With revenge raccoons and boardroom satans, the drama about media tycoons is casually masterful, absolutely hilarious – and has anarchy in its DNA
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comedy that gets less funny as it goes along? Mmm, tell me more. One that takes us inside a wealthy media dynasty flouting every moral and judicial law in order to consolidate power? Ok. Here’s the best bit – there are no likeable characters! Sounds about as much fun as eczema. So why do I, like so many others, currently love Succession more than any other show on TV?
For a start, watching it feels like getting the gossip. Sons Roman and Kendall’s battle for dominance echoes that of James and Lachlan Murdoch, sons, of course, of Rupert Murdoch. Daughter Shiv is partly based on US executive Shari Redstone, who forced her ageing media tycoon father’s hand to take control of his company. The Trump name swirls around this world too, like flies on faeces. Stories of Donald refusing to pay his contractors are legion, just like the storyline in the show that resulted in a revenge raccoon being shoved up Logan Roy’s chimney (none of which is a euphemism). Though of course the character of Connor Roy - the moronic, incompetent, hooker-dependent son who thinks he can be president - is wholly rooted in fiction.