The trailer for the third season of “Succession” was unveiled yesterday. It is set to premiere October 17th on HBO.
Has there been a better, more thoroughly entertaining TV show these last five years? I went thought a slew of worthy titles (“Barry,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Leftovers,” “Atlanta”) and the concluding answer seems to be NO. “Succession” is the current best show on TV, a comedic and dramatic amalgam of 21st-century truth serum.
The last season of was an immaculate display of Shakespearean chutzpah on the part of its creators. It’s not as if the previous season of episodes wasn’t also brilliant drama, but the 10 hours we witnessed during the last season played out like a game of masterful chess.
An air of deception loomed vast and wide during the second season, as the Roy family, a clan of clandestine one-percenters, had to maneuver around issues that managed to feel both relatable and completely distanced from a country slowly losing its grip on reality.
McKay delivered individualized episodes, heavily relying on confined spaces, each building upon the show’s myth-making of greed and deceit. And yet, like the very best of The Bard’s genius, every character was given his and her time to shine.
As offended as we seem to be about the 1% in this country, what “Succession” proved, once again, was our unadorned obsession with the wealthy. The inevitable Shakespearean duel, between father and son, was preceded by a perfectly-written dinner table showdown where family, associates, bigwigs gathered as they pointed the finger at each other’s weaknesses and made the case for who should or shouldn’t be the “blood sacrifice.”