Succession is a show I truly believe should be at the very top of everyone’s TV watchlist. Filled with some of the coldest and most obscene insults ever heard on TV, every line sounds like it has come straight out of a modern-day Shakespeare adaptation. Forget those ‘Shakespeare’s insults’ mugs – I want to drink coffee while reading the words ‘You couldn’t get a job in a burger joint let alone a Fortune 500 without some nepotism’. I want to sip my nighttime cup of tea and fondly remember the scene in which the line ‘If my septum falls out, I’m gonna make you eat my septum’ was uttered. 

The premise of Succession is hard to describe accurately in a way that makes it sound as exciting as it really is, but the satirical comedy-drama is about a dysfunctional family who run one of the world’s biggest media conglomerates, at the head of which is the terrifying Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Season Two ended on a jaw-dropping moment, when Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) made the decision to publicly demolish his father Logan, revealing that the Waystar Royco CEO was, in fact, aware of the years of sexual abuse that took place on his company’s cruises. It may have seemed like the show peaked there and that it would be impossible for Succession to increase in quality, but Season Three has managed to maintain the same standard of greatness. Following the Roys as Kendall continues his attempt to take his father down, the latest season shows a TV drama at its absolute best: the stakes are higher than ever, and relationships are all beginning to crack and crumble, with Logan’s children still desperate for his approval and attention.

Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) is absolutely the standout character in Season Three. After agreeing to be the cruises scandal scapegoat in order to gain Logan’s admiration, he spends the majority of the season worrying about his inevitable prison sentence, but is constantly ignored by those around him. His wife, Shiv (Sarah Snook), actually tells him to stop talking about how terrified he is, painting an even clearer picture of their toxic and disintegrating relationship. Tom continues to bully Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), but this time his taunting is tinged with desperation and a pathetic sadness – it has been clear since the very first episode, when Logan gave away the expensive watch that was gifted to him, that Tom is not wanted within the Roy family, but this fact finally appears to become unavoidably obvious to the man himself in Season Three.

Watching Succession is sometimes like watching animals in a zoo, with the characters fighting for power and dominance in a way that appears to be almost primal. The show is underpinned by constant betrayals and lies, and everyone moves with great trepidation, fearing that they will be the next pawn to be discarded by the tyrannical and unfeeling Logan Roy. Family power dynamics and the after-effects of a damaged childhood are themes that prop up the entirety of Succession, and they pervade every single aspect of the Roys’ lives; Logan’s children are perpetually scrambling for any single tiny scrap of fatherly affection, while simultaneously pretending they do not need his validation, but they are not fooling anybody. The whole show is a disgusting game, one that the characters seem desperate to escape from, but only with Logan’s rare and priceless seal of approval.

Rating: 5/5

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