Well. Here we are, the last weekend of the Trump presidency. For four years, the world has watched a wealthy New York family led by an immoral patriarch try to ruin a nation. And one of the best shows on television during that time premiered at the midpoint of the administration and happened to be about a wealthy New York family led by an immoral patriarch. If you don’t know what series I’m talking about… maybe this will trigger:
Jacek heard me playing this just now and within three seconds of hearing the theme music, his head popped up, there was a big smile on his face, “Ohhhhh… when?!?”
Not yet. But his reaction is what I’m curious about – I mean, I too can’t f-cking wait for the third season of Succession but I’m wondering whether or not appetites will change once Trump is out of office and there will at least be a semblance of decency restored to the White House. And also whether after living through a year – or more? – of the pandemic by the time the show comes back on the air will have an impact on the audience. Maybe none of it will make a difference. But there can definitely be a relationship between cultural mood and what is culturally consumed and it may be interesting to see if Succession is a marker for that.
Succession is the reigning Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series. The series won multiple Emmys in fact and the highly anticipated third season is now, finally!, in production. Still no word on when it will premiere but in production is good, in production means they’re underway, and it’s not like HBO doesn’t need the content. At the end of December, Variety reported that “HBO saw more than half of its adults 18-49 linear audience disappear in 2020”. There are many reasons for this, including the end of Game of Thrones, but the point is… there is no way HBO is all like, oh hey, Succession, take your time, take as long as you won’t, we can wait. They do not want to wait. They want something buzzy, they want a show that everyone will be talking about, they want their Outstanding Drama Series Emmy winner back on the air as soon as possible.
Now that they’re shooting, they’ve announced cast additions for the new series. Sanaa Lathan, Jihae, and Linda Emond are joining for season three. Sanaa will play a lawyer, Jihae is a PR specialist, and Linda is a White House aide. Who needs a lawyer? I mean the possibilities are endless. Any and all members of the Roy family needs lawyers, they’re corrupt as f-ck. Any and all members of the Roy family could also use crisis management, so it’ll be interesting to see who Jihae’s character is working with as there’s a civil war happening at Waystar|Royco and they’ll all be trying to manipulate the media in their favour. We already know that Logan has a relationship with the White House that he exploits regularly so, clearly, they’re doing more on that storyline which…to go back to the beginning of this post, is not out of the realm of possibility, a billionaire weaponising his relationship with the president to destroy his son?
Up to this point, Kendall has not given us any reason to think that, for a prolonged amount of time anyway, he can battle his father. But that was the promise of the end of season two – that Kendall is finally ready. If you haven’t already, get on Succession. You’ll be primed and ready to go by the time they release the new season.
