Upon rewatching Succession again, it becomes clearer to me that show is one which only gets better the more times you rewatch. Not just because of the reminder of how good the story is or the acting, but because the rewatch (and indeed the first time binge watch) provides a completely different viewing experience that provides you with a richer understanding of the characters and their fates. The first watch, I find, puts you into the perspective of each of the kids as you experience the show in the moment with no knowledge of what comes next (even if in the back of your mind you know the outcome will be one that amounts to tragedy). You watch and think the kids (or one kid in particular) really does have a fighting chance to be the victor. Just like each of the Roy children, you are persuaded by shiny, meaningless promises and small victories that give you illusions of hope. The genius of the show is that it does make you care and root for people who you shouldn’t root for much to your own chagrin. You get so caught up in their stories and focusing so much on the successor, that you don’t fully take the time to comprehend in the moment that you are watching them being tested again and again and coming up short every time.
When you rewatch the show in its totality, you recognize perhaps what you didn’t before: that hopes and promises are fragile things destined to break and that the small victories are outliers in a war that was never really meant to be won. You pick up on the subtleties sprinkled throughout the writing that reveal the greater depths and truths about the characters, character dynamics, and where they end up.
It is upon rewatching that you can fully comprehend that from the beginning Logan never really intended on naming any of his children as successor to Waystar Royco, even if that’s what he so desperately wanted. The company served as a carrot-and-stick with which to exercise control, and nowhere was that more obvious than with his children. If you go back to the scene where the “old guard” and the kids discuss the sheet of paper Logan left behind and the conversation between Frank and Kendall, it really cements this fact. There exists a sheet of paper which was edited at some unknown point that has a list of names with Kendall’s underlined (or crossed out depending on which side you are on—however even that argument is pointless). However, as viewers we are aware of what happens in reality, outside of that sheet of paper: Logan was constantly testing his children, and the second they failed he would turn to another and repeat the cycle both to maintain his own control in real time and preserve his legacy afterwards. At some point he accepted the conclusion that they weren’t “serious people”. It still doesn’t stop him from bringing them back into his orbit, however, even once he decides to sell to GoJo and Mattson, with the promise of responsibility and meaningless titles.
Watching the finale for the first time, you don’t fully contend with the fact that the company doesn’t go to the kids. It seemed both obvious and yet shocking and surprising at the same time. Even more pointedly, you don’t fully accept that it was never and probably could never be them until Shiv herself reaches that same conclusion in the conference room during the vote and once more when Roman dejectedly says “we are bullshit…it’s all fucking nothing man”. It’s like reading a Shakespearean tragedy for the first time: you know it will end poorly, but you aren’t convinced until the final, tragic blow has landed and you are left on the final page.
However it is only upon rewatching that you can truly comprehend that from the beginning and trace every character’s trajectory with a deeper understanding of who they are and how they got there.It was always going to end like King Lear or Hamlet: it was never going to be the kids who became successor; it would always amount to nothingness and loss with a foreign power taking control with a family ripped apart by ambition and competition. But by god does the show do a fantastic job of making you think otherwise throughout its epic run.
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