The end of Succession
Stop right there! I haven’t watched any of it. All four seasons are on my TV to-do list.
No spoilers here. We will say, however, that you’re in for a treat. HBO has reported a record audience of 2.3 million viewers for the premiere of the show’s fourth (and final) season.
Give me the top line…
A tycoon – head of fictional media and entertainment conglomerate Waystar Royco – toys with his four entitled kids (Connor, Kendall, Roman and Shiv) about whether he’ll step aside.
And will he?
We’ve got until the season four finale in May to find out.
Media tycoon… won’t step aside… kids in his shadow. Sounds familiar.
The show’s star Brian Cox (who plays manipulative patriarch Logan Roy) told Town & Country: ‘He’s not Rupert Murdoch. He’s certainly not Donald Trump, and he’s not Conrad Black.’
I hear Cox has started behaving rather like his potty-mouthed character.
You’re referring, we think, to a recent photoshoot for the Evening Standard when the veteran actor expostulated on the offerings of the hapless stylist: ‘Jesus Christ! What are all these f**king clothes doing in my bedroom?!’
Maybe it was a case of life imitating art – isn’t being rude about clothes a Succession speciality?
It is. Among the most caustic put-downs are Roman’s (played by Kieran Culkin). See as evidence his remarks on a padded gilet worn by brother-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen): ‘Ooh, nice vest… It’s soooo puffy. What’s it stuffed with, your hopes and dreams?’
And didn’t I hear something about big handbags?
The first episode of this season features a classic burn from one-percenter Tom about another, less affluent character’s Burberry-esque maxi bag. ‘What’s even in there… Flat shoes for the subway?’
What about the locations?
Most episodes will feature a combination of the following: Manhattan penthouse (with compulsory private lift), old-world mansion, modernist LA pad, newsroom, infinity pool. The Roys move seamlessly between them (in a private jet or a helicopter), pausing their phone calls only long enough to trade personal insults.
I bet the power suits are fabulous.
The Roys are far too wealthy for labels and tailoring. Think logo-less baseball caps, drawstring waists, shawl-collar cardigans and chinos.
They do seem to talk about numbers a lot. Will I need a calculator to keep up?
Nope – all you need to know is that when a character says a number below ten, they mean ‘billion dollars’.
Any other advice?
Avoid social media in the run-up to the finale because plot speculation is rampant. At the time of going to press, Twitter was leaning towards the kids (or ‘rats’ as Logan has taken to calling them) taking down their dad. A post reading ‘Logan Roy your days are numbered’ got 30k likes.
Haven’t the actors let anything slip?
Alexander Skarsgård (who plays tech mogul Lukas Matsson) will say only that fans will be ‘very shocked’ by the ending.
Surely Brian Cox has spoken.
‘Everybody’s curious and I just tell them to mind their own f**king business… Audiences… you just have to treat them like children. Don’t give them too much.’
Definitely no chance of a season five, then?
Not as far as we know but there’s been a lot of ‘spin-off’ chat.
A TWITTER POST READING ‘LOGAN ROY YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED’ GOT 30K LIKES
Who might that involve?
By the start of this season, Logan’s only remaining confidantes were his bodyguard Colin and his ‘friend, assistant and adviser’ Kerry.
A spin-off series for the ‘help’; what might that be like?
Anybody’s guess, but the clothes would definitely be good. Like we said, power dressing is for assistants.