What Succession gets wrong about politics
The show's election night was gripping and realistic. Everything that follows is a hot mess.
This post contains Succession season 4 spoilers.
Succession is probably the most realistic of the prestige TV shows. Instead of shows like the Sopranos and Yellowstone that try to raise the emotional stakes by leaving us with a body count every episode, I like how Succession delves deep into one or two complex situations every season, letting them marinate over time, much like how a major business acquisition might play out in the real world. The Sopranos is possibly the best show ever made, but I don’t actually believe that a real-life mob boss has to deal with the number of unique life-or-death situations that Tony Soprano does every week. Succession seems like a more realistic portrayal of the amount of drama, and type of drama, you would actually find in the high-stakes business world.
This also extends to the drama of a network decision desk on election night, as portrayed in last week’s election episode. I haven’t personally been inside a network…
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