I believe the last TV show I really watched, religiously followed, was Seinfeld. It ran from 1989 to 1998 on NBC. When it ended, I basically watched sports, movies, news, and Seinfeld reruns on the television. Before Seinfeld, I was obsessed with MASH and Hill Street Blues. I would also watch Friends and the Simpsons but not with the same fervor or dedication.
After Seinfeld, the three major networks suddenly no longer became the place to watch TV shows. I have certainly heard others talk enthusiastically about shows on HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other networks, and streaming services. These have ranged from The Sopranos to Breaking Bad to Downton Abbey. People have told me to watch Mrs. Maisel, Cobra Kai, and The Queen’s Gambit. I have watched an episode or two or parts of episodes of these shows and really never took a fancy to them.
In the midst of the Pandemic Summer of 2020, we binged watched a Turkish telenovela, Winter Sun (Kış Güneşi), on Amazon Prime that someone recommended. It was a good story that took us a good week to get through the three or four seasons. The most memorable parts of watching that series was seeing salt of the earth mother character interact with her comic relief husband and astonishingly roll a yalanchi sarma with one hand.
I tried to watch another series the debuted in 2014, The Flash. The Flash was one of my favorite comic book superheroes. I loved his super speed superpower as that superspeed was the antithesis of my running skills which were closer to that of a slug than the track stars in my family. I watched a few episodes of The Flash with great anticipation. Alas, I was disappointingly bored.
Recently, a few close friends were talking about an HBO series, Succession. They were very excited about the third season that was about to launch. They asked if I was a fan. I had to confess that until that moment, I had never heard of the series. They were a bit surprised at how uniformed I was and that I was not watching it. Both thought that it was a series I would probably like. As I value their opinion, I put it on my reading/watch list.
Finishing up my grading for the Fall semester, I decided to watch the first few episodes of Succession during my breaks. It did engage me enough to commit to the full series which is 29 episodes at the time of this writing.
Succession is about the uber rich and powerful Roy family. The patriarch, Logan, immigrated from Scotland to Canada and then to New York where he founded and grew media, theme park, and cruise line conglomerate on the scale and scope of the Murdoch and Disney empires. Logan Roy is a savvy, focused, political, and ruthless leader obsessed with ruling his empire and having his business thrive. This obsession takes precedence over his own family when they get in the way or threaten him.
Logan, played superbly by Brian Cox, is aging. In fact, the first episode begins with him having a stroke like health issue, and the theme of the series is set: who will succeed Logan? He fully recovers in a few episodes and becomes again the lion he always was. He has four children Kendall, Siobhan (Shiv), Roman, and Connor. For sure, Kendall, Shiv, and Roman are vying to run the company with Kendall being the most ambitious about it.
The appeal of Succession for me is that it mostly takes place in Manhattan and gives a presumable insight to the highest levels of corporate/family intrigue as well as the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The problem is the problem with all these telenovelas. They simply move too slowly. I get weary of watching.
One of the objectives of such series is to hook the viewers up front and keep them watching for the duration. At least, that is how I see it. Succession would have been superb in a third or the sixth of time… maybe a three-hour movie.
I imagine that I am in the minority on this.
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