The success of “Succession” proves the virtue of hateful characters

Be careful how many episodes you watch in a sitting. As the old joke says of Scotch whisky, one hour of “Succession” is fine. Two may be too many: without intending to, you are liable to start mimicking the foul-mouthed way the characters all talk, threatening to “beast” a housemate for leaving the top off the toothpaste, or grind their bones for burning the toast, or jam a Mont Blanc down their throat. Only with added expletives.

Since it was first broadcast in 2018, funny swearing has been at the heart of the success of “Succession”. But the lurid slurs exchanged by the members of the ultra-rich Roy family are the least of their vices. In their reptilian world, alliances, friendships, even marriages are made or betrayed purely out of self-interest. Weaknesses and secrets, even the darkest, are opportunities for blackmail—swiftly forgotten, since the victim would have done the same. As they backstab each other for control of Waystar Royco, a media conglomerate, monstrous Logan Roy (Brian Cox, pictured) and his children fend off outsiders—rivals, prosecutors, regulators—like some medieval hilltop clan. They are all borderline psychopaths, for whom only yacht-owners count as real people, and more or less equally hateful.