The original post: /r/television by /u/Zeconation on 2025-11-27 19:30:46+00:00.
I don’t know about you, but I usually ask people if they liked the certain show/movie before I start watching. So, I asked someone I know if they watched succession since they like that kind of show. But the answer I got was quite unexpected. They told me they were unsure about the premise of the show so they didn’t bother.
Unfortunately, I bothered to watch the very first episode of succession a week ago, and it was one of the most weirdly written pilot episodes I have ever witnessed. The pacing, dialogues and the idea of trying to do everything all at once were too much. Then, I asked reddit, and some people said the first episode is the worst episode it will get better.
So, I have watched the entire season in five days, which I could’ve done much earlier, but some of the dialogues gave me a really bad headache.
I had to mentally reset before keep watching the rest of the show. Some people claim that this is a very boring show, and that’s why it’s really hard to watch but that is not what I think and I will get into it definitely.
I’m going to approach this differently than my other initial post and I will separate it into parts. The first part is going to be a general critique of the show, and the second part is going to be more detailed with certain scenes from the show.
Part 1
The whole season has 3 major breaking points(events)and the first one happens quite early in the show. The medical emergency brings chaos to the family. They try to decide who is worthy of leading the company but that drama gets nullified as the old guy makes a remarkable recovery and gets back to being a boss, which makes the older brother even more bitter.
The timing of his medical emergency happens very soon after he announces his plans about the company’s future which is the harbinger of what is yet to come with the plot.
The second turning point is when the older brother, Kendall, tries to overthrow his dad with a vote of no confidence. The whole buildup to the scene was quite well done, but the scene itself was utterly anticlimactic.
Yet again, another emergency contributed to the plot greatly, changing the entire course of the story. I thought the old man was going to anticipate such a move and outsmart his son if he was to survive this attempt.
The third one, is the sadly the worst one of them all. Which is also happens at the final episode of the show. Where they been building up the same scenario but it ends up with another coincidence that will drive the plot, literally.
New writers usually get advice from experienced people when they keep relying on mere luck to plot going. But I don’t think these are inexperienced writers nor they should need any help from outside.
But seems like someone should’ve told them.
Maybe it wasn’t just a coincidence, maybe it was the boss who put the deer there and he planned this all along. He even arranged the eye witness before the incident. Why not? Sounds like a good plot and story, isn’t it?
Let’s be real. If I went to chatgpt asked for better script this is what I pretty much expect. A story with a plot holes so deep that you can fit the entire universe.
Top it all off, this was the season finale plot twist. Scenes! Absolute Scenes!!!
Part 2
We have the Greg. He is a bit outsider to the family. He is a bit weird just like the plot. He exist because they thought they needed a weird young guy who usually have trouble communicating.
But turns out… We don’t have one Greg but many Gregs. Socially inept characters with strange dialogues and inconsistent and unclear motives.
Out of all the siblings, Shiv seemed like the only character at least half decent at communicating. But she has fatal flaws.
For instance, she have a relationship with a guy who is so goddamn irrelevant to the story I can’t even remember his name. Yet, he gets a lot of screen time. Those screen times usually happens with Greg since they work together and oh god, those dialogues are so radioactive you can’t be exposed to them too long.
When people say this is a boring show they are usually wrong because boring shows at least have a few side characters that can keep the show at least watchable. But these characters do the complete opposite.
Boring shows also have backbone story and even though they show clips of backstory in the intro they never delve in the show. Strangely, in one of the epsiodes Roman mentions about being sent away because of his older brother which makes the whole scene too chaotic and irritating. It’s like they are just making shit up on the fly to fill the screen time.
They also try to expand on Shiv’s political story arc and they try to tie it with main story in the threarpy episode. Ultimately, that was an abosulute failure as she gets more upset, the old guy gets mad and we also have the rebel son trying to fuel the fire in that scene. Not to mention, how did he even ended up there?
Let’s go back step by step and remember how he got there.
He walks into bar just like the classic jokes and orders sparkling water because there is no non-alcholic beer. But only a few seconds later he orders double Smiroff on the rocks he pauses like he is having a moment.
He drinks it anyway. Still, the scene feels like having his own moment there but then they just pivot towards a weird conversation just to introduce the junkies in the bar.
He takes his drink and he joins them and you go like, ‘‘Okay. I guess he came here with a plan and those junkies part of his plan. I wonder what he is planning.’’
Dude straight smokes crack with junkies and calls his family while he is high on drugs. It’s really comedic how he escalated from Sparkling water to this. TO THIS!!!
He is an ex-addict but c’mon. Speedrunners could get jealous over this.
Back to his plan. What plan? What plot? What story?
I guess writers were those junkies all along.
My take on this show: It’s show that is made to troll people. Maybe even a social experiment. All I know is this is just a crap wrapped in a gold foil.