In ‘Succession,’ the Very Wealthy Are Very, Very Totally different

The holdings of Waystar Royco — Hollywood studios, cruise strains, newspapers, amusement parks, a king-making right-wing news channel — make Ewing Oil seem like a franchise fuel station. We know solely vaguely how Logan Roy constructed his empire, however it was enabled partly by the media-consolidation and antitrust deregulation, starting within the “Dallas”/Reagan period, that allowed his real-life analogues like Rupert Murdoch to make their very own piles.

Meanwhile, the smaller TV audiences of the cable and streaming age have allowed “Succession” to thrive as a extra particular and extra area of interest entertainment. A sequence within the three-network period needed to enchantment to tens of tens of millions of individuals simply to remain on the air — “Dallas” wanted to serve a crowd-pleasing unfold of barbecue. “Succession” can afford to be a rarefied, decadent pleasure, like an ortolan, the deep-fried songbird, eaten entire, that was featured in a memorable Season 1 meal.

“Dallas,” like its followers from “Dynasty” via “Empire,” was within the populist soap-opera custom of letting the viewers delight within the woes of wealthy individuals. Its characters have been like us — jealous, envious, heartbroken — simply with extra money and fewer happiness.

“Succession” has its crowd-pleasing and common parts too. Logan was an irresistible brute, capable of pack a Shakespeare soliloquy’s price of emotion right into a two-word curse. The Roy kids — Kendall, Roman, Shiv and their half brother, Connor — have developed a survivors’ bond and survivalist cutthroat instincts; one arm joins the group hug, the opposite holds a dagger. At root, the sequence’s household themes are talk-show easy: Hurt individuals damage individuals.

But its voice, as set by the creator, Jesse Armstrong, is arch and referential; its particulars demand a variety of information or at the very least the willingness to Google. As Logan is laid to relaxation in a mausoleum that he purchased for $5 million from a dot-com pet-supply mogul — one final chilly and costly residence — Shiv jokes, “Cat meals Ozymandias.”