Succession season 1 episode 10 review: Brilliant finale reminds us any atrocity can be hidden behind a crisp suit
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"I guess if we were planning to fuck your dad to death to make our fortune I might offer to actually do the fucking."
What might be described as a surly takeover of his father's media empire that Kendall Roy had been attempting thus far in season one of HBO and Sky Atlantic's Succession turned into a full-blown hostile one in its finale, and Kendall wasn't delighted about the prospect of telling his bellicose father about it.
Across the season, which has been more a study of a family and how money can make it buckle than an exploration of the new media landscape, Logan Roy's spawn have all displayed hereditary facets of his unique brand of evil, but it seems none of them quite have his special sauce, the smorgasbord of ruthless personality traits needed to be the new patriarch or matriarch of the Roy family.
Kendall's bullish final bid for the crown was set against the backdrop of Shiv's wedding, where the rest of her siblings were of course egotistically wrapped up with their own projects too, Roman botching a space launch ("Would it help if the missile was full of Muslim granola?" he asked his sister, trying to improve the optics of discussing work on her wedding day) while his brother Connor whimsically announced his plan to run for president. "Sounds like a fun project," his girlfriend dryly responded.
Succession is a razor-sharp show and one fascinated by the jaw-dropping fact that there is indeed actually a human being buried somewhere underneath the malevolent surfaces of the megalomaniac 1%.
Satirical shows about those in positions of great power often tend to depict their characters as bumbling idiots way out of their depth, but Succession offers something a little more authentic. Make no mistake, every single one of the Roys is smart, it's their souls that are well below average.
The main characters in the show have all been immediately engaging in a way I've not felt since FX's Atlanta, and none more so than Matthew Macfadyen's nasty yet somehow sympathetic Tom, who had a wonderful scene with his new wife Shiv (Sarah Snook) on their wedding night this week.
Shiv went there. She had the conversation so many couples have wanted to have but have been too scared to. The 'we love each other but maybe we need to sleep with and perhaps even cuddle other people occasionally and know that this is not necessarily a bad thing' one.
As she tried to pre-emptively steer them away from a married life she astutely described as "the boxset death march", she couldn't fight back tears; wanting to sell the alternative as effectively as she would a business pitch but aware that she doesn't even necessarily buy into it herself.
It was a beautifully written and acted scene amongst a slew of beautifully written and acted scenes, culminating in a Breaking Bad-esque climax to the episode that saw Kendall, desperate for a line, a bump - anything, accidentally run a car off the road and kill the waiter in the passenger seat who was going to help him score. Like Walter White he returned to the party as if nothing had happened, taking a bath and putting on a fresh designer suit. All better. Nothing happened. The gleaming, untarnishable facade of corporate America.
Though he tried to dance away his pain at the wedding reception, the death had reduced him to rubble, and Logan - who had cottoned on to Kendall's involvement in the waiter's death - agreed to protect him as long as his son dropped his plans for the hostile takeover.
Jeremy Strong has been fantastic in this lead role, incredibly stoic and detached, so it was quite impactful seeing Kendall break down in tears at the close, embraced by his father like a small child.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this first season, which could easily have been another Billions or House of Cards-type show, but that often unexpected Peep Show-esque humour that writer Jesse Armstrong brings to the table has kept things fresh, funny and different. I'll welcome the despicable Roys back in 2019, when a second season is expected to arrive.
Succession season one concluded on HBO in the US Sunday night and has just started in the UK on Sky Atlantic and through NOWTV.
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