Susan Granger’s review of “Succession – Season 4” (HBO Max)
After the shocking conclusion of Season 3, “Succession” has returned. The premiere of its fourth and final season hit a series viewership high as 2.3 million people, according to Nielsen. Season 4 consists of eight episodes, released weekly before the May 14th finale.
Ruthless Murdochian media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is preparing to sell Waystar RoyCo to Swedish tech tycoon Luklas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard), completely bypassing his grown children: rebellious Kendall (Jeremy Strong), savvy Siobbhan – a.k.a. Shiv – Shiv (Sarah Snook), provocative Roman (Kieran Culkin) and leech-like Connor (Alan Ruck). So the big question is: who will succeed Logan?
In addition to Logan’s ambitious offspring, there’s Shiv’s self-serving husband Tom Wamsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), hapless cousin Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), general counsel Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron), vice-chairman Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), and CFO Karl Muller (David Rasche), among others.
Furious at their constant sniping and distrust, Logan now refers to his duplicitous offspring as the Rats because they’re courting potential investors for a risky rival media start-up called The Hundred, which Kendall describes as “Substack meets MasterClass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker.”
Created by showrunner Jesse Armstrong as a satire of the vapidity and moral corruption of corporate America, the Machiavellian series is notorious for the Roy family’s ferocious favoritism, shifting loyalty, constant betrayals and duplicitous backstabbing.
Like Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” wily Logan relishes playing his progeny off one another. His dynamics have created a thoroughly dysfunctional family, as they vie for their pathological patriarch’s respect and love. Yet Logan wails, “Everything I try to do, people turn against me…I’m 100-feet tall. These people are pygmies.”
Plus, what’s endlessly intriguing is the depiction of the extravagant lifestyle of the uber-rich, including their impromptu helicopter rides, private jets, elaborate penthouses, palatial estates and ever-present sycophants.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10. “Succession – Season 4” is an entertaining 8 – with new episodes on Sundays, streaming on HBO Max.
