SUCCESSION: SEASON 2

There’s one scene in the second season of Jesse Armstrong’s wry dissection of a super-rich, Murdoch-like mogul-clan which encapsulates its appeal. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) takes to the stage during a 50th anniversary party for his family’s world-cheapening media empire, and performs a rap song dedicated to his formidable father, Logan (Brian Cox). It’s an arse-puckering epitome-ofcringe moment, but, astonishingly, his performance is actually pretty good. To have Kendall die up there, or for the song to slapstickily dissolve into disaster, would be too easy. And Succession’s blackly comic genius is founded on its avoidance of easiness. Everything about it is difficult, in the best way possible, from the way it teases laughs from the darkest corners to the torturously twisted, character-forged paths each unpausable episode lures you down. Never have such a despicably privileged, sympathy-resistant bunch been so watchable. Or — honestly — likeable.

Death of Ivan Ilyich.