode of the show was awesome. There was so much love, hate, misplaced anger, and self loathing flying around that it really illustrated how unstable they were. The final scene was brilliant. So uncomfortable but so good.
Acting was outstanding. Cox is a beast. I had no clue how good Culkin was but I was blown away by his performance throughout, and his acting in the final episode was gold. Same thing with Jeremy Strong as Ken. My favorite character from start to finish was Tom (Jeremy McFayden), and Greg was a perfect addition to the show.
9 stars. Top 10 all time for me and gets very close to cracking my top 5.
