Succession

Finally, the end of the road. I have finished watching Series 4 of Succession, and I’m not sure I could ever put myself through that again. But it’s certainly been an exciting ride, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

For those who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, Succession is a US TV series (but with signficant Brit involvement so far as the writing is concerned) about a rich,powerful family - not a million miles, it’s rumoured, from the Murdoch clan. So immediately it has those seductive, ludicrously expensive trappings - luxurious settings, planes, helicopters, endless fleets of limos. The cost must have been eye-watering.

but whle it has that exotic “what must that be like?” appeak, it also has the “oh yes, I know about that” buzz of family and maried life. Children bullied by their father, but weeping at his funeral, really not at all sur of who they are, but haunted by the feling that thy’re meant to be a powerful success - despite clear, repeated evidence that none of them could hold down an important job by being competent and reliable. All the tone and trappings of power are they; they just aren’t any good. Quite how they’ve managed to make this distasteful spectacle funny, moving and full of suspense I’m not sure, but that’s what they’ve done.