The show is setting itself up to be a major corporate political thriller, a House of Cards meets Billions, and with an intricate web of betrayal and corruption, anything can go in any direction.
By Sean David Hartman
With Showtime’s Billions winding down and the market for financial dramas heating up, HBO is joining the fray, teaming up with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, the filmmakers behind Funny or Die, Talladega Nights, and The Big Short, to weave you a tale of corporate politics and familial power struggles in Succession. Though riveting a story, Succession fails at giving us the same complex characters of her Showtime counterpart.
Succession tells the story of the Roy Family, led by Logan Roy, the senile 80-year-old media tycoon who serves as Chairman and CEO of Waystar Royco, a multinational media conglomerate that acts as a composite of both Disney and CNN.
Underneath Roy is his three children—Kendall Roy, the eldest son from Roy’s second marriage and heir presumptive; Roman Roy, the more rambunctious bad boy (played by Macauley Culkin’s brother Kieran); and Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, the soft-spoken yet equally tough favorite daughter.
With the elder Roy in failing health, the groomed heir Kendall is ready in the wings to take on the mantle. But everything changes when the elder Roy defies the advice of medical experts and puts the conglomerate in disarray with the announcement that he will continue as head of the company, despite dealing with a multitude of health issues.
Maneuvering the family rivalry, Logan seeks to divide his children, making new promises, changing the business structure, and consolidating power as his health and mental sanity continues to decline.
Joining the Roy Family is an unfamiliar great nephew, Greg Hirsch, a cannabis-consuming deadbeat just off his termination as a Waystar Royco theme park mascot, being sent by his family to Logan’s 80th birthday to find employment in the family-run company.
The show is setting itself up to be a major corporate political thriller, a House of Cards meets Billions, and with an intricate web of betrayal and corruption, anything can go in any direction.
While Succession sets the stage for gripping drama, it does not set the characters up well. The Roy Family plays the cliched bad billionaires, living in opulence, demanding more than others, flaunting their greatness and presenting strength and power. But there is no character development. The family are portrayed as bland archetypes with predictable futures.
It will be interesting to see where this story is going, and I anticipate a wild and complicated adventure. But to state that this story will be anything like other corporate dramas like Billions, you may be sorely disappointed at the mediocre character development, which could set it up for failure.
Maybe invest your time in other ventures.
Sean David Hartman is a freelance reporter for the Central Florida Post, with a wide portfolio ranging from entertainment to politics. He is a centrist political operative and blogger and a student at UCF. Hartman is autistic and bipolar, and supports the neurodiversity movement.
