The first thing I want to say is that this is only a review of the first season, I haven’t seen the rest yet, and I don’t think I’m going to do any more reviews on this series, because I don’t consider it necessary.
Ok, from the first moment this series caught my attention and I put it on my list, the plot and the cast seemed fascinating, and the HBO seal is a guarantee of the highest quality, I don’t think I have seen an HBO series that I didn’t like, The Sopranos, Rome, Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, Westworld, all have been great shows with the highest technical level, however, something I always do with series is to let time pass, because I tend to lose the intensity between the end of one season and the beginning of another, also now I try to avoid series that are subsequently canceled, unnecessarily extended, or those in which production problems ruin the continuity or the end.
Now, a few years later it seems that Succession has cemented itself as one of the best series out there, and has even been included among the ten best series of the 21st century according to a very questionable BBC list, so I decided to start watching the series.
Watching the first season of Succession I found something better than I expected, I thought I would see something like House of Cards, almost exclusively drama, but I found an excellent and modern tragicomedy. I thought the series would be about a power struggle between very capable, intelligent, competent characters stabbing each other in the back, but I found a series of characters who are like spoiled children, very ambitious, but overprotected, immature, frustrated, and with disoriented lives that in one way or another revolves around their dying father, a powerful businessman who refuses to retire.
The choice of cast hit the nail on the head for each character, the performances of Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun, Kieran Culkin and Alan Ruck are very good, and the rest also do very well in their supporting roles.
Each of the characters in the series and the dynamic between them, both dramatically and humorously, is great. They all have their morally questionable side and their side...stupid? naive? immature? I don’t know, but the important thing is that they are ambiguous.
The man responsible for the series is Jesse Armstrong, who despite having a relatively large filmography as a director and writer, I only knew of his work as a screenwriter on The Entire History of You, an episode of Black Mirror, one of the best of the entire series, and I think he has done an incredible job here.
Something I loved about the series was also its soundtrack, especially its main theme, composed by Nicholas Britell, a slightly nostalgic theme, calm and dramatic, and that reminds me of lo-fi music, and that works very well to enhance the tragic side of the story, but without being too dramatic, keeping some strength and intensity for the climax moments.
Perhaps the only element I didn’t like in the series is the zooming, which I found particularly excessive in the first episodes. I hope that in the rest of the seasons its use will be reduced.
In conclusion, Succession is an excellent series, which oscillates very well between drama and comedy, and has very solid performances.
A psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright.
A romantic musical directed by Amien Chazelle.