How WILL we cope without our Succession obsession? MAUREEN CALLAHAN's finale ... trends now
Now that was a serious finale for serious people.
The final episode of ‘Succession’ will go down as one of the greatest endings to the greatest series of our era – one that guided us to a truly Shakespearean conclusion.
‘The show is against bulls**t,’ creator Jesse Armstrong said in an interview in February.
How fitting, then, that the denouement of series 4, episode 10, saw the failed scion of a media empire – Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) – finally admit, of himself and his siblings: ‘We’re bulls**t.’
That was always the conceit, wasn’t it? The grasping, idiot children of Logan Roy, the imposing patriarch who most often told them to ‘f**k off,’ who pitted them against each other and promised favoritism, then fed from the trough of their self-abnegation — none of them had the smarts, the sophistication, the inner resources to succeed their great and terrible father.
‘I love you,’ he told them earlier this season. ‘But you’re not serious people.’
The final episode of ‘Succession’ will go down as one of the greatest endings to the greatest series of our era – one that guided us to a truly Shakespearean conclusion. (Pictured: Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy).
In the end, the grasping, idiot children of Logan Roy — none of them had the smarts, the sophistication, the inner resources to succeed their great and terrible father. (Pictured: Sarah Snook as Shiv Roy).
The denouement of series 4, episode 10, saw the failed scion of a media empire – Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin, pictured) – finally admit, of himself and his siblings: ‘We’re bulls**t.’
That line was the thesis statement for the show, which reflected America circa now: The unthinkable rise of a demagogue, likely racist and xenophobic, to president of the United States, backed by Logan's right-wing news operation, putting profits above democracy.
The amorality and cynicism it takes to amass such wealth and power, let alone gain access to the rooms where such things are decided. The dismissiveness and carelessness of the one per cent, never to be touched by the violence and insurrections in their wake, embodied here by ‘parochial striver’ Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen).
Yes, for all the online theorizing about who would ‘win’ in the finale, it was hapless Tom who came out on top, happily allowing Waystar-buyer Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) to sensationally shun his own wife and make him CEO.
An unlikely end? Or should we have taken a clue from his last name, shared in common with the otherwise unremarkable major league baseball player Bill Wambsganss, who pulled off the only unassisted World Series triple play back in 1920.
As the season progressed, Tom's ambition came into sharp focus. He toggled between deference and defiance, skulking about after Logan's death with the mantra, ‘I'm here to serve’, and, once regaining his footing, confronting Shiv (Sarah Snook) over her hypocrisy: ‘I really, really, really love my money. If you think that’s shallow, why don’t you throw out all your stuff for love?’
Have we heard a better description of late-stage American capitalism?
And his ultimate triple play, of course: Taking out the sibling triumvirate of Kendall, Shiv and Roman to become Logan's named successor.
And it was made all the more vivid, by that blistering dialogue. Holy hell, could ‘Succession’ pull off the ugliest sentiments with verve and wit.
Indeed, here was Kendall’s vile, hilarious outburst at his own sister: ‘C*** is as c*** does.’
