Commentary: The Inevitable Disappointment Of ‘Succession’

Succession has had a very interesting road as a drama. It’s main and most controversial character started the series very ill, practically on his deathbed. This sparked the initial conflict for which the series was named. With his possible death on the horizon, the question of Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) successor became the main subject of the show. Cox is too great of an actor to remain bedridden, though. He made a great recovery and went on to become a force within the ongoing story. The main conflict switched from who will be his successor to trying to wrestle power and the company away from him.

(Spoiler warning if you have not finished Succession)

And the show had a shocking twist in the middle of its final season, Logan Roy actually passed away as he almost had in the first season, thus bringing the show full circle to its initial conflict.

On the one hand, this was a disappointing development for the show. The tension between Logan Roy and his children was extremely strong. He was like a star in the middle of this universe that everyone revolved around; he affected everybody’s orbit. And when this star exploded, it caused mayhem within the universe and everybody was cast adrift in space. This created great conflict, but it never resolved what had been built up before it. Things were very tense between Logan and his children, and his untimely passing left all of that unfinished. It would have been awesome to see a climax of this storyline, but it was never meant to be.

On the other hand, although his death was an unfortunate disappointment, it was not unpredictable and, in some regards, necessary. The show was named Succession for a reason. This was the driving force behind the first season, and it only made sense that it would also become the driving force behind its last. The nature of finding Logan Roy’s successor, the whole point of naming the show Succession, meant that Logan inevitably had to die. There was no other way around addressing that fundamental theme. It’s just unfortunate that the work put into the middle of the show between Logan and his children had to be left open ended. Then again, that’s kind of the point of death. People aren’t always prepared for it and sometimes things don’t have a clear-cut ending.

Succession is now streaming on Max.