Succession’s obsession with suffering

After premiering inside The British Museum on March 23rd, Succession’s fourth and final season has come to a close. The Emmy-winning show is currently in the conversation for being one of the best shows on TV and, alongside The White Lotus, can also be credited for the surge in ‘Old Money’ and ‘Stealth Wealth’ trends on social media. However, outside of extravagant displays of wealth and power, at its core, Succession is a show about a dysfunctional family and their affinity for suffering. 

The show’s immense popularity isn’t surprising. It seems like we enjoy watching “attractive people doing attractive things”, in the immortal words of Slim Aarons, and seeing Succession’s star-studded cast jetting around in helicopters and going to exclusive raves under bridges is no exception. We can’t help but envision ourselves in their exorbitant lifestyle and wonder what it would be like to have the ability to run for president ‘just because’ or be given a C-Suite role in a multibillion-dollar company without any experience. However, our true enjoyment of the show stems from the suffering of these characters. 

These acts help us sympathise with the characters they are inflicted on, and without them we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the show as the characters would be too unlikeable for us to continue watching

Voyeurism is a prevalent theme throughout the show. The most blatant example, of course, is Roman Roy. It’s stated repeatedly that the youngest of the Roy sons is unable to have sex with his partners, and the only time we see any form of ‘success’ on this front is when he is locked in a bathroom or pretending his partner is dead. This is the same partner that he only began dating after his brother-in-law, Tom, had relations with her at a bachelor party – a fact that Roman seems to revel in. There is a clear disconnect within Roman, as he loves to discuss rather grotesque and exaggerated sexual acts yet is unable to partake in them himself. Maybe I’m reaching here, but this could be seen as an allegory for us, the audience. We love watching and talking about these disgusting displays of wealth and awful actions, but we can’t truly partake in them. We almost envy being able to act with such indifference to money, whilst simultaneously judging these characters for their indifference, and so we settle for watching them suffer. 

Importantly, the employees at Waystar Royco aren’t indifferent to money which amplifies our need for retribution for those committing these acts. You can pick any episode at random and find multiple acts that constitute sexual harassment and abuse, both to employees and Roy family members. We see these characters routinely act above the law, whether it’s calling up the President to make an exception to certain regulations or covering up a murder, which makes it so much more enjoyable when we see them get their comeuppance. Kendall, arguably the show’s protagonist and de facto eldest son, seems to be in a permanent cycle of suffering, cringe-inducing actions (such as the infamous L to the OG rap), and then back to suffering. And we love watching it – @Kendallroylookingsad, an actual Instagram account, has nearly 80 thousand followers. Nobody could forget the infamous ‘Boar on the Floor’ game in Season 2 that caused most of us to wince as we watched the total humiliation of Tom and Cousin Greg, yet we continued to watch on in awe in much the same way the rest of the characters watched. These acts help us sympathise with the characters they are inflicted on, and without them we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the show as the characters would be too unlikeable for us to continue watching. 

‘I’ve seen you get f—ed a lot. And I’ve never seen Logan get f—ed once.’ and nothing describes Succession better than that

Interestingly, company and family patriarch, Logan Roy, never truly lost. He fended off repeated attempts to steal his company from his family and rivals alike, has survived a congressional hearing, and managed to strong-arm the President. To quote Tom’s words to Kendall, “I’ve seen you get f—ed a lot. And I’ve never seen Logan get f—ed once.” and nothing describes Succession better than that. The Roy siblings seem to forget that their father created this company from nothing and has a primal spirit that can only be built through hardship. Hardship that they have never truly faced. Whilst as an audience we desperately want to see Logan defeated by whichever Roy sibling is our favourite, we seem to forget that Logan has actually suffered more than most. The scars on his back from his abuse by his uncle, the loss of his sister and mother, and the construction of a multibillion-dollar media conglomerate from nothing are all indicative of this. In no way is this a defence of Logan Roy; he’s a monstrous person that one can only hope is not a true reflection of the ultra-wealthy, but being defeated by his children would’ve meant that the suffering of the Roy family could potentially be over. And if a show doesn’t have any suffering, there wouldn’t be a show left to watch.