Note: This article contains spoilers
It's time to say goodbye. The old king is dead, "Long live the new king, and the new king, and the new queen".
The fourth season, which is currently airing, is the final season of Succession. Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the creator of the media/entertainment empire, is really dead this time. In his last appearance before his death, he was still using his usual manipulative tactics on the phone, ordering his younger son Roman (Keanan Culkin) to do his dirty work for him.
"Succession" Season 4 Stills
At the end of last season, he delivered a majestic speech in the ATN big office, insulting, intimidating and motivating employees to continue to work for him. At that time, he had no premonition of death. Waystar Royco's giant ship will be dismembered and sold, but Rogan still wants to keep the core news part and continue to annex the old rival Pierce Group that does serious news.
Logan Roy never thought beyond the length of his life. He is ruthless, has a changeable mind, and is the most vicious to his own children. In the previous long "battle of succession", he wavered between two sons and one daughter (the eldest son has already been out), giving hope to whom, and depriving whom of hope, it seems like a belated education, intended to break The growth of children is stagnant.
In fact, who is the heir is not important to Logan. The important thing is whether he can keep the big ship unsinkable and prevent his children or anyone from climbing on top of him in his lifetime. As for whether the legend of Wayster can continue behind him, it is not within his consideration. Logan mocks everything and looks down on no one. He also loathes very few people who can be called opponents. He finally got his wish, and died on the way to the merger battle without being stepped on by anyone.
The previous plot has clearly shown that his four children are all gorgeous idiots. They live in a primitive state under the cloak of a modern enterprise, the shareholder system is useless, and their father Logan is the absolute talker. They have survived so far in the patriarchal environment where the business/family are combined, and they have nothing else to think about; although they are idiots, they are attractive idiots. Just like their father, even though he was a tyrant, once he appeared on the stage, people couldn't take their eyes off him.
After the death of the old king, the conflict between the old ministers with high meritorious service and the young children came to the fore. It's okay for the old minister, so he won't show his ugliness. The stupidity of the little ones is clearly exposed.
Because of their elite upbringing, they have the ability to have a good laugh with their peers, show off their familiarity with the workings of the system, and deftly display jargon and slang. But they are not creators, not even poor imitators of the previous generation. At the general meeting of shareholders, Kendall (played by Jeremy Strong), the second son of "Yun Duo", who is whimsical and must be "Yun Duo", published a vision about the future smart pension real estate. There was thunderous applause at the scene, successfully stabilizing the stock price that plummeted after Logan's death.
But wait, don't get carried away by the euphoria. Is Kendall's business vision (actually Logan's) really a good business? Immortality, happy old age, sounds more like a madman who doesn't understand business, people's hearts, or the laws of nature, telling stories about saving stock prices and pleasing the market.
But the magic of "Succession" is that no matter how incompetent the idiots are, and how much Logan can play the same tricks endlessly, it can still attract the audience and make them get an immersive experience.
"Succession" Season 4 Poster
The British "Guardian" did an interview, and asked several people close to the giants, or the giants themselves, or high-level media, and asked them whether the American elite described in "The Battle of Succession" was true. Everyone told the truth, and each gave a few examples: such as the existence of the patriarchal system, not treating ordinary people as human beings, the struggle between veterans and their children, the rich who can't see the scenery and only see business, their minimalist clothes And interior decoration taste, and so on.
It is rare to see a modern drama that cuts open the top of the pyramid like "Succession". In film and television dramas, the modern super rich are always symbolic props, comedic existences, or causes of tragedies. They are rarely treated as real people. People who also concentrate power-gang leaders, ancient monarchs, get much more opportunities to express themselves.
In this play, it is almost the first time that the top people appear collectively as a family. This family is toxic. They use the meanest words to expose each other's shortcomings, and use this as the basis for daily relationship. They often hated each other and betrayed each other countless times. The empire created by the father binds the children firmly together. They will never leave each other until the day the company dies. No matter what happens, the four children can cuddle together in the Roy way.
People who are not from this family are not allowed, no matter how close they are. The newest addition to the Roy family, son-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and grand-nephew Greg (Nicolas Braun) quickly form an alliance. Uncertainty in the distribution of power has caused them to hover around the periphery. They redouble their efforts to learn how the Machinations work, and in some respects are even more like Logan than Logan's children. Finally, the comedy duo gradually lost their nature and became a part of the family.
"Succession" Season 4 Stills
The family's meanness is not only aimed at each other, but also never forgets us in front of the screen. In this season, Logan hosted a birthday party, and among the four children, only the eldest son Conor (played by Alan Luke) attended. Greg, the big, stupid guy who pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger, has a girlfriend with him. The female partner carried a big bag, and was laughed at that "this bag is so big that it can hold commuter shoes and a lunch box." Tom was almost sent to jail as a scapegoat before. Depressed, he invited Greg to eat fast food, "experience prison food in advance".
