Streaming Pick – Succession

Your weekly streaming pick has arrived! Succession is an HBO original show. It follows a multimedia mogul family and all the Shakespearean level drama that goes along with that level of success. I try to veer away from HBO programming since it’s not a service everyone has, but between Watchmen and The Outsider grab a 30 day free trial and catch up!

Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is the head of a multimedia empire called Waystar Royco. They do all forms of traditional media. Newspaper, magazines, networks, etc. The head of the company and patriarch of the family Logan is set to step down. It’s expected that he will be naming his second son, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) as the successor.

Logan pulls a fast one on his family and the board and instead announces he’s not going anywhere.

The kids all get together and react in their own ways to the news, the company, and how they handle being something that feels like modern royalty. There’s constant backstabbing, plotting, and twists that make Succession a really fun watch.

Succession is an HBO original series.

The heavier moments are broken up by some great comedic moments. This isn’t laugh out loud slap your knee kind of stuff, that would feel out of place. Kiernan Culkin as Roman Roy is a damaged individual who hides in with snark… and excessive drug use. Matthew Macfadyen’s confused and outsider Tom is something of the audience’s point of view but becomes a bit less relatable as time goes on and excessive wealth gets to his head. The most level headed and possibly the most conniving of the Roy children is Shiv (Sarah Snook). Shiv has the added challenge of being a woman and ‘daddy’s little girl’ in this already insane world. The actress and character both rise to the occasion and become a fan favorite by the end of season 2.

The drama on the screen is enhanced by the way the show is shot. It’s hard to think that a show about rich people bickering on private jets, in board rooms, and in high rises that we can’t even afford to look at would be exciting. The camera work is very cinematic and it highlights the parts of their world it should while also lending something of a spying eye on how this level live.

There are not big effects and a couple story threads toe the line of day time soap without ever crossing over. This is a character piece and well written scripts written for well performing actors. Without many huge names on the cast the amount of talent on screen was a refreshing surprise.