Spoiler Warning – Massive spoilers for the first three seasons of Succession

Kendall Roy

The first season starts with Kendall being the designated successor to Logan, a bit of a business-bro but has spent years learning how to run the company and is the only one of the Roy children who seems capable of getting into figures, legal issues etc. Of course, Kendall has led two, maybe three, revolts against his father, on top of that Kendall has severe addiction and mental health issues. And, biggest of all, was involved in the death of a waiter in a car accident where he left the scene and hid his involvement.

Chances of winning – 50%

Capable of doing the job – 60%

Shiv Roy

Shiv Roy seemed to be Logan’s choice in Season 2, despite not working in the company and her liberal politics clashing with a lot of the company’s business interests. Shiv has essentially zero experience in business, previously working in politics. Shiv is clearly intelligent and at times can play the game very well – setting up a rival to take the fall for a scandal, convincing a witness to company crimes to back down. The negatives for Shiv are that she has no experience and angered her father, and like Kendall, perhaps lacks the killer instinct that Logan demands.

Chances of winning – 40%

Capable of doing the job – 50%

Roman Roy

By his own admission, Roman doesn’t get the business side of the business, seemingly with little time for the boring technicalities and instead seeing his role as some sort of CEO rock star, leaning on the far more experienced Gerri Kellman for that side of things. Roman is certainly charismatic and at one point is taken hostage in Turkey but manages to negotiate a huge deal which is pretty impressive. However, Roman is impulsive and rash, and seems unable to stop himself from saying – and doing – hugely offensive things. There is a petty cruelty to Roman not seen too much in the other siblings. In Season 3 when Roman seems in the ascendance his awfulness just gets more and more awful. Roman ended Season 3 mistaking sending a dick pic to his father – meant for Gerri – in the middle of an important meeting, which sums up Roman’s liabilities quite well.

Chance of winning – 70%,

Capable of doing the job – 20%

Chance of destroying the company in a firestorm of scandal – 90%

Connor Roy

Oh Connor, the eldest of Logan’s children and until the last few years was clear in his disinterest in the company. Shiv has zero business experience but Connor has zero experience. Connor decided in Season 1 to run for President, a truly terrible idea and has persisted with this delusion, believing himself to be some outsider candidate with a chance. It’s bizarre. Connor has also shown resentment at how he is left out of the company and family decisions, Kendall is often referred to as the first-born, despite Connor actually being the first-born. Connor has little to recommend him in way of business or intelligence but is perhaps the nicest of the siblings (whilst still having huge problems), he often tries to calm the others nastiness, advocating for civility, and seems to have genuine affection for his younger siblings.

Chance of winning – 5%,

Capable of doing the job – 25% – only scores higher than Roman as if Connor simply sat in a dark room doing nothing he might last longer than Roman.

Tom Wambsgams

Arguably the most fascinating character of the bunch – Tom is Shiv’s husband and there was a stated plan that Shiv would pursue politics and help push Tom into being the successor to Logan, not in the family, but married to the family. Tom has run various parts of the Roy business empire and was disliked by just about everyone but really made a leap forward for the prize in Season 3. Very early in the show a scandal was brewing in the cruise division and Tom helped destroy evidence that would harm the company as such in Season 3 it seemed likely he would go to prison. With this in mind, Tom offered to be the person who could be sacrificed to appease public opinion and the authorities, earning Logan’s gratitude. And of course in the Season 3 finale when Kendall, Roman and Shiv gang up against their father Tom betrays his wife and informs Logan of the plan. With Logan’s children seriously out of favour and Tom already one of the most senior people in the company it is perhaps within Tom’s grasp.

Chance of winning – 65%

Capable of doing the job – 65%

Greg Hirsch

Greg – Greg is a cousin of the main siblings, his grandfather being Logan’s brother, and shows up in episode 1 looking for a job, and somehow he gets it, essentially being Tom’s assistant. Greg clearly grew up wealth off but not in the ridiculous luxury of the Roys and is mocked by all of them. The bizarre relationship with Tom starts with Tom recognising someone with less status and so bullies him but at some point a genuine and strong – if conditional – friendship develops. On paper Greg has nothing going for him – little experience, a distant family connection that is also a liability (given Logan hates his brother) and no particular skills. But…Greg has went from being unemployed to someone a position at the company in a couple of years.

