"Succession" has swept the Emmy nominations — gasp shocker, I know. Everybody's favorite despicably dark HBO satire has topped Emmy nominations with 27 nods including a history making three-way lead actor nomination for Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin. But some have qualms about Cox's nod because — spoiler alert — the fictional media demagogue, Logan Roy, was killed off in the third episode this past season.
Cox has been nominated for the role of the Roy patriarch three times now, losing to Strong in 2020 in the category. In previous seasons, Logan was in every episode; his domineering physical presence was an integral part of the show. But then in the fourth and final season, the untouchable media-maker that the audience and the Roy siblings never thought would die — did exactly that. He went to the big network in the sky (well, he was on a plane), which is when the show's trajectory permanently shifted. The vacuum that Roy left in his death was a vacuum that Cox left as well. The actors that play Roy's children were given the space to spread their metaphorical acting wings without Cox's heavy presence.
