Succession Review: The Best Finance TV Show and One of the Best Shows of All Time

Succession just ended a few days ago.

When a top TV show ends, it is sad.

All our favorite shows will end one day.

In this case, it is Succession that has done so.

Succession ran for 4 excellent seasons, but no more.

Now it is over.

And now I am sad.

But unlike Connor Roy at Lester’s funeral, I can write a real eulogy via my final review of this show.

This is the first time I’ve ever reviewed a book, movie, or TV show multiple times.

But it is just that good, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you need to watch it ASAP.

It is not only the best finance TV show or movie but also one of the all-time great TV series.

I’ll explain both these claims, say whether it stuck the landing (yes), and admit a few weaknesses if you watch it for the “educational value.”

This review will be spoiler-free beyond the pilot episode because I hate when people ruin shows for me:

Succession Review: The Show Explained

If you haven’t seen it or heard anything about it, Succession could be described as “Game of Thrones meets corporate America.”

The series follows the Roy family, owners of global media conglomerate “Waystar Royco.”

The Founder/CEO and family patriarch, Logan Roy, turns 80 as the show starts, and he runs into health problems, which leads his children (Kendall, Roman, Shiv, and half-brother Connor) to battle for control of the company.

The surface-level conflict concerns which one will “win” and become CEO.

But the deeper conflict is that their father doesn’t love them, and they’ll sacrifice almost anything for his love and attention – even though it’s a bit like Charlie Brown and Lucy’s football.

The four seasons see the children scheme, plot, ally, and backstab each other – ostensibly in pursuit of power, but in reality, in pursuit of validation.

It’s equal parts comedy and drama, and the writers frequently execute 180-degree tone shifts in scenes and somehow make it work.

The characters feel more like real people than in anything else I’ve watched recently, and you get a sense of their strengths, flaws, and quirks in seconds.

They are not “likable,” but they are interesting, and your opinion of each one flips back and forth over the episodes.

The show is also highly relevant to finance because entire seasons revolve around mergers, acquisitions, private equity, and shareholder revolts.

And yes, there’s even a plot point about debt covenants, of all things.

Bankers and other financiers play a major role in everything that happens on screen, from setting up buyouts to staging activist campaigns.

The details of some of these “finance plots” are unrealistic, but they still give you a great feel for the world.

Succession vs. Other Finance-Related TV Shows and Movies

The two most recent comparable shows are Billions and Industry, and if you go further back, you could even add Mad Men, Suits, Silicon Valley, and House of Lies to this list.

And… the only one in the same league as Succession is Mad Men.

All these shows can be entertaining, but the writing quality isn’t the same.

Taking Billions and Industry as examples, the characters feel more like caricatures or, at least, far less dimensional.

Sure, we get some sense of Bobby Axelrod’s family and life outside of his job as a hedge fund PM… but it doesn’t factor into the show’s stories in a major way.

Also, the character motivations are a bit weak.

Yes, they all want to get rich or stay rich, but what else is there on an emotional level? We understand their wants but not their needs.

Industry has similar issues (at least from what I saw of Season 1): it’s a fine portrayal of what you’ll do at a large bank, but it feels very work-focused.

Succession works because it effectively combines the corporate/finance world and the characters’ emotional journeys.

Without the big corporate events, it would feel more like a soap opera; without the emotional journeys, it would be incredibly boring.

Succession vs. Other Top TV Shows (Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc.)

Now that it’s over, I feel comfortable saying that Succession should rank as one of the all-time TV greats, in the same category as Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Sopranos.

These shows all have their strengths and weaknesses, and in some ways, they’re better than Succession.

For example, I would argue that Breaking Bad has a better, more focused story, and that it’s more exciting to watch.

Meanwhile, The Wire covers deep themes about society, education, politics, and the criminal justice system that no other show has come close to matching.

Succession stands out by doing two things extremely well:

1. Conveying nuance in each character’s interactions and dialogue.
2. Making every character, even minor ones, feel dimensional (i.e., they have plausible contradictions).

Imagine that you put 20 people in a room, showed them Breaking Bad, The Wire, and Succession, and then asked them to write essays about the characters in each one.