Chance of winning – 5%

Capable of doing the job – either 5% or 95%, is he a genius or an idiot?

The Winner…

So who to pick? In this exercise, Tom and Roman were rated the highest, but Roman is very much the high-risk could be brilliant but could also cause a rocket to explode (which he did in Season 1). Tom is the safer choice and that is who might be the most logical candidate. But. But there is Greg…who is a constant surprise.

Also Read: Iconic Scenes: Succession – “Boar On The Floor” & “Beach Scene”

Also Read: Succession: Season 3 – Where Are We Now?

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Boar On The Floor

This is one of the most intense and uncomfortable things I have ever watched. At a retreat comprising of the Roy family and the top people in Waystar RoyCo, Logan is determined to find out if there is a traitor in the group and to demonstrate his authority. Logan picks out three potential traitors – Karl, CFO of the company; Tom, his son-in-law; and Greg, his brother’s grandson and they play the “game” Boar on the Floor. What follows could be a scene from Lord of the Flies or a documentary on a sinister cult as they break people.

Logan whips up the non-boars into chants and accusations, whilst ritual humiliation is doled out to the “boars”. It is awful to see those who could have been picked but weren’t take gleeful enjoyment out of the game and only a few of the older, more seasoned professionals present seem troubled. No one objects. This is Logan, a man known for his cruelty and ruthlessness, in his most frightening and upsetting. It’s hard to tell whether this is Logan genuinely blind with fury lashing out or this is a more calculated display of power and I’m not sure which is scarier. We see Logan’s fixer Colin quickly ushering out the wait staff and Kendall stop his brother Roman filming the display, both aware that this is not something where you want to have witnesses. Logan flicks between his usual shouting and bullying behaviour to, whenever anyone questions what is going on, saying it’s just a fun game.

Notably, it is not Logan’s children, Kendall and Roman, who are singled out, despite Kendall already launching one coup against his father and Roman having suspicious phone calls and are as likely traitors as anyone else. This perhaps suggests it was never about finding the traitor but simply exerting authority by humiliating people. The other child in the picture of taking over, Shiv, is not present and as Tom is her husband you would hope she would object to this.

Beach Scene

In the final episode of the second season, we see a heartbreaking scene between Shiv and Tom. The two characters married at the end of the first season and the second season has been hard on their relationship (see Boar on the Floor). It is one of the most honest conversations the two ever have, or at least Tom’s part of it is.

Many people, including me, thought at the beginning of the show Tom was only with Shiv for the money and power. So to hear Tom actually complain, to share how he’s been hurt by Shiv (and her family) is almost a surprise, someone only out for money would not do this. Tom delivers one of the most heartbreaking lines of the entire show, in fairness a show not known for dealing with romantic heartbreak or romantic happiness, “I just, uh, I wonder if, I wonder if the sad I’d be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you.” It is hard to feel too sorry for Tom, or indeed most of the characters, as he’s done terrible things but it is an incredibly rare moment of vulnerability. The battle to control the multi-billion dollar business empire relies on constant lies and schemes to get power and it’s sad that Shiv and Tom’s relationship works in a similar way. In an earlier episode, Logan tells Shiv she purposefully married a man who was not her equal so she would never feel threatened by him, the only way she could trust a husband was to have one she would always have far more power then. Tom’s declaration of his unhappiness and the potential end of their relationship is probably not what Shiv had in mind.

While Shiv was not present for Boar on the Floor she was present for the discussion about who should be the “blood sacrifice” needed in the scandal engulfing Waystar RoyCo and she barely objected when Tom was put forward. Shiv’s argument that if Logan thought she was just sticking up for her husband out of loyalty that would have been worse for Tom, but I think that’s what he really wanted.

