We may not have the same pick for who takes Waystar Royco, but we will probably watch the Succession series finale online at the exact same time. Dropping on Max and HBO (to the folks with cable, I see you) at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 28, Succession's capper is a super-sized finale that will drive a lot of attention.
This is why you should probably take a bit of care about how you watch it. Considering how people shout about this show online as it's happening — just remember the lack of regard for spoilers back at Succession season 4 episode 3 — you don't want to wind up looking like Connor (Alan Ruck) on election night.
And in the aftermath of Max's day 1 glitches, and HBO Max's history of crashes during big popular episodes, you're right to be as cautious as Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) hosting that pre-election night party. So here's my best advice for how to make sure you can see how the best Max show ends.
Make sure you're set up with Max
Not sure if you heard, but the new HBO Max — simply titled Max, which is arguably better than Living+ — just launched. And the process has annoyed some folks online. While some have had it easy, as Roku devices and Fire TV sticks automatically updated, the Apple TV and Google's hardware such as the Chromecast need whole new apps.
So, make sure you've downloaded Max at some point well before the start time. Then, log in. Why am I harping on this? You don't need to be putting your streaming device through that app downloading bottleneck and sign-in process, do you?
Go to your device, open HBO Max (or Max if it has already updated) and see if you're signed in. You may need to download Max from your device's app store. Then, just to be careful, make sure you log into Max about 20 minutes before the finale begins. Sometimes, we get logged out of our devices for whatever reason; it happens.
That should be enough. That said, I have one other suggestion for the most die-hard Succession fans out there.
Outlook: Consider old-fashioned HBO
If you know someone who still pays for cable or satellite TV — the folks who don't consider cutting the cord — you might want to see if they have plans for watching Succession's finale on Sunday night. That's because they've got the best bet for viewing the Roy family endgame without a hiccup.
Cable and satellite providers still offer HBO channels, which don't have the same reliability concerns that streaming services often do. We may scoff at how much they pay, but they've never had to hit refresh 10 times while they wait for the new episode to "appear" in HBO Max.
