Succession season 4: A ‘jaw-dropping’ finale

And the season includes sly callbacks to earlier episodes, creating a sense of coming full circle. It begins with a birthday party for Logan in his apartment, the same setting and occasion that introduced many of the characters in the series’ very first episode, when the question of who might succeed him as head of the empire seemed imminent. Connor is the only one of the children at the celebration this time, but the others are not far from Logan’s mind. Typically acerbic, he asks Tom, “Have you heard from the rats?”

Logan, of course, is the towering figure, constantly thought to be losing his touch only to outsmart his children. After all, he taught them how to play this game, and he is the master. He is brutal and cruel to them, but then they often seem so much worse than he is. Cox has become better and better at capturing Logan’s rage, ruthless grip on power, distrust and increasing isolation. No wonder he is so magnetic yet inscrutable to his rivals.

Logan ties the series most firmly to the reality the show mirrors, and his character is the main reason Succession has become part of the off-screen cultural and political conversation. At the start, the series evoked questions about which mogul might have been the basis for Logan, possibly Rupert Murdoch or Sumner Redstone. Now the fictional Roys are reference points for those real-life family empires. A recent Esquire feature about a book detailing Redstone’s messy legacy is headlined, The Sordid Family Saga that Makes Succession Look Tame. Two years ago, an article in The Telegraph was headlined How billionaire Sumner Redstone was a real-life Logan Roy.

The Murdoch echoes are stronger than ever now that a defamation lawsuit against his Fox News Channel has put his grip on The White House in the headlines, amidst allegations that Fox’s coverage helped Donald Trump in the 2020 election and his later attempts to cast doubt on its results. On this season’s Succession, Logan keeps his Fox-like fictional channel, ATN, out of the Waystar deal, retaining his hold on political power. Similar to the Fox allegations, ATN played a kingmaking role in the US presidency. Yet Succession doesn’t endorse its characters’ perspectives. The show is non-partisan, cynical about all politics, making it clear that money means more than ideology.

Armstrong and Cox have insisted that Logan is a mix of influences, but of course creators don’t have to intend parallels. Sometimes a great show is so perceptive it just lands that way. “The thing about us is… we don’t get embarrassed,” Shiv said to a rival last season, a line that sums up a lot about how shrewdly Succession reflects the culture. “The US has entered an era of post-shame politics,” is a headline from an NPR podcast this February, and an MSNBC political analyst, former US attorney Barbara McQuade, said in January, “We’re living in a post-shame world”. At times, Succession is so on point it barely seems like fiction.

★★★★★

Succession season four premieres on HBO Max on 26 March, and on Sky Atlantic and Now TV from 27 March.

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