Succession’s Shiv: the best character on TV right now
SUCCESSION, TV’S BLEAKEST dramameets-comedy-meets-tragedy, returns for its long-awaited third season this month. And while it’s full of selfish, spiteful snobs, we have to admit we’ve missed them.
The smash hit show, created by Jesse Armstrong, follows ruthless billionaire Logan Roy (Brian Cox), and his quartet of sad adult children: Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall ( Jeremy Strong ), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (played by Australian actor Sarah Snook). Neglected and bullied by their parents and now scrapping over the future of the family empire, they are four overgrown kids as dysfunctional as their father is powerful. But as the only daughter, and arguably the smartest of the lot, there’s something special about Shiv.
Audiences have fallen for Logan’s daughter so deeply that fan videos and adoring tweets were almost off-putting for Sarah when she finally returned to Shiv earlier this year, after a longer break thanks to the pandemic. ‘It felt like I’m doing an impersonation of a person who plays Shiv who turns out to be me,’ she said last month. ‘I was like, “Wait, I’m the person. I know.”’
Slipping back into character, Sarah takes on some extreme traits: Shiv is brutal. She’s the woman for the job when someone has to accost a sexual assault survivor at a children’s playground and persuade her not to testify in court. She’s the one who waits until her wedding night to mention to her new husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) that she wants an open marriage; actually, she’s already slept with one of their guests. On the other hand, she’s charismatic, clever and almost always composed – even if that’s just a defence mechanism honed by a miserable childhood. She carries her damage with so much panache, which is why audiences have fallen for her in their droves.
Her wardrobe helps her to be so deliciously superior, full of expensive tailoring in the kinds of delicate fabrics and colours that you can only get away with if you have a chauffeur. She glides around in high-waisted trousers and cashmere polo necks, delivering put-downs as sharp as an ice-pick. On getting a whiff of her brother’s cologne, she says charmingly, ‘What is that – Date Rape by Calvin Klein?’
Having worked for left-wing political candidates, Shiv also believes herself to be a better person than the other Roys – but when push comes to shove, she definitely isn’t. ‘She’s a very arrogant hypocrite,’ as Lucy Prebble, one of the show’s writers, told Grazia. ‘Some of the other characters are quite clown-like in their hypocrisy – she takes herself quite seriously. It’s really interesting her being the only daughter as well, and what that does to her psychology and her sense of specialness and the contempt that she has for her brothers.’
But just because she’s horrible doesn’t mean we don’t care about her. We see her vulnerability when her father plays with her feelings, offering her the top job at the company and then withdrawing it. And there’s also an alluring recklessness about her, a sense that she might be the most fun of them all. ‘I’d probably rather go for a drink with Shiv,’ says Lucy. ‘I think when Shiv actually lets her hair down, which is almost never because she’s so controlling, she absolutely loses her mind. So I suspect after six drinks, Shiv would be wild.’ After all, at heart she’s still the complicated kid who grew up in the most brutal family on TV – and like Tom, we can’t stop watching her.
Season 3 begins 18 October, 2am, Sky Atlantic; see Paul Flynn’s review, page 119