SPOILER ALERT!
Who said a TV Show with all the diversity of your average Trump rally in an open carry State couldn’t rate it’s arse off?
In a media landscape of multicultural multiverses and monthly claims of cultural appropriation every time someone not white appears in a Star Wars franchise or Disney Mermaid remake, it’s almost old fashioned for a modern production to have so many white people on screen at once.
It’s like a Seinfeld/Friends mash up.
Succession was a greek tragedy of American proportions. Dynastic capitalism and its brilliant examination of power and culture and patriarchy and family and love and power and power and power.
As the American Empire Darkens and the drum beat of war rumbles on the fraying edges of its outposts, an emotionally traumatised family of 4 siblings forever competing for the respect of their brutish Father was an examination of modern masculinity, toxic masculinity and full testosterone masculinity with a performance by Brian Cox as Logan Roy that manages to encapsulate the full bastard prick power of trans national billionaire class Capitalism where Gods are made and broken with the flick of a Boardroom vote.
The Machiavellian machinations of these deeply damaged characters is TV at its best and most emotionally intimate.
The ultimate downfall of modern masculinity in the form of a defeated Kendall and the looming alcoholic self destruction of Roman alongside the failed first son who is married to a prostitute who despises him all encapsulate the terminal decline of western masculinity in the shadow of an angry God like Logan Roy.
Watching Shiv prison shank her own brothers for a lifetime of being forced into their shadow because they are the ‘boys’ is a journey into the culture of failed feminism where her personal pain eclipses any loyalty and she locks herself into a loveless marriage with her Beta Cuck Husband Tom who only wins because of his acquiescence to the new power block.
Succession is a glorious romp of the damaged personalities warped by absolute power. They are a collection of sad, ruthless and desperately lonely human beings who embody the pitiless cruelty of Capitalism that they all so slavishly worship.
5 Stars
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Yay America. They’ll always have Hollywood, on the way down. I flicked passed this show because it’s such a worn out genre.
For entertainment value check out the power plays in the comedy series Black Monday. Aussy flick series Wentworth has some good power dynamics too.
More of that please!
currently astrid et raphelle and the great…waiting for the new series of babylon berlin to drop with subs
Babylon Berlin – fantastic show
A good review of this show.
Cheap shot at capitalism. But that is OK. Capitalism with all its flaws is remarkably resilient.
Socialism on the other hand is strangely fragile!
a well acted, well scripted, with decent production values so maybe not such a cheap shot huh johan…I always saw it as anti murdoch rather than anti capitalist
Suck–cession!
First two series were must watch, S03 faltered due to rinse and repeat plot lines. The little turds had multiple chances to dump daddy, but he had so intimidated them and ruined their emotional ability to the extent that they could not go through with it. He had to do for them in the end by keeling over due to lack of compression clothing on an air flight!
Watched S04 to see who got theirs really. No need to watch any more “rich guys have it so tough” shows–Fox News and Twitter travails are more interesting.