Attention, this article contains spoilers for the third episode of the fourth season of Succession, which HBO Max aired this past Monday.
Death on television is an ideal dramatic vein but, creatively, it is tricky terrain. The writers' obsession with paying homage to the deceased, treating the death of a loved one with respect by the public after hours and hours of welcoming him in the living room, usually provides predictable episodes of dishonest crying, so artificial that the construction and loss treatment. Conveying the bewilderment and sadness of those who survive him, the conflicting feelings when the situation requires it, the arbitrariness of life and the solemnity of the occasion is, as I said, difficult. But Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession, has been able to convey all this dramatic power with realism, coherence and respect. It is possible that since Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) had to process the death of his father in Friday night lights that such a focused, careful, emotional (and, curiously, far removed) script, direction, and performance exercise was not seen. of the tearful) and representative of the loss.
The death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), in fact, takes place off camera, a decision that, instead of being anticlimactic, contributes to transmit naturalness to the event: the viewer cannot realize how the deadly arc of the film is finished. character because he receives the news just as we learn of the death of a loved one. Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) are at their brother Connor's (Alan Ruck) wedding when they get a call from Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).
His father, while on the private plane, had trouble breathing, went to the bathroom, and was found dying. Not even the assisted breathing carried out by the crew members could change the condition of the patriarch, who died before landing again on US soil. They had to settle for a false consolation: that, through the hands-free, they were each able to dedicate a farewell to a father who was possibly already dead at the time of pronouncing the words.
The distance between the three brothers and their father's body creates a situation of confusion: they receive information that he is possibly already dead, but there is no doctor with the phone in hand to confirm the death. Jesse Armstrong shows absolute mastery of a fact as human as it is irrefutable: that we can never be prepared for news like this. The actors navigate these sequences with nerves, desolation and frustration, in which the characters struggle against a truth that they must accept while searching for affectionate words for their father figure.
There are differences between them. Roman, the most physically abused by his father but also the most dependent on him, is more conciliatory but through artifice: like someone who imitates a sequence from a tear-jerking film, with another model of the leading family, due to the inability to face the called from his own emotions. Instead, Shiv and Kendall, who are more confident in themselves and in their determination to stay angry with their father, conjure up a similar thought: they don't forgive him, nor do they act as if Logan wasn't a terrible father, but they love him. They want to make it clear that they love him, despite everything. And Connor, embracing his second-class status, makes a decision that makes sense to him: marrying Willa (Justine Lupe) to get something positive out of that journey and, in turn, taking control of his life, not letting go. that that man prevents something that he wants so much.
The groundbreaking thing about the episode is that, after the Succession scripts have been indebted to comedy to pace the episodic plots and write dialogues as viperous as they are agile, this Connor's Wedding unfolds like a drama. How much comedic potential could the dance of opinions have about how to communicate the death to the public and investors? Infinite, but Armstrong resists the humorous impulses of the conflict in communion with the director Mark Mylod, a series regular, who is intimate in the X-ray of the Roy's reactions, following them on the wedding boat, showing their moments of affection and understanding and brotherly help without emphasizing them. (An anecdote for mythomaniacs is that Strong, Culkin and Snook were not supposed to stage a joint hug but, letting themselves be carried away by the weight of the scene, they improvised it because it seemed appropriate for the characters).
In summary, Succession has an exemplary television episode for its execution, yes, but above all for understanding the way to communicate a death, one with much more dramatic truth than other more effective solutions. It's outstanding, inspired, memorable. It also has merit that the episode was perceived as surprising and unexpected: taking into account the premise of the series, its title, and the fact that there are only a few episodes left to close the story, this twist in the script a priori should have been highly predictable.
