Knowing when to leave a party is an underrated skill. Since debuting in 2018, Succession has been one of the most acclaimed dramas on television, snaffling awards galore. So it was something of a surprise when it was announced that the fourth season would be the last. It felt like it could’ve run and run.
But as it turned out, creator Jesse Armstrong and the writing team had the perfect exit strategy, and looking back, it now feels like it couldn’t have played out any other way. And while it would be tempting to wish for more time with these characters, in all their warring, problematic, acid-tongued glory, what we’re left with is a near-perfect four-season run that ends on the same high that it started. That’s what makes it Total Film’s Best TV Show of 2023.
Endgame
When the HBO series began, it landed the year before Games of Thrones’ final, goodwill-tarnishing season. While completely different on the surface, natural comparisons were made between the two shows, as ultimately, both were about family members and factions vying for a seat of power. In Succession, it was a CEO’s leather deskchair, rather than the Iron Throne, but it was no less coveted, and the desperation to get there was no less cutthroat.
From the first series, when media honcho Logan Roy (Brian Cox) suffered a stroke, the question of who would take over as the CEO of Waystar RoyCo became the show’s driving force. In terms of keeping it in the family, three of Logan’s children had their eyes on the prize, and the power vacuum also drew other relatives coming out of the woodwork, as well as industry rivals looking to take control of the conglomerate.
As Armstrong told Total Film, “I felt like it was going to start stretching things if we didn’t answer [the question of who would succeed].” In a landscape where TV shows (and not to mention film franchises), often churn out further installments for as long as it’s financially viable, it was nice to be satisfyingly reminded about the power of an ending.
Hostile takeover
The need for that answer was baked into the title of the show, and even when Logan bounced back bullishly from his illness, it was still on everyone’s mind, including his. The chessboard was laid out, but it was left pleasingly open as to who would eventually be appointed CEO. In your head, you could make effective cases for an appointment of a nepo-successor in Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) or Roman (Kieran Culkin), while in the business family, Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Frank (Peter Friedman) and Karl (David Rasche) could’ve all staked a claim. Outsiders like Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed) and Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) were also conceivable, with the latter actually orchestrating the final checkmate when his company GoJo acquired Waystar, and positioned Tom Wambsgams (Matthew Macfadyen) as a puppet CEO.
If Tom hadn’t initially seemed a credible contender, after his appointment, it felt like the outcome couldn’t have gone any other way. After all, in the show’s boardrooms and limos, had having a conscience, trustworthiness or a working moral compass ever got anyone anywhere? A show like Succession could never have a happy ending. Despite making you root for morally questionable misanthropes, it still stops short of giving them any sort of catharsis.
The end?
Perhaps the main reason why the ending of Succession was such a triumph, was that it came with a heavy dose of ambiguity, leaving audiences to put their own reading on how things were left. Was anyone truly happy, even Tom? Sure, he won the job that he’d been trying to inveigle his way into for years, but it’s not like he’ll truly have power, and instead will be Matsson’s “pain sponge”. Shiv - arguably the sanest family choice for the role - saw the job that she’d worked towards go to her undeserving husband, who she now has to stand by (and raise a child with), despite the fact they’ve made their feelings for each other painfully clear. Their final shot, holding hands in the back of a limo, was a killer, and a masterclass in letting the unsaid scream out over the silence.
Similarly, the haunting final shot of Kendall staring out to the river (once again drawn to a body of water), was not only emotionally resonant, but also open-ended, leaving you to ponder what might become of him now that the prize he was promised as a boy is truly out of his grasp.
Truly, this kind of power struggle never really ends, not in the business world, and not when there are mergers, changing media landscapes and political posturing to take into account too. That’s the great irony in Succession’s conclusion; the series has a satisfying finality, even if the characters won’t ever have that for themselves.
For more on the year in review, here are our guides to the best movies of 2023 and the best TV shows of 2023.