All classes below them can be ridiculed. Even if they are a member of themselves, as long as they move out of the middle class, they will be despised. After Logan's death, Kendall talked to a psychological counselor, and he had a "black history" of seeking Buddhism before. The glances that Roman and Schiff exchanged could not be more clear—they dislike him, like his elder brother Conor, who is talkative, weak and incompetent.
But why, the audience is still watching with great interest after being ridiculed by these white rich men at the top of the pyramid. Probably because subconsciously, we still hope to be pointed out by others about the ridiculousness of our lives, even if the other party is condescending and malicious. Another reason is that these people are not bound by morality, so there is no need to pretend, and the publicity of humanity is very enjoyable to watch. Although the idiot and the tyrant Laowang have all kinds of faults, they are at least honest and don't bother to cover up themselves. The black holes in their hearts are not covered by skins, which makes them like Ultraman, destroying cities on the go, and the black holes in their chests emit brilliant cosmic rays.
In today's context, Waystar is a media with questionable values. Logan doesn't care about this right or that right. He is on the top of the mountain, and the people at the foot of the mountain are not people, but just numbers that make up the market. The children are a little better than him, and occasionally talk about the correct three views, but there is always a parrot-like sense of humor. In fact, none of them understand the lives of ordinary people, so Kendall was surprised that his daughter would go to the street, and asked his ex-wife constipatedly: "Which street is it, who is she with, why don't you follow her?"
The disintegration of patriarchy and the change of dynasties, literature and film and television based on this theme will continue to thrive, because it has both external struggles and deep psychological aspects. From the intergenerational disputes of gods in the Greek mythology system, to the various regicide plots in Shakespeare's plays, to the "Godfather" series, there is nothing better than this.
This process is bound to be accompanied by the destruction of the old order and drastic changes in the environment. When "Battle of Inheritance" was broadcast, it had already named the background of the decline of traditional media and the rise of new media and technology companies. The audience originally thought that the Waystar Group would transform to survive, but the screenwriter had no such plan at all. Not only is Logan Roy, who is in his eighties, not thinking about the future, but the three young children are also incapable of thinking about the future.
After the sudden death of their father, the biggest obstacle in front of them suddenly disappeared. The regret of never being recognized makes them all the more eager to become fathers. The sensible plan of acquiring the Pierce Group, operating ATN seriously, and selling the remaining assets to GoJo was left behind (of course, everyone's small calculations are not the same). One by one, they immediately became Logan Roy, no longer having tomorrow, and only caring about how to defeat their opponents, remove obstacles, and ascend to the throne of their father alone. From the sense of power of showing off and dismissing others, I get the joy of fantasizing about becoming a father.
Only the eldest brother Conor, who looked the silliest, escaped from his father's shadow. He insisted on holding the wedding on the day of his father's death, and continued to pursue his presidential dream despite the dissuasion of his younger siblings. In this absurd world, it might actually be possible.
"Succession" Season 4 Stills
Aside from the struggle for power, the philosophical proposition of being or killing the father, there is a constant sense of ambiguity in The Battle of Succession. Its camera movement imitates a documentary, suddenly zooming in and shaking, and its intention is to remain neutral as much as possible like a documentary, treating all characters equally, so that the audience cannot feel at ease standing beside any character. This instability creates a smooth concave surface, in which the audience slides like a skateboarder, getting close to one character, and then to another character, staring.
For the future, it also cannot give an answer. Whether it is Pierce, which Wayster intends to acquire, or the Swedish upstart GoJo who will acquire them, or themselves, no one can say that they represent the future.
As the M&A battle progressed, Pierce's female head Nan Pierce (played by Cherie Jones) said sadly, "You talk about money bidding like this makes me sick", and the noble lady suddenly showed her hypocrisy. GoJo boss Lukas Matsen (Alexander Skarsgard), a representative of the elite of the Nordic democracies, is always a bit intimidating whenever he and his clique make their Swedish-speaking appearances.
Not because they were really savage Vikings, but because they deliberately defied the rules of the American elite, like a gust of wind blowing away the curtains that hide closed cliques. At this time, the audience realized that they had long been used to the Roy family, and had been locked up on the top of the pyramid like them. If they were not afraid of external power, at least they felt very unhappy.
But is the elusive Lucas really the future? Is he a genuine genius, or a fake? At the end of the seventh episode, Schiffer (played by Sarah Snook) discovered that GoJo had falsified data just like them. They are like two swashbuckling animals competing to see who can blow the bigger balloon. Of course, everything may be a strategy. After all, all the information that is unfavorable to Lucas is released by his public relations manager Alba (Ellie Harbaugh).
The belligerents in a merger war are like snakes biting at the tail. They are equally ferocious, and each wants to make a fortune or swallow the other. The fact behind it is: this war is just a stock competition. No one really has the ability to set off a new technological revolution, feed more people, and create more wealth. Instead, layoffs are the common way out no matter who swallows whom.
Seeing this, we suddenly realized that when Greg read the layoff announcement, he almost burst out laughing, the painful faces on the screen were us.
