‘Succession’ Season Three: Well-Crafted Characters Are The Beating-Heart & Creatives Ooze Confidence [Review]

HBO’s “Succession” finally returns this month, over a year after it won the Emmy for Best Drama (along with Writing, Directing, and Best Actor). Concerns that the pandemic-delayed shooting would impact the show’s momentum are abated within minutes of the season premiere. Logan Roy wouldn’t waste time getting to the meat of the discussion in a review so what’s important to state up front here is that “Succession” is as smart, witty, funny, and riveting as it’s ever been. The writers take the confidence of that widespread critical acclaim and increasingly vibrant cultural footprint and lean into what it does so very well.

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The second season of “Succession” ended with Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) refusing to take the fall for his company’s cover-up of crimes on their cruise lines, revealing in a press conference that patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) not only knew about all of it but got his hands dirty in the actual settlements. The brilliant season premiere, cleverly titled “Secession,” picks up almost immediately after that seismic event with Logan, Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook) basically on the run, trying to plan their next move while also considering lists of countries without extradition policies with the United States. The visual language of “Succession” is remarkable in that a show that’s almost entirely about dialogue feels like it’s constantly moving, especially in the season premiere.

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As Kendall rides the high of his decision, everyone is trying to determine the actual fallout and which side they want to be on in this battle between father and son if it turns to actual war. Much of the early part of season three is about taking sides as Logan and Kendall stand on opposite ends and Roman, Shiv, Connor (Alan Ruck), Frank (Peter Friedman), Gerri (J. Smith-Cameron), Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), and Greg (Nicholas Braun) scramble in the middle.

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What creator Jesse Armstrong and his team of writers get so right on “Succession” is the complexity that emerges when personal and business dynamics intertwine. As the walls around Waystar’s history of malfeasance collapse, everyone is trying to figure out best to avoid the falling debris, even if that means cutting off a branch of their own family tree. Kendall has become one of the most fascinating characters on television, and his debilitating need for acceptance becomes even sharper as he essentially goes to war with his own family and company, while also trying to figure out how to keep the latter from entirely going under. He wants to one-up his father, but he also can’t exactly be the man who toppled one of the biggest companies in the world.

Can Kendall thread the needle and wrest power while also not looking like Judas to the world from whom he craves so much attention? The way the writers incorporate Kendall’s need for social fame into this season is genius. In an early episode, he plays “Good Tweet, Bad Tweet” with his entourage, which is a pretty self-explanatory game that reveals how any attention fuels Kendall, good or bad. However, when Kendall’s faux sincerity about trying to do the right thing starts to backfire, the show pivots to unpacking again how private and public interests don’t always align. Where do ego and cause intersect? Can they in people like the Roys?

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The ensemble has improved with every season, enlivened by some of the leanest, tightest dialogue on television. Alternating withering criticism with a vicious sense of humor, every episode of “Succession” this season hums, especially as the Logan/Kendall battle unfolds over the first half of the season. (Without spoiling, there’s a notable pivot at the halfway point that feels intentional, almost like this season is divided into two arcs.) The manner in which the writers are constantly pulling at the best interests of their characters is the beating heart of this show, and everyone this season is trying to figure how to be the last man (or woman) standing as they navigate the structures designed to take powerful people down and turn to the ones designed to protect them.

Strong again feels like the standout—he has a beat in episode three that should get his name engraved on the Emmy, and another in episode seven, just in case—but the ensemble continues to make their case as the best on television. The dynamic between Braun and Macfadyen is even sharper with the threat of prison time in the air; Culkin has shaped Roman’s selfishness into a fascinating need to be on the winning team; Snook finds a way to make Shiv’s belief that she’s probably the smartest person in the room into both an asset and a flaw. And the third season continues last year’s gift with guest stars, adding Sanaa Lathan as a high-powered attorney, Adrien Brody as a billionaire concerned about his Waystar investment, and Alexander Skarsgard as a tech founder who could help the Roys with some financial lifeboats, among others.

“Succession” avoids a pandemic plotline this season but doesn’t seem to have completely ignored timeliness. The idea of corporate responsibility has rippled across the country with increasing velocity in recent years. Watching these characters navigate a world in which social media needs concrete information about what people knew and exactly when they knew it brings to mind recent defenses of people associated with Scott Rudin, for example. As it has been for the first two seasons, “Succession” brilliantly takes place in a world that may not be fictional but also is clearly designed to highlight inequities and complexities of the real one from how media impacts the White House (and vice versa) to how fragile insecurities can lead to decisions that affect bottom lines everywhere.

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Most of all, “Succession” is crisper, funnier, and more confident than ever. It’s possible that this could be the season that some casual viewers realize that these people are not going to have redemption arcs—if anything, the writers seem to be underlining some of the Roys most awful traits to remind people that they’re not traditional “good guys”—but it’s hard to see too many fans jumping ship in season three. It may be rocky waters for the Roy family, but it’s smooth sailing for the show about them. [A]

Season three premieres on October 17 on HBO.