You’d get plenty of good essays about Walter White, Omar Little, or Stringer Bell – but most of them would say similar things.

They’re all great, well-developed characters, but their motivations for Decision X or Action Y are usually clear.

By contrast, with Succession, you’d get essays with completely different interpretations of the characters.

Why did Greg betray Tom in this one scene? Why did Roman choke up at the last minute? Why did Shiv change her mind about a major power play? Why did Kendall self-sabotage himself?

No two people would offer the same explanations for these because the show spells out very little.

It drops hints and implies motivations, but it’s up to you to connect the dots.

All great writing uses subtext to some extent, but Succession uses it more effectively than almost any other show.

Body language, facial expressions, and unspoken words often ring louder than any piece of dialogue.

As Kendall Roy even said in one episode:

“Words are just, what? Nothing. Complicated air flow.”

Succession Review: Did It Stick the Landing?

As anyone still upset over Game of Thrones can tell you, TV endings are hard – and a bad ending can ruin an otherwise great show.

I’m happy to report that Succession’s final season (#4) was its strongest and that the final episode was satisfying.

I wouldn’t say it was amazing, but it was a solid conclusion that logically wrapped up the main characters’ stories.

I’d put it in the same category as the Breaking Bad finale: good, but mostly predictable with a few smaller surprises.

Some people might be disappointed because their favorite character did not “win,” but anyone rating this a 1 / 10 is media-illiterate or didn’t understand the show.

Succession Review: Flaws and Weaknesses

With all that said, the show does have some weaknesses.

As I mentioned above, the characters and the acting are stronger than the overall story.

You can see this in a few issues throughout the show’s run:

1. Repetition – Some people found the betrayals and scheming repetitive, and they do have a point: one of the Roy children attempts to take over the company at least 3 times throughout the show. Each attempt uses a different strategy and rationale, but his goal is always the same.
2. Uneven Start – It took me a few episodes to get into the show and connect with the characters, and in Season 1, it felt like it was still finding its footing.
3. Contrivances – Some of the events and corporate/financial details around M&A deals and deal processes are not realistic and occasionally took me out of the story.

As one example, there are several important Board votes throughout the show.

Many of these votes conveniently happen to be tied until the final person – always one of the lead characters – gets to vote.

When this happens, we get a dramatic scene or argument, and everything changes based on this decision.

As another example, many M&A deals in the show have a convenient habit of falling apart or almost falling apart at the last minute.

M&A deals fall apart all the time in real life, but when there is a signed agreement and a fiduciary duty to vote “yes,” last-minute changes and cancellations are unlikely.

On that note, although I thought Season 4 was fantastic, the timeline felt contrived because each episode takes place in a single day, and the entire season spans only 1-2 weeks.

The problem is that many very important events happen in this short period: an election, a major deal close, a family wedding, and more.

On a character level, this works well because it forces different people to interact under stressful conditions.

But looking at the bigger picture, there’s no real reason why all these events had to happen so close together.

It seemed like drama for the sake of drama, which is fine for the character work, but a bit unrealistic for the plot.

Why You Should Watch Succession ASAP If You Haven’t Already

I don’t know if I can say that Succession is “better” than the other all-time greats I mentioned above.

But I can say that it is my favorite show and the most entertaining and relevant series around if you’re interested in finance.

Its real weakness is not anything I wrote about above, but the fact that it’s very much a “now” show.

If you think about the year 2050 or 2100 and assume that human civilization still exists, people will still watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy or the early seasons of Game of Thrones.

They’re relatively timeless stories about consistent human struggles, and they’re set in alternate timelines and universes.

But Succession is a product of the late 2010s and early 2020s, with Big Tech and digital media rising and legacy-media companies sinking.

And the sooner you watch it, the more you’ll appreciate the broader context, the corporate maneuvering, and all the big events.

As a bonus, you might also walk away glad that you weren’t born into a multi-billion-dollar family fortune.

The Roy kids all were, and it didn’t seem to help them much.

Further Reading

If you liked this article, you might be interested in Finance TV Shows in 2019: The Full Round-Up.