Have the very rich ever been so powerful?
Politicians come and go, but money has no term limits.
Dictators rise and fall, and never get invited to the Met Gala.
Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO
HBO’sSuccessionsets itself in the one-est percentile of this magnificent one percent.
Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is the family patriarch, a titan on the verge of retirement.
You think to yourself: Those poor continents.
Logan’s also losing it, a little.
Can’t blame an old man for that.
The premiere begins on Logan’s 80th birthday.
His children arrange themselves into familiar patterns of devoted ambition.
Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is next in line to execute the company, so he thinks.
He’ll say things like “My face is drowning in py!”
You think to yourself: Those poor ps.
Her full name is Siobhan, so I guess that’s one potential nickname?
In the premiere, Kendall learns he’snotnext in line to execute the company.
So whowilltake control of the company?
I’m tempted to say thatSuccessionis justArrested Developmentbut not funny.
Unfortunately, that already suddenly describesArrested Development.
ThinkDirty Sexy Money, without the first two parts.
The actors all got different memos.
Doleful Strong is in a morose social comedy, struggling through divorce and repressed addiction.
Cox is incongruously theatrical, full-fledged CEO Lear.
That’s a weirdly common vibe withSuccession, which struggles hard to blend snarkmonster laughlines with genuine woe-for-my-crazy-family pathos.
The show’s lineage suggests sharp comedy instincts.
Creator Jesse Armstrong worked on the great British politi-comThe Thick of It.
It feels like a fizzy half-hour sitcom got lost somewhere in Dramedy Forest.
The weird merger of satire and sensitivity results in an atonal misfire.
Attempts towards humor are just outright unfunny: “Ever hear of loyalty?”
“Wasn’t he one of the seven dwarfs?
Or a rapper in Wu Tang?”
There’s the regular schedule, familiar to anyGossip Girlviewer, of lavish parties and boozy family dinners.
You’re left with the feeling of a series willfully missing its own most interesting points.Grade: C
