Succession S3 - The Modern Game Of Thrones
Power, politics, money...it's all in the family in this provocative, funny series about a highly dysfunctional dynasty. When Logan Roy (Brian Cox), CEO of one of the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerates, considers retirement, each of his four grown children follows a personal agenda that doesn't always sync with those of their siblings--or of their father. Succession is an HBO original that provides an inner look at a wealthy family in America and the family dynamics within that wealthy family. It does a very good job showing character development as the audience is exposed to each angle of the difficulties of succession planning within a large corporation and the difficulties entailed in such a process, especially when family members are involved.
NPR’s coverage of season three explains that the season was about Kendall starting off with grand hopes of leading a coup against his father, losing hope to the point where he nearly died, and only then finding the support that he had wanted so badly. This weird triumph of sorts is the season's story, even though Kendall lost to his father, for now, in the closing minutes.
A scene from the family’s hunting trip in eastern Europe (filmed at Oheka Castle on Long Island).
Leading up to the last episode, the third season was certainly Machiavellian as the siblings increasingly vied against each other for power and a leg up. The 3rd season leaves the family in a unique position, while the first two seasons are a game of thrones of the siblings trying to take over leadership of the company, in the third season their father instead pursues having the business get acquired and retiring as opposed to offering up the company on a silver platter to one of his children. They confront their father and implore him to stop the sale and, when that fails, threaten to override the move themselves. But it all falls apart when they find out that their mother had already agreed to cooperate with their father, in exchange for a lovely London flat for her new husband, to whom she was married that very day, an event her children abandoned to plot their coup. Their mother was a key asset needed in a bid to change the path of the company and their strategy of using her was exposed to their father by the daughter’s husband Tom.
Logan Roy looking off to the side in his office.
Entertainment weekly, in an interview with Sarah Nook who plays the daughter, Shiv, asked her about the ending in which Tom betrayed the siblings asking if she thought Shiv understood how this was the result of her mistreating him: Not in that moment. I think if anything, retrospectively, she may come to that conclusion. And who knows? Knowing Shiv, she probably will compartmentalize it and not accept any accountability, much the same as Logan does. But yeah, I think in that moment, she's not like, "Oh, wow, this is my fault. I've got a real come to Jesus moment." It's probably more just like, "I can't believe my husband did the dirty on me. I've got nowhere to turn now. My mom's abandoned me. My dad's been revealed to be the devil, and my husband has signed a pact with him. So I've got nowhere to turn. And really, will I run to my brothers?" That doesn't seem [likely]. She's got a lot of soul-searching to do, I think, in the next season. Where's the safest port?
James, Rupert, and Lachlan Murdoch pictured together in 2016.
In terms of real world similarities, various publishers say the Roy family has a lot of parallels to rich American and British families that run multinational conglomerates with the Murdoch family being the closest in resemblance.
Town and Country did an article on the real life families behind the inspiration for the show saying how both families have an aging patriarch who has stayed at his company well past standard retirement age (Murdoch, 90, stepped back into the role of chairman of Fox News after the late Roger Ailes's ouster and now serves as chairman of Fox Corporation). James Murdoch, 48, was the CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019, and his 50-year-0ld brother, Lachlan, is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, co-chairman of News Corp, and executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation. Their older sisters, Elisabeth and Prudence, are also media executives in the United Kingdom and Australia, respectively.
The show is almost fantastical with the amount of wealth and resources the family and production team of the show have to throw around and use to create a very tangible portrait of wealthy global elites. The children, without the need to sustain themselves financially or dedicate time to working on, or building their own businesses (which none of them have done on their own surprisingly), all of their schedules are free to pursue control of their family’s company by backstabbing, double-crossing, lying, manipulating, and scheming to take advantage of each other and also dethrone their father, who against all odds, always seems to win against them. The show plays like a modern century “Game of Thrones” in 2021 (just without as much blood and death, although there is a little).
HBO confirmed that Succession would return for a fourth season. The network made the announcement in October 2021, near the start of the show’s third season. Inverse reports that there is currently no official release date for Succession Season 4 but that based on the release date timing of the first two seasons, it’s likely HBO will either release the fourth season near the end of 2022 or in early 2023.
