Hit HBO series Succession concludes its third season tonight (December 13) with the penultimate episode certainly leaving us with plenty of questions (is Kendall Roy dead ?!) This is, of course, exactly why we love them.

Despite its international accolades, including Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series in 2019 and 2020, it seems the show – about a squillion-mogul mogul set to nominate a successor for his global media conglomerate – is quite controversial. For every person you meet who speaks lyrical lyrics SuccessionIt’s brilliant and “must watch” status, you’ll come across as many who say they couldn’t get in there and gave up after finding the first episodes very slow.

“I think I gave up because I started during the lockdown and had too many shows going,” says Nicola Laing. “But what will bring me back is when people say ‘character development is so good, you’ll end up liking them.’ I think that’s what I prefer to see on TV shows.

“I also gave up going to see Yellowstone instead which is basically the same except with cowboys and I loved it so I will definitely come back to Succession. “

The key to SuccessionThe call of is indeed strange because the characters are inherently terrible, and the idea of ​​a family treating each other with such gleeful cruelty is quite depressing to think about. Yet there is also something deeply appealing about the lives of the wealthy oppressed – and I say “oppressively” because the Roys are so wealthy that they derive no joy from the luxury their life offers them.

The camera’s work in the series is also divisive, with some praising its use of the observational style, with instant zooms and hand-held shots inspired by cinema-truth, while others criticized the deliberately shaking cinematography, claiming it gives them motion sickness. .

Then there’s the subject matter itself – the ever-made decision on who should take over from Logan Roy and in what direction they should steer Waystar RoyCo when they do. At surface level, Succession is just a show about many long, boring conversations about power, money, and mergers littered with legal and corporate code words the majority of us wouldn’t understand. The series also serves as an added reminder – like we need another one – that no matter how bad you are as a person, if you’re white and rich you can get away with anything. .

However, at its core, Succession is a story about relationships, and how damaging it can be if your early family relationships aren’t nurtured. One of the things that has personally captivated me from the start is trying to figure out why Logan’s kids don’t leave him on his own, use their powerful name to start their own business, then cash in just when he finally dies. Brian Cox, as Logan, is so adept at the way he portrays the Patriarch – giving compliments and approvals one minute and handing out his ‘fuck you’ trademark the next. It’s a roller coaster of manipulation and I’m one hundred percent here for it.

Breathtaking locations are another reason the series is so addicting. The Roys might not appreciate their superyacht in Croatia, the expansive estates of the Hamptons, or the majestic Italian villas, but we’re sure it is, even though it’s a way of life the majority of us will never experience. .

“I know that most people find Succession to be a little slow, but I was actually hooked from the start, ”says entertainment producer Basmah Qazi. “There was something about seeing how the richest 1% in the world live that fascinated me.

“The fact that they could just hop in a helicopter and travel across New York City was so far-fetched for an average person like me. Also, working in the media and knowing Rupert Murdoch, I found a lot of similarities between Logan Roy and the Australian media mogul.

The cast of the set is another compelling reason to keep watching, even if you’re worried it might seem slow, with figures including Australian Sarah Snook as Shiv, Keiran Culkin as Roman and Nicholas Braun as cousin Greg. And, of course, there’s Jeremy Strong, who plays lead protagonist Kendall Roy and won the Emmy for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2020 for the role. The actor recently revealed the extent of his acting process in an interview with The New Yorker, making readers (like me) think he’s a little pretentious and takes himself way too seriously. We are apparently wrong, as several celebrities then rushed to Strong’s defense saying that it was a pleasure to work with him and that his passion was inspiring, not psychotic.

No matter who is right, I thought the New Yorker The article was interesting because I really couldn’t tell if his co-stars liked him and took his methods with a grain of salt or found him an unbearable joke, just as Kendall’s siblings sometimes find him.

Many have asked the question “when does it get good?” And if it would be easy to say it’s good from the start, that would also be lazy. Succession, as a whole, is an empirically brilliant show, but some individual episodes definitely lag behind.

This is, I think, a stroke of genius in television production, and seems to embody SuccessionThe mission statement: to ensure that viewers feel as “in” the action as possible. It’s a show that doesn’t want you to watch objectively but knows most of us can’t begin to resonate with the kind of wealth and family dynamics on display. This is also the reason why the aforementioned camera work usually takes place between the action points of a scene, which not only allows the actors freedom of movement, but gives the viewer the true feeling of being one. steering wheel on the wall.

Pacing the individual episodes within each season so that some are almost weighed down by inertia is not a fault of the series but a deliberate and intelligent mechanism for us to feel what the Roys are feeling – annoyed by their surroundings and wondering when their cantankerous dad is finally going to kick the bucket so they maybe never have to sit down in a discussion about who should take over.

This apathy is as close to being obscenely rich and dangerously powerful as most of us ever will be, and it not only serves as a warning about the dangers of extreme privilege, but also the perfect reason to keep coming back. week after week.

The three seasons of Succession are now streaming on BINGE.

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