TV review: The final season of Succession is shaping up to leave on a high

Roman, superbly played by Kieran Culkin is the most human of all the Roys — it’s all in his face and his body language

Succession is still an incredibly satisfying watch. You can’t take your eyes off it.

I’m glad this is the last series of Succession (Sky Atlantic and NOW). It’s one of the top five shows I have ever watched, but like most of these things, it has largely run out of ideas and is now relying on the incredible characters they’ve created to keep the thing ticking over.

Episode one could have been in any of the previous three seasons. Three of the adult kids in the Roy family — Shiv, Roman and Kendall — are plotting to steal an acquisition from under the nose of their father, Logan. They succeed by bidding a lot of other people’s money, at which point Logan rings them and spits a congratulations at them for naming the highest number.

So far, so any other season of Succession. But in the middle of all the vicious satire, private jets, and the hilarity of the eldest son Connor being happy with a poll showing he has a 1% share of the vote in his run for the White House, there is an emotional undercurrent that you just don’t find in other shows.

Kendall, Shiv and Roman Roy

Kendall and Shiv are jubilant when they hear they have beaten Papa Bear at last. But Roman, superbly played by Kieran Culkin and the most human of all the Roys, isn’t so sure. There’s a sadness in him that they’re out of touch with the Dad, along with an anxiety that this isn’t over yet. This isn’t in the text, Roman doesn’t say a word, it’s all in his face and his body language.

Likewise, (Spoiler Alert) when Shiv and Tom decide to end their mutual torture marriage, they lie on the bed holding hands, with little to say. From day-one they’ve been the joke couple in the show — an awkward marriage of convenience for both of them. But lying there on the bed, they’re just two jaded people going through a break-up.

This is why Succession is streets better than pretenders like White Lotus. Every now and again, the satire veil is lifted and we see that these are just vulnerable, lonely people with more money than sense. Just like the British Royal Family, you wouldn’t swap with them for all the money in Silicon Valley. (If there’s any left.)

Brian Cox as Logan Roy

So it’s still an incredibly satisfying watch. You can’t take your eyes off it.

Before they decide to steal the acquisition off Daddy, the three ‘kids’ have the non-idea of something called The Hundred, which Kendall describes as an amalgamation of all the other media brands out there. We get a glimpse of the presentation they are going make to potential investors, a series of bullet-point slides that went out of fashion in the mid-90s. It’s a couple of seconds, and it's all we need to know that they haven’t a clue.

So I won’t be taking my eyes off the fourth series of Succession. Neither should you. It’s shaping up to do what all the great shows have managed to do. Leave on a high, before their number is up.