Succession can be incredibly funny and anyone looking for comedy I’d suggest these scenes – Tom and Greg testifying before congress, any scene concerning Connor’s political ambitions (Connor being the eldest of Logan’s children but showed no interest in running the business), Kendall’s rap tribute to his father, the game of Good Tweet Bad Tweet.

Also Read: Five Reasons To Watch Succession

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HBO hit Succession is about to return for its third season. Succession is the story of the Roy family – billionaire media-cruise ship-theme park magnates who are also amongst the most despicable people you will ever see on television. It’s hard to work out who is worst – is it Logan Roy, the patriarch and man responsible for their great wealth who started a version of Fox News and blackmails his children? Is it Roman “can’t even sit on a chair properly” Roy, the youngest son who in the first episode tears a cheque up in front of a child for fun? What about Tom Wambsgam – partner to Logan’s daughter Shiv Roy – who is an insufferable suck-up to every person of higher status to him and unrelentingly horrible to anyone of perceived lower status? We’ve had two seasons of billionaire excess, horrific scandals and the occasional hostage situation, how will the third season do?

Logan Vs Kendall

Season 2 ended with Kendall Roy essentially declaring war on his father Logan. Kendall was set up as the fall guy for the most recent scandal engulfing the company but instead chose to blame his father for everything – on live television. There is a theme in Succession that nearly everyone thinks they’re some sort of business genius, despite having done nothing to justify that, with the exception of Logan Roy. Kendall sees himself as the rightful successor to his father but clearly is not in the same league in terms of intelligence or ruthlessness. Kendall has two things going for him – he is decades younger (the show starts with Logan having a stroke, bringing the question of succession into sharp focus) and pretty much the whole world hates Logan Roy.

The Heir Apparent

With Kendall being the eldest son (not including the ridiculous Connor as well…he’s Connor, whose disinterest in the company at first is encouraging but that doesn’t last long) and the child who has really committed himself to the company he assumed he would take Logan’s place, but throughout season two it was his sister Shiv who seemed Logan’s favourite for taking over. Shiv is the supposedly “liberal” member of the family and briefly worked for a Bernie Sanders type politician but caused a major public transit problem because of the number of principles, people and marriages she has thrown under various buses to get this position. Roman has made progress with foreign billionaires who, to borrow a phrase from Red Dwarf, are “a bit dodgy” as well as allying himself with one of Logan’s top people, Gerri. Roman and Gerri are also engaged in an atypical romantic relationship which I have tried and failed to describe in a Safe For Work way and as such will leave to your own google searches. Tom has occasionally been in the picture (at least in his own mind) as a way for Shiv to effectively run the company but keep her other work.

Cousin Greg

Oh Cousin Greg, you innocent, guileless, easily corruptible fool. A character of such tragic proportions Hamlet himself would weep at the mess Cousin Greg has made of the situation. Greg is a cousin, grandson of Logan’s brother, and enters the show in Episode 1 after losing a job at one of their many companies. A man who originally had nothing more than enough money to get by…for a rich person, but certainly no dreams of billions has become an integral part of the show and the family business. Utterly unsuited for the backstabbing world of Roy power struggles Greg is constantly in way over his head, mocked and belittled by everyone. He is one of the very few people who ever expressed any moral doubts, feeling very unhappy at working at the news division as he clearly sees them as borderline evil but is quickly beaten down by Tom. By the end of Season 2 while still rather incompetent Greg is very much part of their awful world.

Is Succession A Classic already?

