The Reason why ‘Succession’ is so addicting?
Quite frankly, i didn’t even know where to start. Should we start talking about the characters and their arc, the iconic catch-phrases, the cinematography, or how it can relate to most of us even though we never even touch a yacht in our life before. This series is a perfection and you might wondering “How?”.
We’ll begin with the arc of the character, which is probably the best thing of the series. I might not get into the detail, but let me say this — You got Logan Roy, a father, a billionaire, a legend, and a fucking douchebag. Then, Logan Roy have 4 children, Conor, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv. All of them had different kind of personas and different mindset. This shows highlights the irreversible damage that ripples across within every decision they make, how selfish decision made throughout not only harm but influence.
Every character here seems so unlikeable, they are careless, heartless, and wouldn’t even mind to slit anybody’s throat in any moment just for the sake of what they want. Ever heard about the phrase “To rise above you need to step on the others” yes, that’s what they’re actually doing in this series but keep in mind they are still a family. But that’s what makes it interesting, it is more than the usual family-drama series where in the end everybody just hugs themselves because they are family — Winning isn’t really a thing in this show, i believe ‘Winning’ isn’t even the end-goal for every each character, but ‘Prove’ is. Every Character from inside the family until the outside members like Gerri, Frank, Tom and Greg who i forgot to mention earlier seem to seek for an approval in every single season. We might have an another day to talk about Tom and Greg power dynamic and how they got involve to this disastrous family. Tom is basically Shiv’s husband meanwhile Greg is a long-distant cousin with Roy’s family.
In this case, you got the terms ‘Family’ as a mixed-up thing and every person had their own definition within the word. I’ll take an example, Logan Roy sees his family as product of himself — He keeps his family on a leash, in hopes that one day every person on the family could be a ‘Yes’ man/woman like every person in his surroundings. And that’s why it is so hard for a person like Tom who is filled with love and compassion, because this family just didn’t how to show or act with love itself. Shiv is a perfect embodiment of that thing, it’s my theory but i truly believe that she actually loves Tom as a lover. The thing is she just didn’t know how and what to do, she never experienced it before and never will be.
“I wonder if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.” is the lines that Tom said to Shiv on the last episode season 2. It was deep, it was shakespearean, and it was sincere. It felt different when a person who had a funny persona, jokes 24/7, and actually losing himself more and more throughout the season progresses. I’ve said it before you might ended up hating all of the character because of how unlikeable they are, but Tom is a different — he’s an outsider trying to fit in with this family, showing this family with full of love but ended up having the worst treatment simply neglected.
The cinematography shows us how the perfect depiction of their world. The wide shots actually refers to how big is the landscape for them but it’s just that, nothing else nothing more. Meanwhile when we’re getting into the characters everything just seems to be tight even tighter (with the crash zoom motion). For the people they might see as this family had everything, helicopter, private jet, yacht, you name it — But the fact that it’s never about how much is the money but its always about the power, the position, and the hierarchy. More or less the money is never an issue for them, it’s more than that. And every single time you’re watching it more, the more the questions pops-up like “Why would anybody wanted the spot?”.
Most of the time watching a self-centered and ego maniac could be debilitating, but not with Succession. This series makes you actually realised that money isn’t even the answer with all of the things in the world, a person like Kendall Roy could actually part in and make something new every single time he wanted to, Roman Roy have the resources to lives in Switzerland all by himself and still got the 5-star treatment every single day, Tom and Shiv could live happily ever after and leave the family out — Instead, they are regrouping with the reinforcement to joining the war.
Succession is a series that you probably didn’t even took a notice when we’re on a debate about which series is the best. Understandable perfectly, the show is a slow-burn series, filled with dialogues, it’s another family-drama series, and the poster and looks cheap. But why don’t you just give it a try for like 2 episodes and then we settle things out? The pilot actually drags you to their world immediately without even knowing the name of the character or who is who and which is which.
Oh and by the way if you’re going to watch Succession, take a shot every time the word “Fuck” has been thrown. You’ll be wasted. Oh wait i forgot to mention the theme song that are going to last for a couple of days on your head, Enjoy!