HBO’s Succession is an Emmy winning show that is rife with political satire and ideology. The show centres around the fictional Roy family, who own one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, and the drama surrounding the succession plan when the patriarch of the family begins to step back from the company.
This series has been highly praised for its writing and performances, and an aspect that does not go unnoticed is the scathing critiques and political satire woven into the characters and narratives. All of these characters come from unfathomable wealth, and the show is clearly criticising how being a part of that 1% since birth can make people shallow, manipulative, self-serving, narcissistic, ego-driven monsters. The characters in Succession do not talk like real people, not only because of the sheer amount of profanity being used almost like punctuation, but their worldview and dialogue is so warped and wrapped in metaphor and odd psychosexual innuendo because of their privileged backgrounds that it sounds almost foreign to us as the audience.
In terms of politics, the show spends a significant amount of time focusing on the inner-workings of the family owned news station ‘ATN’, which is a parody of right wing American channels such as Fox news. The character of Mark Ravenhead is used to show how far right ideologies are subtly (or not so subtly) inserted into these news channels, with this being played to the extreme as it is revealed he is a literal fascist for comedic effect while also giving us a dark reflection of the real world, leaving us to wonder what exactly the public figures we see on TV really think and get up to.
In terms of representations, it’s an important thing to note that the main cast is almost entirely white and male. Shiv Roy is the most central female character, and she is treated differently by not only the characters in the show but certain parts of the audience as well, as no matter how deplorable the male characters act in the show there will always be a group who hate Shiv above all else simply because of misogyny. This too is referenced in the show, as in this executive, corporate world the men have the power and the women are having to constantly fight tooth and nail for even a smidge of respect.
It’s important to note that these are not the ideologies encoded into the show because it is what the creators personally think, but instead the opposite. These ideologies are presented to show the audience that they are wrong. The characters are all unarguably awful, and so by having them act in certain ways and doing certain things it’s a comment on how those attitudes and behaviours are wrong, and that is the true message of the show.
Although fictional, Logan Roy is no doubt based on real media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, and his ’old-fashioned’ xenophobia, bigotry and forcefulness are no doubt traits that many of these real world business dinosaurs have, and in the show they are ‘turned up to 11’ to show just how powerful and dangerous these people are, and how above it all they can be because of their influence. The Roys are above the law, and are even puppeteering and seducing presidents through business negotiations and phone calls. Logan is the most powerful man on the planet, and it’s not because hes such a swell guy. The message of the show is that these people are dangerous, and when left unchecked their egos can and will destroy us all, and then themselves.
The Roy family are rich beyond your wildest dreams and can have anything they want, whenever they want, but they are all seriously broken people, and that is the real message of the show. The people at the top are so fundamentally flawed and misshapen that they will never be whole. They can never be real people because of the life they were born into, and perhaps all that money and power is more of a curse than a blessing.