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A SUPER EDITOR’S CHOICE
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Succession is originally inspired by the Murdoch family, but the truth is the series is more than about the Murdochs, there’s full of secrets about the top rich elites more than just one zillionaire family.
For example, Logan was seriously ill and hospitalized, and the plot of concealing the real situation from the outside world in order to keep the company's stock price came from Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom. In 2016, Redstone suddenly stepped down from the position of executive chairman of the group. The outside world has different opinions, and rumours about Redstone's serious illness are rampant. But Viacom kept Redstone's health a secret. In addition to Redstone himself, his daughter Shari Redstone is also Logan's favourite daughter in Succession. Yes, Shari is the prototype of Siobhan who turned against Logan in the end.
Kendall's vote of no confidence in his father was based on Disney's famous "coup d'état" in 2004. In that board meeting, major shareholders, including Walter Disney’s nephew Roy Disney, impeached Michael Eisner, who had been Disney’s CEO for 20 years and made him lose the chairmanship.
There are countless real cases like this in Succession.
For all its famous helicopter rides, million-dollar checks to show off its wealth, and high-level secret parties that no one knows about, Succession is not just a funny show that simulates the real events of the rich family. The core of the episode's focus is still something more real and deeper.
When we cut into the plots from the perspective of the real world, we will gradually see the shape of Succession, it is neither the Murdoch family, nor the Redstone family, or the British royal family, what it finally presents is still what it created, the Roy Family with a thousand faces.
Surrounding Roy Family, it forms the core of Succession.
All the events in the play will eventually return to the family. Logan is seriously ill and the company's stock is in turmoil. The point is, brothers and sisters, it seems no one can lead others to handle the overall situation. The company owed huge debts, and the focus was not on financial strategy, but on the performance of the son in front of his father. The vote of no confidence in the board of directors is a game between the son and the father, followed by a whole episode of psychotherapy for family members.
So, Succession, to be precise, is both a rare and typical family melodrama.
It is rare because this kind of core theme is not common in other films and television works with business war as the shell. But in the same type of drama such as Billions (2016-), business war strategy is the top priority and the narrative focus of the whole plot. It is typical because family melodrama is really a type of drama that we are all familiar with.
The nice thing about Succession is that you can think of it as a different version of Game of Thrones.
All the characters are not friends with each other, but they are not completely enemies, and they are not completely relatives.
The so-called family has been torn between the centrifugal force of disintegration and the cohesive force of blood ties. Whether it's the elder Logan Roy, the successor Kendall, or the younger brother Roman, all the characters suffer from this extremely dramatic tension.
For example, Logan, on the one hand, regards his children as a bargaining chip in the distribution of his own interests, and on the other hand, he tries his best to be a good father. As for Kendall, he wants to be a son who makes his father proud, so that he can continue to please his father, but he has to declare war on his father for his own interests (or the interests of the family). Another example is Siobhan, who is the precious daughter in front of his father on the one hand, but on the other hand, is trying to bring down his family business.
It is very subtle that almost every episode also has such a family gathering and dispersal design structure to reflect the above content. This form of meeting and dispersing often starts with a gathering involving some or all of Logan Roy, Connor Roy, Kendall Roy, Roman Roy and Siobhan Roy, but in the end, everyone lefts.
Episode 1 is about Logan's birthday party; Episode 2 is about Roy's serious illness and family members gathering outside the ward; Episode 4 is the Waystar RoyCo's annual dinner hosted by family members; Episode 5 is the Thanksgiving family dinner; Episode 7 is the family Healing; Episode 8 is the male member's bachelor party; Episodes 9 and 10 are Siobhan's wedding.
At first, the family got together, and in the end, the party ended badly - either in a bleak or chaotic way.
If you are familiar with the routines of wealthy dramas, Succession is more worth watching, because it shows how to tell the real story of wealthy families without the grievances of the previous generation, the unimaginable marriages of wealthy families, and the strange love.
Of course, wealthy families are not just about the wealthy. As we all know, the entire Western civilized society is built on the rich and famous. In the Middle Ages, the royal family intermarried. The King of England was the uncle of the King of France, and the Kaiser was the cousin of the King of France. Modern society is the intricacies behind the giants.
As early as 1942, the famous director Orson Welles made a movie called The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), in that movie, he used Ambersons, a wealthy family, to refer to the end of the 19th century and the 20th century. Early America. Taking the road of the Ambersons family as an allusion to the development of the United States.
Orson Welles's more famous work is Citizen Kane (1941), which was earlier than The Magnificent Ambersons. Interestingly, Citizen Kane alludes to William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon at the time. Under Hearst's obstruction, Citizen Kane was almost blocked.
Going back to Succession and Roy Family, a more obvious reference is from Shakespeare’s play.
As I said before, Brian Cox, who played Logan Roy, was born in a stage play. His most famous role is King Lear in Shakespeare's four tragedies, King Lear.
In the play, King Lear, who is about to abdicate, divides the land between his hypocritical eldest daughter and second daughter, and then King Lear gets betrayed. The younger daughter Cordelia dies to save King Lear. The other two daughters eventually died in the power struggle, and the kingdom fell apart.
It is not difficult to see that King Lear's metaphor and even outline of the entire Succession are used. Of course, for Succession, this very unpredictable family battle has just begun. As the biographer Michael Wolff said, the collapse of a family often occurs within one generation.
If you enjoyed the series, stay tuned for my analysis of Succession Season 2. At the same time, when the Succession Season 1 reviews were released, it was also the time when the last season of the series is steamed on HBO Max. The final season has already received extremely high praise. Don’t miss it.
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Money, War and the “Murdochs”: ‘Succession’ Season 1 Review (1/2)
Caught in Scandal: ‘Succession’ Season 2 Review (1/2)
Caught in Scandal: ‘Succession’ Season 2 Review (2/2)
The Next Level of Excellence: ‘Succession’ Season 3 Review
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