It’s probably for the best Succession ends after season four
As Jesse Armstrong confirms the fourth season of the HBO drama will be the last, bittersweet feelings emerge
Film Features Succession
Nothing good can last forever, and this is especially true with television. Ahead of Succession’s fourth season premiere next month, show-runner Jesse Armstrong confirmed that this run will be the last, marking the end of the series. It’s always been a given that the show would reach its conclusion eventually, but with this news, we know the end is nigh.
While the initial reaction to this news is gut-wrenching pain and a wave of preemptive mourning, there’s also the feeling that this is all for the best. It’s better to see Succession go out on its own terms, culminating on a high note, rather than muddle on and risk a severe decline in quality. Knowing when to call it quits on a series is always tricky to figure out, but for the most part, many go on too long, running on fumes and memories of the glory days. At this point, if Armstrong feels confident in his decision to conclude the Roys’ story, we really have no other choice but to trust him.
From a plot perspective, we’ve always known the mechanics of the series could not propel the story forever. There are only so many times we can watch Brian Cox’s inimitable Logan Roy ruthlessly decimate his kids and further delay his long-pending retirement. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) can only go through much emotional turmoil, and Roman Roy’s (Kieran Culkin) streak as a sex pest will have to result in a lawsuit one of these days. From the very beginning, the show promised that someone will eventually have to step up and take the reins, and the power struggle will have to finally come to a close.
While it surely won’t be the last time we get to hear Strong wax on about his extensive acting methods, the show’s end does mean this will be the last time we see him fully embody fallen golden boy Kendall Roy and hear the stories of him terrorizing Cox with his intensity that come with that. As Strong recently said about bidding adieu to Kendall, “It will feel like a death, in a way.”
As the fourth season premieres next month, the show’s days are truly numbered. From the get-go, Succession has had an incredible run, solidifying HBO’s claim over prestige television, accruing critical acclaim, and spurring the valuable creation of Kendall and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) fan-cams. The drama has dominated the Emmys year after year, and it will be exciting to see the cast and crew walk away with—fingers crossed—one more sweep.
Succession’s end also serves as a reminder to cherish what you have when you have it, and I plan on savoring these Sunday nights of live tweeting all the way ‘til the end. See you March 26.
13 Comments
Great seeing half of the Peep Show team stretch out and do something interesting. Looking forward to whatever the hell he does next.
I find it suspicious that we got a trailer before this, with no mention of it being “The final season of the acclaimed series” and only now are they announcing it’s not coming back. I wouldn’t be shocked if HBO did some cost cutting math and then looked at season four and decided it could work as an ending. Probably figured one more season wouldn’t bring in enough new subscribers to justify it.
Eh…I don’t think so. All TV networks want prestigous shows that receive tons of critical attention and win awards. And I seem to remember Brian Cox opining that the show should end sooner rather than later back when S3 came out too.Not every show has to last forever – many are better off ending when they’re still going strong.
I agree they shouldn’t drag it out, but the decision to end it should be a creative one, not a “the cast are due pay bumps if we go do a fifth season” decision. So far Armstrong is acting like it was a creative decision, but I find it odd that they’d film a season unsure if they were done telling the story and then decide. Unless they did reshoots or something to give it a proper ending.
I just see no reason not to take Armstrong at face value here. I know Zaslav and WB Discover have been nixing shows like crazy but I can’t think of a single network that has ended a show winning major awards like Best Drama Series at the Emmy’s prematurely. It makes no sense to do that because the attention those wins bring alone is worth keeping it going. The only time I can think of a network even threatening to do it was AMC when they tried to cheap out of doing final seasons for Mad Men and Breaking Bad and eventually conceded. And that got leaked publicly. If anything, I would guess HBO wanted the show to keep going even longer and the announcement that it was ending was delayed because they were trying to convince Armstrong to do extra seasons. And if there actually was a quiet cancellation here, I would bet we’ll hear abut it at some point. Hell Brian Cox may just flat out talk about it as he doesn’t seem to care about upsetting other people at all nowadays.
You’re probably right, and I hadn’t considered that maybe Armstrong wanted out and HBO wanted more. I have a dim view of their current management!
This is one of several recent AVClub articles that are just like the inevitable AI/ChatGPT-written articles that will soon dominate sites like this – having the language and syntax of a human writer but saying absolutely nothing.
Yeah this isn’t even saying anything, it’s just a rewrite of the first couple of paragraphs from the Wikipedia adrticle.
Judging by the current TV climate this will be rebooted in about 6 months
It’s so crazy good (I am in season 2)
Season 3 is brilliant! You’ll love it.
Question for you folks , I’ve never watched it , because for the first 2 seasons I assumed it was a completely straight ‘rich people being awful and doing rich people things in a board room’ show , but is it actually funny-ish? Like is it serious with incidental humour , or more like , say The Righteous Gemstones , in that its sort of a dramedy?
It’s a “rich people are human and have shitty lives in shitty families too” kind of drama. I’m not impressed by how rich they are (the family is supposed to be the Murdochs, right?), but the drama is very watchable. Netflix’s The Crown is about really rich people who aren’t fictional, but it’s only watchable because you can ignore that bit.