Return of the despicable Roys and our fascination with the super-rich family
THE FABULOUSLY LOATHSOME family battles of Succession were introduced in 2018 by ailing, tempestuous patriarch Logan Roy sleepwalking in the middle of the night and urinating on the family carpet. In one perfectly considered scene, a template was set. Who, of Logan’s three awful sons, one reprehensible daughter and baleful, stoned nephew would get to mark the territory of the family media empire?
Succession is one of the few beneficiaries of the lockdown stagnation in TV production. The cliff-hanger at the end of season two (no spoilers for those yet to indulge) was a heavyweight. Absence only made the heart go stronger and anticipation for season three is at fever pitch. It is the ‘success’ buried in Succession’s title that secured the Roys’ position as a modern phenomenon. Half satire, half plausible scripted reality show, it skewers the superrich with a full hand of poisoned darts.
Succession began two years into both the presidency of Donald Trump and the marriage of Rupert Murdoch to Jerry Hall. The basic maths of money = sex + power seemed to be working out quite nicely for those old rotters. How quickly time shifts. In 2021, the lasting image of Trump’s tenure is a bunch of crackpots storming the White House in his name. Murdoch has lived a long enough life to watch his premiership slip to Mark Zuckerberg’s chaotic selfpublishing behemoth, Facebook. In the next few years, he will get to reap what he sowed in overseeing an empire that sidelined the climate catastrophe. Neither of their ends look pretty at this moment.
You get the feeling that Succession creator Jesse Armstrong was casting that shadow before the sun had even set on it, through the ridiculous figure of Logan Roy, a role that Brian Cox storms his way through. Armstrong’s scripts are acerbically funny, his narrative arc Shakespearean. But it’s the return of his despicable characters which fuels the anticipation for what happens next to the Roys. Shiv and her passive-aggressive eyebrows. Greg and his incompetence. Kendall and his multiple addiction issues. The underlying message has always been as clever as it is succinct. People in power have been laughing at you for long enough. It’s time to start laughing right back at them. Begins 18 October, 2am, Sky Atlantic