Review: Succession Season 3 on HBO

Satirical drama series

Point in time:

October 18, 2021

Description:

“Succession” still delivers high-level satire.

Channel:

HBO

«It is both entertaining and surprisingly painful to follow the perpetual round dance of the Roy family.»

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It no longer happens so often that TV series make me scream to the screen, but the shocking ending to last season of “Succession” fixed it smoothly. It was as radiantly good as it was vicious. Not least to us who watched, who have had to wait for almost two years to find out how the media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his dysfunctional asshole family are doing.

“Succession” is a satirical cross between Shakespeare’s tragedies and series such as “Billions” and “Exit”, with a touch of “The Office”.

This year’s season, however, is a notch more painful, more down and less shocking than the previous one, in which we will have to reveal a bit of the action before we move on.

So be aware if you have not yet seen season two.

Brutus against Caesar

The new season begins almost immediately after the sensational father murder of Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), the press conference’s response to Brutus’ dagger thrust. There, he accused the family company, including his father, of trying to cover up serious abuses and deaths on the company’s cruise ships.

But Caesar is resilient in 2021. A metoo scandal is not enough to get dad Roy to put in the years. And there are still many who want to keep him at the top instead of giving the leader jersey to Kendall. Kendall’s three siblings not least. The first half of the season is largely about how the two different camps consolidate against each other, while everyone scolds everyone and no one feels completely safe with anyone.

The FBI are game pieces, and not even presidents sit safely when this pack of wolves attacks each other. Along the way, they manage to thematize a number of the biggest changes and processes that are taking place both in the media industry and in society in general, from slightly different perspectives than we are used to. The satire in “Succession” often plays on the contrast between the near and the grandiose, and what absurd situations can arise when you are among the most powerful people in the world, and are still just, well, a human being.

Power and love

There are almost no limits to how inedible these people can behave, and yet manage to stay interesting. It would not have been possible without the small glimpses of humanity that appear from time to time, and which make even the strangest characters into personalities that can be lived in. Maybe extra much this season. Among the favorites are the opportunistic son-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), as well as the younger brother Roman (Kieran Culkin), with his distinctive sexual preferences. Absolutely everyone, possibly except the patriarch himself, struggles with inferiority complexes on one level or another, and they take it out in very different ways.

Not only is it blowing on the peaks, it’s pretty lonely too – especially for those seeking power as a substitute for love. One of the highlights of this season is the scene where Kendall collapses over the sea of ​​presents in his own nauseating lavish 40-year-old – because he does not find the one his kids are supposed to have made for him. Poor little rich boy.

Eternal round dance

It is both entertaining and surprisingly sad to follow the perpetual round dance of the Roy family. But just the round dance is starting to become a challenge for “Succession”. This time it is extra clear that we have not moved much since we started. It’s all still about who will take over after Logan Roy, and when. This is how one begins to doubt whether the patriarch will ever die (which, after all, appears to be a more likely outcome than that he will resign voluntarily).

The series barely comments on it itself, via one of the few remarks by Alexander Skarsgård, in a small guest role as an arrogant owner of a lucrative streaming service. Neither he nor Adrien Brody, who has been given a similar mini-role, will have room to add anything new to the series. That they are still on the cast, says a bit about what kind of status the series has received since the convincing second season.

“Succession” keeps the cook in the third round as well, but Waystar RoyCo must soon be able to get rid of Logan Roy – both for his own sake and for ours.

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