Shiv’s response: “Sure.” In a show where no one means what they say, and everyone shouts about everything, their silent hand holding said the most. After a long overdue, fraught conversation about their separation, they decide to move on. The premiere ends on two highs, provided by a pair of quieter emotional notes. With an ending in sight, it’s a neat suggestion of closure, if not one that rings especially true just yet. It’s not a total pivot to frame them as the most stupid beings alive, and it’s certainly what the writers have decided to do. Kendall is a delusional loose cannon, Shiv is at least 25% less intelligent than she believes herself to be, Roman sends dick pics to his dad. This generation of Roys has always been inept. There’s a certain pleasure in screwing their dad over (successfully, for once), but have they recklessly overpaid – to borrow Roman’s parlance, an old lady for her newspapers? It seems like their pride and paternal resentment will be their downfall. It’s not clear as yet just how much of a Pyrrhic victory this is. There is a lot of back and forth, but the Pierces eventually go for the offer of 10 (billion, that is). Kendall’s assertion that they won’t screw her brands like Logan helps, but money is the real sweetener. At first, she thanks the kids for flying out, but says she already has a buyer. Nan is an astute creation we don’t see any of the overt beastliness of Logan, but she’s still hungry, and willing to manipulate everyone around her. They fly out to meet the Pierces, and encounter some mind games with matriarch Nan (Cherry Jones) in a home which is perfectly casual and likely costs thousands to maintain. None of the Roy children have the vision to create anything truly new, but they can recognise the prestige. Taking over a media company with an established legacy seems like a safer bet, at least to Shiv and Kendall. Shiv heard from the now-estranged Tom (Matthew MacFadyen) because he had drinks with Naomi Pierce (a wonderful Annabelle Dexter-Jones) who is now Kendall’s ex. Logan, in the middle of his sad birthday party, is hoping to close in on a deal, one that was raised and thwarted in the second season. Making jokes about new media, and those who brand and back new media, is shooting-fish-in-a-barrel easy, but it doesn’t really matter because soon they pivot to another lead: the acquisition of PGM, the media empire owned by the frosty, WASPy Pierces. Kendall describes it as “Substack meets Masterclass meets The Economist meets The New Yorker” (perhaps the least appealing assemblage of descriptors ever). We open, mid-brainstorm, as they argue about their new media venture, perfectly named The Hundred. After last season’s failed attempt to oust their father from Waystar Royco, the children are scrambling. Succession kicks off this season, its main, murky divide between Logan and his children, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook). And if you’re into it, it’s a pretty good summary of this show’s main vibe: all the characters exert their power over one another to form a shifting, vicious market. If you’ve made it to Season 4 – Season 3’s finale attracted a record-high of 1.7 million viewers in the US – then chances are you’re into it. It’s also a good test for how much Succession you can take: you either love these fanciful diversions, or you don’t. I’m not sure he always believes what he says, but he sure as hell makes everyone else believe it. It is a classic Logan Roy ramble: a little highfalutin, and you could probably poke holes in it, but it makes sense, because Logan has conviction. He is 100ft tall, other people are pygmies. They are economic units, according to the media founder, as beleaguered as he is indefatigable. “What are people?” Logan Roy (Brian Cox) asks his bodyguard, Colin, late night at a restaurant, halfway through the first episode of Succession’s new and final season.
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