Succession (2018-2023) is the finest drama series of its decade. Jesse Armstrong's story of the Roy family — a media dynasty whose patriarch refuses to anoint a successor — is Shakespearean in ambition, savage in comedy, and devastating in emotional honesty. It is also, line by line, the funniest drama on television.
The Roy Family
Logan Roy (Brian Cox) built a global media empire while also being a bully, a narcissist, and a man so fundamentally incapable of love that his children have been damaged beyond repair by the attempt to earn it. Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is the designated heir — brilliant, fragile, addicted. Siobhan (Sarah Snook) is the political operator. Roman (Kieran Culkin) uses self-destruction as both armour and weapon. Their attempts to inherit an empire their father may never surrender drive the entire series.
Brian Cox: The Sun Everyone Orbits
Cox's Logan Roy is one of television's greatest creations. Irredeemably cruel and manipulative, but also comprehensible. You understand exactly why a man who clawed his way from poverty to a billion-dollar empire might find it impossible to trust anyone with what he built. Cox allows tiny glimpses of the person Logan might have been, which makes the monster more frightening.
Jeremy Strong: The Method and the Madness
Strong won the Emmy for Best Actor for his total immersion in Kendall Roy — the heir who cannot stop self-sabotaging, who wants his father's approval more than anything. His breakdown in the Season 2 finale, when Logan scapegoats him publicly, is almost unbearable to watch.
The Final Season and the Perfect Ending
The fourth season is as good as any final season in television history. Logan Roy's death in the third episode — unexpected, off-screen, handled by phone — is one of television's most formally correct moments. The final episode is one of the finest pieces of television ever made.
mnioszn Rating: 10 / 10
