Succession (Season 2)

Coming after a solid first season, Succession's second season is a pretty big improvement, mostly because it feels a lot more real.

Succession's second season is pretty much split into two equally strong halves. The first half of the season is about Logan's attempt to acquire another media giant. This is a solid storyline, mostly because we get to see how that media giant's family compares and contrasts with the Roys. Of course, Logan's plan fall through when the cruises scandal from the first season comes to light, forcing the Roy family into damage control mode for the rest of Season 2, and it's fantastic. While it's always been fun to see the awful Roy family fail, this storyline really makes them flounder and squirm while unveiling just how horrid they are as people. Compared to the previous season, Season 2 of Succession is a lot faster-paced, with a much stronger overarching goal. However, I think it's a bit weaker with the character work. With the exception of the finale, which hints at a lot of exciting changes ahead, it never really feels like most of the cast changes throughout the season, whether it's developing or regressing. Kendall spends the whole season being depressed, Shiv spends the whole season being conflicted, and Connor still barely appears. I do, however, think Logan's slow fall is very compelling, and I also really enjoy Holly Hunter's Rhea. She's a great new addition to the cast.

The thing that really brought Succession's second season above the first for me, though, was the greater emphasis on the effect the Roy family have on the world around them, and how unafraid the show is to depict these characters in the worst possible light. The most obvious instance of this is how the family deals with the cruises scandal. With how many companies this situation resembles (looking at you, Activision), it's kind of horrifying to see everything from the perspective of the company that the scandal took place in. And it's not even from the middle class workers who have to consider whether or not to quit or protest, it's from the super rich higher ups that have hardly anything to lose. It's incredibly compelling TV made even more gripping thanks to its relevancy. But it's not just the cruises stuff. There's the episode where a worker commits suicide, and the Roy family immediately thinks it's "Antifa shooting up the place". Or when Kendall coldly shuts down a media startup so Logan can save money with user generated content. This season, it really felt like this Succession does a much better job of making the viewer hate the Roy family due to that extra level of realism and relevancy, but it also makes learning why they do these things all the more horrifyingly fascinating.

Once again, most of this season was great, but these episodes were the highlights:

Safe Room: I already mentioned how dark this episode's premise was. The fact that Waystar's workspace is so toxic that someone committed suicide, and that the Roys immediately thought it was a shooting by "Antifa", but aside from that, Safe Room is legitimately a really funny episode. From Tom and Greg going to the wrong panic room, to the water bottle scene, to the constant bickering between the cast during the shooting scare, this might be the show's funniest episode to date.

DC: I think this is the episode where the Roy family is at their most unsympathetic. Seeing them all band together to try and quell the cruise scandal in court is kinda hard to watch, and I felt like I was actively rooting against them all episode. Thankfully, the court scenes are also hysterical since most of the members of the Roy family end up embarrassing themselves in some way, especially Tom.

This Is Not For Tears: This was a fantastic season finale. It's tense and personal, as the family argues over who's going to have to take the fall for the cruises scandal. Pretty much everyone gets a character moment (even Connor), and it feels like the whole season went full circle. But best of all, This Is Not For Tears actually has a pretty massive shift in the status quo. The ending where Kendall publicly pins the blame on Logan is both ridiculously cathartic and pleasantly surprising, as it sets up an entirely new power dynamic for Season 3. Finally, Kendall got a win. 

Overall, while some of the characters remain static, Succession's second season is overall a massive improvement on the first, with stronger pacing, a fantastic finale, and much greater relevancy.

4/5 Stars