So I just finished the last season of Succession which although a bit slow at times is something I consider to be one of the best drama series I have ever seen. In the end though and looking back, I can see there are some rather large flaws with this show and they all kind of started to begin towards the end of season 3.
Just like I said in the title, there are huge spoilers in this, one of which will kind of ruin the series for you if you haven't seen it... therefore
Turn back NOW if you don't want spoilers!!!
Succession isn't going to be for everyone, I realize that now. It can at times move extremely slowly and there isn't a great deal of physical action that ever happens. This isn't an action series so that is understandable. I can only imagine how incredibly difficult it must be to put together a dialogue-driven show whose characters have to be impeccable, because the only other offering that the show possibly has is to show extreme opulence, which is fun but also incredibly expensive to film before we even start talking about the salaries of the actors in question.
In the end of Season 3 and for almost all of Season 4 I think that Succession was running out of ideas and kind of threw the final season together in a not so perfect way. I admire the producers and writers for walking away from the show and having it end all the way because as far as viewers are concerned, the show was continually increasing in viewership. They made a creative, not a business-oriented, decision to axe the show. The probably could have milked another season or two but decided not to. Kudos to Will Ferrell and the others for cutting it short even though it was more popular than ever.
In season 4 we see the Roy family go through, unfortunately, kind of the same thing that they were going through for season 2 and 3 and to me, that was kind of lame. It was still entertaining but this is largely due to the performances of their incredibly talented cast. I liked all of them but have to really hand it to two people in particular, Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen.
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They are the people on both sides of the woman. Kieran is the person who looks almost exactly like his very famous brother, Home Alone Macauley
The dialogue is wonderful in season 4 but the problem is that we are kind of running around in circles in this season. The same rivalries exist between certain family members and just like in all the seasons that came before the big problem that the family faces is that they are in danger of being taken over by some other company. I think, for me, it would have been a much more entertaining angle if they had instead addressed the fact that legacy media or just TV and print media in general was taking a massive hit, losing tons of money, and being crushed by tech. They touch base on this but then don't really talk about it in full detail. Sure, the person who is mainly behind the attempted takeover in season 4 actually IS a tech guy, but they don't really address the failures of traditional media as well as I would have liked to have seen them do. Perhaps they are not ALLOWED to do this because actual real-life traditional media would take great offense to this.
The next issue is the one I have the largest problem with and this is a MASSIVE SPOILER so I hope you heeded my 3 warnings up to this point.
Logan Roy is the most compelling character in the first 3 seasons. I don't think many people would argue with that idea. His manipulation of everyone including his own family members was something that was just amazing to see. There are a ton of ways that they could have continued to integrate him into the story in season 4 but instead they rather unceremoniously killed him off. They didn't even do it on screen either. We just hear about it over the phone.
To me, this occurrence was a bit more devious towards the audience than just wanting to do something nobody was expecting early on in the season. This situation of his death allowed them to fill up the next 3 episodes with something that really doesn't have much bearing on the overall story of how the family business is in constant turmoil. I thought it was a time-sink because the writers are basically out of ideas and well, since they basically told the same story 4 seasons in a row it is I guess understandable why that might be the case.
The emotional reaction to his death was good to see because it gave us something else to focus on but in the end they drug it out way too long and even the awesome performance of Kieran Culkin couldn't get past this.
Last but certainly not least, I didn't care for the bait and switch in the last episode. The siblings seem to come to an understanding with one another at their mother's house and have a bonding moment first on the beach and then in the kitchen where they are doing a rite of passage to crown Kendal the new CEO and "king" of the family, which has been his objective since the very first season. We seemed to have finally achieved acceptance and the family bond had taken over this group who had always been at one another's throats for 39 episodes.
Everything about this sequence was nice to see and the small details such as Roman wearing child-like clothing kind of returned us to the children's roots and made them stop being so serious for a little while. This was the perfect moment for me because the three's constant bickering was kind of getting old and predictable after nearly 40 hours of seeing such a thing pop up time and time again.
Then just 14 minutes later they totally turn on one another again.
I don't know why they decided to do this or if it was even planned. To me it seemed like last-minute writing as they attempted to end on a shocking note with one last twist. This resulted in an ending that saw the 3 siblings return to their hatred for one another and sees Ken as a completely broken man.
I didn't like the ending and think it could have been done better but well, I guess other people's opinions about this will not necessarily agree with me.
What did you think? Did you like the way it ended? Did you even like season 4 at all?