so i'm like 8 episodes into succession and i am having a bit of a think about it. i find it very interesting that i can't fucking stand any of these characters, but that i'm still intrigued by the story progression enough right now to continue watching. i guess it's sort of Shakespearean in that regard, in that you're just waiting for all of these political maneuvers to unfold and you can't help but wonder how it will all shake out?

but there's something v specific about the moral decrepitude, crassness, and overall Bad Vibes of the Roy family that... still isn't exactly shaking out to me. i'm no stranger to HATEFUL characters. i love some truly wretched characters (lestat). i especially love when a story sets me up to hate someone and then heel-turns my emotions back upon me such that i end up stanning them (hank brba, cuno disco elysium, richie the bear). but i don't think those are the aims of this show... probably for the better, given that these people are objectively despicable stand-ins for the real life people who have a vested interest in destroying the moral and ethical fabric of society for personal gain.

but the problem is, that leaves a bunch of characters who you can't really like... attach to? in any meaningful way, other than "i hope they all get the guillotine, except greg, i hope greg just grows out of whatever that is far away from this family, and shiv, who is still a shitty person but like, in a comparatively normal way". and i say this not to be like a moral prescriptivist that we should only have stories about the Working Man or people who are The Good Guys (i meannnnn... one of my favorite TV series of all time is about a group of disconnected white ad agency men!). i'm saying from a story perspective, right now it kind of feels like reading American Psycho where you just sit there nodding the entire time that yep, patrick bateman sure is an evil guy, and he murders people. great. noted. close book.

i guess in that sense it is great for people who enjoy armchair psychologizing what went wrong with each and every family member, because there is a lot of that to go around. i don't really know if that's enough to keep me interested though.

i suppose there's still ample time for that to change, and i will love that catharsis when it comes around, but... for now at least the machinations are interesting.