‘Succession’: Disagreeing With Artists Over Their Art
by Frank Martin
Art is a very complicated aspect of humanity. It also encompasses many different forms. There is art that is used as propaganda, entertainment, and even social commentary. Artists tend to have a purpose if not even a direct message behind the work they are putting out into the world. But art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It has to be absorbed by a viewer, who often comes out of the experience with a different feeling than what the artist intended. Because of this, viewers can certainly disagree with artists about the meaning of their art. A great example of this is the character Logan Roy (Brian Cox) in Succession.
In the show, Logan Roy is a powerful, mean, and ruthless businessman who has built an enormous media empire. As he gets older, his kids all compete with each other for power within the company, but the adult children are extremely flawed individuals. This is in large part because of how Logan raised them, as a cold and often distant father. During an interview, Cox stated that he struggled to understand whether or not the character even loved his kids, to which he said that the show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, said he did. The fact that he’s supposed to love them yet treats them so badly is the real tragedy of the show.
But it’s certainly possible for a viewer to come away from Succession believing that Logan didn’t love his kids at all, despite what Armstrong intended. Logan constantly undermines and humiliates his children. It’s hard to believe the character truly loved his children based on what he put them through. This is in contrast to a character like Walter White from Breaking Bad. He is, by all accounts, a bad man who did terrible things, but there are many indicators throughout the show that he truly loved his family, which is what made the ending so sad. He was a man who loved his family and ruined it because of its own selfishness. Logan Roy never had such misgivings about his behavior, so it’s definitely possible for a viewer to disagree with the show’s creator about the work.
Succession is now streaming on Max.
