REVIEW: Succession – Season Two [2019]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 10 | Runtime: 60 minutes
Release Date: August 11th, 2019 (USA)
Studio: Home Box Office (HBO)
Creator(s): Jesse Armstrong

Are you asking if you can blackmail me?

I hope Rob Yang’s agent got a raise because the magic they unleashed to get him in the opening credits for season one of “Succession” pales in comparison to repeating the deed in season two. He briefly appears in only three episodes—the last of which is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him expository shot in “Argestes”. I keep waiting for him to pop back up and make good on his threat in the first episode only to constantly be disappointed. Maybe that’s the point. Keep us guessing about more shadowy dealings off-screen. Maybe Sandy and Stewy have Yang’s Lawrence Yee in their back pocket. Or maybe not.

Sadly, the same can be said about Hiam Abbass’ Marcia. She was the most fascinating character of them all in season one and I really looked forward to seeing how Jesse Armstrong and company would expand on her role and the hold she has on Logan Roy (Brian Cox). We get a bit of that insofar as her ability to keep him on-edge and never relinquish her power in their relationship, but that truth arrives more from her absence than presence. Is she another character waiting in the wings? Maybe. Or perhaps the show simply realized it was juggling too many roles that just couldn’t earn equal weight once the setting moved from convalescence at home to hunkering down at work.

Interestingly enough, it’s this fact that actually makes season two a welcome step up in quality. With a singular focus—Logan needing to beat the hostile “bear hug” initiated by his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) before tragic circumstances made the turncoat come back into the fold with tail between legs—the screenwriters are able to buckle down and make everything relevant to that one act. Shiv’s (Sarah Snook) career and marriage become guided by her hope to help her father in that quest and perhaps end up being the next CEO of RoyCo. Roman (Kieran Culkin) finds himself having to do real work to establish himself as a trusted piece of that puzzle, his persona growing more serious and purposeful as the season continues.

And then there’s Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Greg (Nicholas Braun) as the scapegoats and comic relief—the inside outsiders for the others to offer up as sacrifice whenever things get too far out of control. Do their actions in the first season come back to haunt them? Or will they help save them by realizing just how cutthroat the others are regardless of love or blood connecting them? That’s where the starts and stops of the narrative arrive this time. Rather than a major player like Kendall constantly igniting firestorms only to be sabotaged by those on-screen or the writers themselves, the shifting conflicts arrive on a much smaller scale in service of the main thrust. It lets us as viewers enjoy the ride without the whiplash.

As such, I can say there were really any standout episodes. Where season one’s episodic nature made it feel tonally disjointed and frustrating, it did allow for two or three unforgettable chapters within the whole. I don’t say this as a criticism of season two, though. I personally find it an advantage because it makes the collection stronger than its parts. I found myself wholly invested in the drama and Kendall’s emotional ebbs and flows as he dealt with the guilt of what happened in the previous season’s finale. How was that going to affect this proxy war? How was Logan’s leverage over him and Greg’s leverage over the company going to play out? As time moves and the noose tightens, we finally get to see how everyone reacts with backs against the wall.

And the payoff is perfect. “This Is Not for Tears” may not pop since it’s a rather visually staid affair on the family yacht with everyone debating who to “kill” to ensure the sun rises again, but it does deliver an ending that makes you reevaluate everything that came before. Because while we’re supposed to believe everything is about Logan saving his life’s work from the incompetence of his admittedly spoiled and entitled children, one could reinterpret it all as an elaborate test that intentionally pits them against him to see if they’ll crumble or fight back. Once the writing is on the wall that something must give and weakness cannot be tolerated, Logan forces them to show their worth. Will they apologize for daring to overstep? Or will they push the knife in deeper? We know which he’d choose in their place.