The four-time Emmy Award-winning HBO Max hit series features the Roys, a powerful billionaire family that owns a major media conglomerate; however, the internal war between them steals the “show”. Its protagonists, Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong, talk about their characters and the conflicts they face.
© Graeme Hunter
Succession is a series about a dysfunctional family, owner of a media empire. / Courtesy HBO Max
Power and greed have been part of the plot of countless productions, but Succession has a plus, and that is that, in addition to all these problems, this series presents viewers with a family drama that envelops in moments. The Roy family has what anyone would like: money, fame and, above all, power… and although it seems that they have the perfect life, there is something that they lack: union.
Just like the common stories of families living in constant conflict over money, property and more money… this family that presents the HBO Max series is no exception. They own a successful media conglomerate that includes: cable television, newspapers, amusement parks, a movie studio, and a cruise line…and yet they want more. It’s okay to be ambitious, but in the series, the Roy family is their own enemy.
In the first season, released in June 2018, Succession he introduced his characters, the members of the Roy family: Logan, the patriarch of the house, played by Brian Cox; Kendall, who was brought to life by actor Jeremy Strong; Siobhan, played by actress Sarah Snook, and Roman, played by actor Kieran Kulkin. This installment showed in each of its chapters the power struggles and confrontations between each member of the family, presenting each character and their petty personalities.
Also in this season, viewers learned how much the Roy family owned, and how much money they handled…yet Logan Roy and his children were willing to do anything to have more, and become the family. most powerful in the world. Logan’s strong character and the way he referred to his children was fundamental to what came next, a war between father and sons, but mainly with Kendall.
For Cox, playing Logan was a very satisfying experience, because he is a character with many facets, but with a defined personality. “It was easy for me to show his anger, I have my own reasons for feeling that way, I’m not going to talk about it! But I can be quite angry, so that’s the easy part,” revealed the actor, emphasizing that for this character he must have had a very business mindset and constantly talked about business, because Logan was a suffering businessman.
In the second season, released in 2019, the tensions between the Roys grow stronger, as the scandals that had come to light about Waystar Royco, their company, became more and more relevant and urgently needed someone to blame themselves for everything that was happening and take responsibility. They were not minor accusations, since the magazine New York Magazine had revealed that one of the company’s most renowned workers had pressured several women to have sex with him in exchange for juicy contracts, in addition to hiding other multiple crimes that were being committed.
Logan thought of his son Kendall as a smoke screen, so that people would think that there was a culprit and that the company was taking the appropriate measures in the face of these accusations, but the story took an unexpected turn at the press conference that Kendall gave to the media, as he released a statement revealing that his father was an “evil presence, a bully and a liar”, and that he was also aware of everything that happened in the company. For Jeremy Strong, playing a character like Kendall was not an easy task, as he has quite a strong emotional charge and suffers from an anguish that haunts him season after season.
“I think that Kendall’s angst comes from being suffocated and frustrated his whole life. It is due to the lack of education and love from their parents. This character has a lot of anger,” admits Strong. “The series, in a way, explores the family legacy, right? But it’s about a legacy of hurt, and abuse that’s endemic in this family, and understanding that there’s a spillover in the culture. The toxicity within this family finds its way into the groundwater and the groundwater is poisoned.”
After being ambushed by his son Kendall at the end of the second season, Logan Roy began the third installment in a dangerous position, struggling to maintain his family, political and financial alliances. The tension increases when the irreconcilable business battle threatens to cause a true civil war in the family.
“There is a new challenge. There’s this rebellious son who’s trying to prove himself and Logan knows he’s going to take a big hit, just because Kendall is such a complicated young man, he’s such a lonely boy. There’s nothing Logan can do about it, but he still loves it,” Cox revealed about what the third installment of the hit series, winner of four Emmy Awards for Best Drama, Best Actor, Best Writing and Best Direction, shows.
What happens in a family where love is absent and then power fills this emotional void? The children transfer their affective deficiencies to the business field to try to break the power that their father exercises over them.
Despite the dysfunction of the Roy’s ties, which includes betrayals, mistreatment and violence between its members, the concept of “family” is respected and cared for above all else, mainly in the face of external threats. The price to pay is nothing more and nothing less than the affection and recognition of Logan.La The third season of the series is available on HBO Max from October 2021, like its other seasons, which expose the most successful family drama on the platform.