I was hooked on Succession from the first episode. A mix of the drama of billion-dollar companies and the drama of family relationships mixed perfectly into an unsettling and perhaps all too realistic portrayal of what such companies ran by families are like. A range of brilliant, if unpleasant, characters all awful in their own unique ways. The show has fantastic dialogue – and I’m not just talking about the swearing which is comparable to The Thick Of It for inventiveness and brutality (which is not surprising as the show’s creator is Jesse Armstrong, a writer for The Thick Of It). There are scenes burned into my mind because of their brilliance: from the infamous Boar on the Floor scene of genuinely insane horror, to the testifying before congress of Tom and Cousin Greg, to when Roman buys the wrong Scottish football club as a gift to his father. There is perhaps no greater signifier of its quality in that in the daily discussion of what should we watch on tv in our home if there is a new episode of Succession, it’s a very short debate. In terms of declaring something a classic I like to wait a few years to get a little perspective but Succession is definitely worthy of consideration.

Also Read: Did High-End TV Replace The Mid-Budget Indie Film?

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1. It’s Being Called The New Game Of Thrones

So, I should say Succession is it’s own programme, with its own ideas, but there are similarities. I should also say Game of Thrones is a fantasy programme filled with zombies and dragons and Succession is set in present-day America about a rich family so there are plenty of differences. The main similarity is the struggle for power. The show is focused on the Roy family – Logan Roy is a self-made billionaire and owner of a huge business empire and he has a number of children vying to take over that company. As far as I’ve seen no one has yet murdered anyone to seize power but sometimes it feels like that is definitely coming. In fact, if people start poisoning each other it would feel very much like I, Claudius the masterpiece BBC drama showing the struggle to control the Roman Empire.

2. You Will Hate All The Characters So Much

I don’t have if I have ever wanted to punch a character more than Roman Roy (played wonderfully by Kieran Culkin). Not actually evil but smug to the point of ridiculousness when he has achieved precisely nothing. There are two things in particular that incur my ire in regards to Roman: 1- he is unbelievably wealthy and is a dick about it. There are few things I hate more than rich people who love to shove that wealth in everyone else’s face, something Roman does repeatedly. 2. Perhaps, more importantly, the man cannot sit on a chair. Throughout season one virtually every time you see him sitting it’s never the right way. But Roman is simply the most immediately objectionable of a very bad bunch – there’s Logan who seemingly enjoys pitting chis children against each other, Kendall, the heir-apparent business bro, the already mentioned deplorable Roman and their sister manipulative Shiv. The oldest child, Connor, who has decided to stay out of the family business and perhaps seems the most likeable quickly turns out to be not so nice and even Greg, the stoner-slacker cousin is soon corrupted.

3. Fantastic Insults and Swearing

Perhaps the best swearing in television since The Thick Of It and while the characters don’t have the verbal imagination of Malcolm Tucker the delivery of each curse is wonderful. You can spend a lot of time admiring the way Logan Roy tells people to “f**k off”. There are no punches pulled when it comes to insults with everything from recovering addiction problems to childhood trauma seen as fair game.

4. Character Complexity

It’s almost impossible to work out the motivations of any character with my idea of every character being rewritten with every episode (with the possible exception of Roman who is just a dirtbag through and through). The two characters where this is most apparent is Logan Roy and Tom Wambsgans. Logan at first seems to have virtually an Alexander the Great plan of succession, wanting to leave his empire to the strongest, but there are moments, glimpses, of when you think he might actually care about his children. Tom is even more fascinating – starting the show as Shiv’s fiancee I was 100% convinced he did not care about her at all, his only goal being the advancement in her family’s company. But as the show goes on this becomes less and less clear and their relationship more complicated. Perhaps even more enjoyable is his bizarre “friendship” with Greg, does he hate Greg? Does he like him? Is he trying to destroy him? Is he trying to mentor him?

5. The Worst Family In America

The Roys are undoubtedly a contender for the worst family ever portrayed on television. The siblings are constantly at each others’ throats looking for any potential weakness. At times when Logan asks them to be on their best behaviour to look vaguely normal, they can barely manage five minutes. Another show it reminds me of which has a similarly dysfunctional family is Arrested Development, with some of the characters like Tom, Roman and Greg needing only a minor tweak to fit into the world of the more comedic and silly world of the Bluths.

Also Read: Why Watchmen Is One of The Best TV Series Ever

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