The TV family drama, once a soap opera template that spawned a thousand episodes, has come of age in the post-digital world. Troubled childhood impacting adult lives ( Ray Donovan ), the black sheep putting lives of his near-and-dear ones in peril ( Bloodline ), the household that controls the fate of a nation ( Tyrant ) - family sagas now walk a tightrope between fraying relationships and darker themes.
The newest entrant to this dysfunctional-relatives-out-to-get-one-another genre is HBO’s Succession , about one of America’s richest business families, the Roys, choking under the stronghold of a ruthless patriarch. Brian Cox plays a Rupert Murdoch-styled media mogul, Logan Roy, who refuses to entrust his children with the family business after earning octogenarian status. The show begins with Logan turning 80, and changing his mind about ceding the CEO position to Kendall, the only offspring who seems worthy of succession.
Adam McKay ( The Big Short ) directs one of the year’s best pilots, setting the tone with an episode that’s tightly-knit, tense and firing-on-all-cylinders from the get-go. Kendall is in the middle of an acquisition that could accelerate his ascent to the throne even as he’s forced to look over his shoulders, lest his own father snatch away his shot at glory. His siblings Roman and Shiv, and step-brother Connor, have their own idiosyncrasies, each of them hungry for their father’s ever-wavering attention.
Two other members of the extended family, Shiv’s fiancee Tom, and cousin Greg, compete for oddball status.
Creator Jesse Armstrong gives you characters that are, at once, fascinating as they are spite-inducing, each of them using their clout to clamp down on less fortunate entities. A particularly uncomfortable moment in the first episode has Roman enticing the gardener’s kid with the possibility of winning a million dollars if he hits a home run in a game of baseball. Roman nonchalantly snatches the bat from the young boy at the end of the challenge, tearing the cheque into pieces and walking away.
Privilege doesn’t necessarily make you empathetic, and the Roys are a particularly merciless bunch. There is really no character worth rooting for here; only those you hate less. Kendall is the one who comes nearest to ‘protagonist’ tag, and actor Jeremy Strong brings a mix of naked ambition and desperate vulnerability to a character you can never decide is worthy of being rooted for or not.
After starting on a strong note (the brilliant second episode is set entirely in the confines of a hospital over a single night), Succession meanders for a bit, with greater emphasis on business dealings and Machiavellian one-upmanship. The show, however, settles into a comfortable rhythm around the midway mark, when relationships begin to unravel. Each episode in the latter half of the 10-part season is underlined with a sense of breathless urgency, and intrigue.
A special mention about the Nicholas Brittel-created theme song, which you can use as an imaginary background score while inventing schemes to outmanoeuvre rivals in the real world.
The first season of Succession is now available for streaming on Hotstar
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