Succession Season 2 Review

Succession (2018-)

Rent Succession Season 2 on Amazon Video
Season 2 - 10 episodes (2019)
Created by: Jesse Armstrong
Starring: Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck
Rating: TV-MA
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Plot
Logan Roy and his four children control one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world. When the aging patriarch begins to step back from the company, the children contemplate what the future and company will hold for them.

Verdict
Season one soon become my favorite current series, and season two is just as good. The characters are wealthy, condescending, and ruthless. I waver between rooting for them to succeed and fail, but what really sets this apart is the writing. There is a lot of depth to these characters and so much of that derives not from what is said, but how they talk to each other and interact. So much characterization happens between the lines. The series certainly contains big events and dire deadlines, but it's the characters that drive the series.
Watch it.

Review
The first season was awesome. A child attempting to overthrow his father in a ploy to take over the business he built from the ground up is the hook, but the show revolves around Brian Cox as Logan Roy. His grown children still seek his affection, their personalities a result of growing up in a house under his strong rule. Everyone in Logan's orbit, personal or business, bends to his will for self preservation and advancement. The only one that doesn't seem to bend is his current wife Marcia. Anyone else that defies him doesn't get to stick around long.

This season Logan acknowledges he will step down as CEO, but he dangles the position in front of his children, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv as a carrot that you begin to suspect none can actually obtain.

Kendall is Logan's puppy for most of the season, nipping at his heels and doing everything he's told. Last season ended on a rough note for Kendall. Any independence he seemed to have vanished when papa Logan had to bail him out. That event crushed Kendall, and Logan seems to use it as a subtle weapon against his son.

Shiv is told the CEO position will be hers, but on Logan's time. Shiv overplays her hand, eager to prove her worth. That may have cost her the job. Shiv in that situation, and most of the characters, never quite know where they stand with Logan.

Roman.

Roman continues to be my favorite character, and increasingly is showing he may be more business savvy than he appears, or possibly exactly because of how he presents. Roman is averse to confrontation, resorting to sarcasm and cynicism to deal with emotions.

Kendall, Logan, Shiv.

The driving forces this season, in addition to the quest for CEO, are a potential buyout that could sway investors, an acquisition Logan wants to make because he must have everything, and misdeeds long covered up rising to the service and potentially tanking all of the aforementioned plot points.

The other side of this series is a wealthy family that looks down on everyone else despite their misdeeds, extreme dysfunction, and ignorance. The Roys treat everyone that isn't rich, and some that are, as less than.

At the beginning of the season Kendall is fragile. I don't feel bad for him because since he's rich he avoids any repercussions for misdeeds. The first episode also sets up one of Logan's many games when he asks people to nominate themselves for CEO. Logan is a bully. His children are evidence of that. They didn't become bullies, but they long for approval. Logan pits his children against each. Logan doesn't dehumanize just his children though. Anyone in his company is fair game. Exactly because Logan is rich and holds peoples' futures in his hands,  no one dares counter him.

Tom and Shiv.

Tom, Shiv's husband, is woefully ignorant. He's the head of news and doesn't seem to have a clue. While he's always good for comic relief, I'm not sure he has any appreciable skills. While the rest of the Roys are arrogant, Tom seems to be playing at it. It's not natural for him, and his execution is terrible.
Shiv doesn't seem to think much of him either. Multiple times she piles on when people are discounting Tom. It leaves me wondering why are they together. How Shiv views the relationship and how Tom sees it are very different. This season ends with their marriage in peril.

Episode five is a great episode. The Roys are trying to woo the Pierce family to sell their news entity. Logan wants it because he wants everything. Most of the episode takes place in one room and it is full of tension. The Pierces are as educated as the Roys are aloof. As soon as the episode ended I knew it was going to be one of the best of the season.

Rhea.

Holly Hunter plays Rhea, a member of the Pierce family working with Logan to make the buyout happen. Hunter doesn't' have a huge role, but she's really good in the time she has.
Logan seems to like Rhea and the Roy kids see competition that must be vanquished, Shiv especially.

The ninth episode brings the company's misdeeds to light, and in the final episode, someone must answer for that and Logan is making a spectacle out of who should be sacrificed. This is after we've witnessed the Roy family jeering a whistle blower. The Roy company treated people as less than human, but the concern is never what's moral just what will keep the stock shares high.

Just as I thought the final episode was wrapping up about as I expected, a character drops a bomb shell. I so wish there were more episodes. I can't wait to see the aftermath and what happens next season.

This show is fantastic. The characters are exquisite as we cheer and jeer horrible people that think their wealth makes them better than everyone else. Experience doesn't matter as money can buy you any job you want. The children are completely dependent on their father because of this. They have everything money can buy but they don't have any close relationships and they don't know how to function in the real world.