Fans grieving the end of the smash hit series could find a TV replacement
After four seasons jam-packed with cut-throat boardroom drama and eviscerating sibling rivalry, “Succession” has come to an end.
It was a “perfect, terrible goodbye”, said The Guardian, as show runners brought the popular dark comedy series to a gripping conclusion.
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Many loyal viewers were keen to see more of Kendall, Shiv and Roman, the damaged children at the centre of the embittered Roy family, but speaking to The New Yorker, show creator Jesse Armstrong settled on a farewell in the fourth season, adding “I’ve never thought this could go on forever”.
But while viewers can no longer tune in for the latest chapter of the media dynasty’s power-plays, there are other TV shows which may provide similarly immersive experiences.
Beef
The “best new series of the year”, said the Telegraph, the “wickedly funny” series about revenge has proven a smash hit on Netflix, pulling in "more than 962 million minutes watched" in its debut week, added Variety.
The official Netflix plot line describes how “a road rage incident between two strangers sparks a feud that brings out their darkest impulses”.
Glamour dubbed the comedy a “cult hit”, with promises of “twists, turns and heart-wrenching moments – not to mention stellar performances from its lead cast”.
It’s likely to be a favourite among “Succession” viewers, as the shows share common traits of black comedy, characters at war, and cold-hearted revenge.
The Morning Show
The Emmy award-winning show has caught viewers’ attention with an all-star cast of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carrell and Jon Hamm, to name but a few.
However, it is the machinations of a media machine with which “Succession” fans are likely to find a parallel in this Apple TV+ hit.
The show spotlights a morning television programme embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal, and the media executives and presenters who try to chart a path forward.
The Los Angeles Times described “The Morning Show” as a “mix of melodrama, and well-written interactions that genuinely feel human”, ultimately dubbing the show as “fairly entrancing”.
Viewers can also expect to see characters grapple with key themes such as “the pandemic…cancel culture, sexuality and race”, Forbes added, which seem to push forward the contemporaneous theme at the show’s heart.
The White Lotus
For fans of the often off-beat humour “Succession” has created, the comedy-drama anthology series centring around a glittering paradise resort may be a logical choice.
The satirical comedy has secured rave reviews in its two seasons, with the show heralded as “TV’s hot property”, according to the Independent, and an “unqualified hit”.
At its surface, “The White Lotus” centres around a myriad dysfunctional characters thrown together in a five-star resort, and forced to reckon with a murder mystery.
But at its core, the show is “magnificently monstrous”, said The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan, as a story which “wrestles with inequality and the forms of corruption and suffering…it causes”.
“The White Lotus” appears to hold up a mirror to the bombastic characters created by show runner Mike White. The show undoubtedly focuses on the “uber-rich” in “darkly funny ways”, said Stylist. This will undoubtedly resonate with viewers of “Succession”.
The Sopranos
“The Sopranos” is often dubbed “the greatest television show in history”, said The Spectator, with fans still raving about the 2000s drama centring around a New Jersey Mafia boss attempting to navigate his life as a family man, a crime leader, and his worsening mental health.
The show manages to make its “original source material”, such as popular films “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas”, “look naive”, the magazine added, such is the acting prowess of its central characters, and the writing of its script.
For those who revelled in the dysfunctional family drama of “Succession”, a similar tone is struck with “The Sopranos” as power-hungry associates grapple for the crown – while being prepared to kill on their rise to the top.
Barry
An HBO series, much like “Succession”, “Barry” also reached its final conclusion on Sunday after four seasons of riveting television.
Also scooping up several Emmy wins and nominations, HBO describes the show as starring Bill Hader “as a depressed low-rent hitman from the Midwest”. He reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to execute a hit on an aspiring actor, but soon finds himself embraced by the theatre community, and keen to balance his two conflicting worlds.
While the concept may appear outlandish, Hader, who also conceived the dark comedy “made the culture of violence and the culture of showbiz into collaborators”, The New York Times’s James Poniewozik opined, as the “brutality of show business and the performativity of murder” merged together.
The simultaneous conclusion of both “Barry” and “Succession” is likely to pique the interest of “Succession” fans, and both programmes have been lauded, with the Independent adding this is “the end of a glorious TV era”, as TV has “lost its crown jewels”.
However, the newspaper added the “smart, twisty dramedy” is likely to capture the attention of many television fans who have yet to tune in.
