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We see every day how nobody can escape the society we live in, and even the top of the top aren't happy. Money makes your problems extreme without trying. A clear example of this is in Austerlitz (Season 1 Episode 7), how Kendall can keep on going and going with no limit because he will never run out of money for drugs. Personally, if I had more money right now I would spend it on drugs too. I spent $50 yesterday to get myself a weed pen when I could've saved that money and had $75 in my bank account instead of $25. Money stopped me, not myself. Kendall's wealth means he can order coke like Uber Eats and not even care how much it costs. Of course he's going to get into harder and harder shit because it's accessible to him, and he wants to escape. Kendall's life falls apart completely after the end of season 1. It does, but the world was built to support Kendall and doesn't let his life fall apart. He would've killed himself in Safe Room (Season 2 Episode 4) if he could've, but he physically can't. He's in a glass prison. His father enables his drug addiction too so it makes life bearable for a time. Logan and the world he created technically gives him a lot, but it traps him in an ever going cycle of abuse with very little freedom. Money makes you lose yourself. Even Logan, who thinks of himself as the largest pile of economic units, isn't capable of seeing who he really is. Maybe I shouldn't say even, because it makes sense that the most rich are the most lost-- ones that are slightly lower in the pyramid maintain scraps of identity, the ones they had before joining Waystar. Tom has always been stressed and subservient (maybe once it was kindness and compassion) and Greg has been an awkward creature his whole life. We see glimmers of identity in Kendall with his love of performing arts. I think these are moments where we get to see Kendall before he became Kendall Logan Roy-- creative, idealistic, and a little bit fulfilled. But because of the society his father created, the pressures of white supremacy, capitalism, and sexism were imposed upon him. As a child you have very little control in your life. If you're taught to not question that control you never will, until that control has proven to you that it is illegitimate or wrong. And maybe you don't want it to be shaken because you don't know who you are without that outside control. Kendall said he'd be broken when his father died, and we see that brokenness in Season 4. Watching his form of broken is like psychosis for the viewer because he becomes a totally different person. Kendall is gone, and he becomes KLR for a minute who replicates Logan's abuse and yells at his kids and leans hard into misogyny. This is a problem caused by money too, not just grief.
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What makes this show so interesting to me is not that it's about rich white people, but that it's a show written by privileged white people adored by privileged white people. What interests me is my own perspective, because I have a birds eye view of the system mediated by the system it's portraying. I get to absorb the message of Succession and see how true its message is in real time. The writers did an amazing job, and part of that success is due to them pulling from so many pieces of classical literature. It's Western canon shaped by Western canon; of course the present West is going to love it. It's over-glorified in our society but I do think it is quite good. That always seems to be the tension with combatting the West, doesn't it? That part of their "supremacy" comes from a valid claim of capability. Succession is a mirror of society. They are quite accurately portraying the lives of billionaires. I am absolutely not a billionaire, but I have had a peek at that society due to my mother's profession-- she was a classical ballet dancer trained in France. She toured the world as a dancer and as a teacher, which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. I've stayed in the homes of billionaires and dined with presidents of nations and Succession looks just like that world. As to the levels of personal abuse in the families of billionaires, I cannot be sure of its accuracy but I don't doubt it. Tyrants rule the world as they see fit and their world starts with their family. praise: an element of white supremacy Succession has won 155 awards and was nominated 303 times over the its five year run, including 19 Primetime Emmy Award wins and 75 nominations, 8 Critics Choice Awards, and 18 Golden Globes. To say Succession dominated the Western television world in the early 2020s would be an understatement. Their presence left little room for other television shows to shine and set the tone for what the performing arts and television world should aspire to. The shows nominated after it like The Bear, White Lotus, and Ted Lasso have that white dramedy essence. We live in a capitalist world, just like the Roys, where everything being produced is controlled. There are always influences at play.
Evaluating the cultural response to Succession tells us what this world values right now. Its popularity is overinflated, just like how the influence of the Roys are overinflated. It is evidence of white supremacy and capitalism and Western supremacy at work in our life today. But the internal message of Succession, as much as Jesse Armstrong could get out around pushback he faced, tells you to be critical of all of this. You should look at Succession’s over-glorification and realize there is a lot to condemn about the society we live in. Knowing the similarities between Succession’s world and our world, we can see what it means for Succession itself to be a product of a capitalist world. It reminds me of The Hunger Games movies. Our entertainment world got so focused on Team Gale or Team Peeta when the whole story was about Katniss and how horrible their society was. Hollywood raves over Succession but we should all be asking why, and see the answer reflected back to us. |