The second best TV show ever made is now over
It's about Succession but this is not a spoiler. In fact, I hardly even talk about it.
Listen. I fucking love movies and TV.
I mean, if you combine all the hours of my life that I’ve spent watching reels spin on video, it’s probably second only to sleeping. At this point, I’ve watched upwards of 20,000 hours of movies and TV. In fact, I love watching movies and TV more than reading, travelling, and, I dare say, even writing at times.
So, let’s get this out of the way. Movies, to me, are the highest art form - not books; not fantastic music; not incredible sculpture. I am willing to fight this battle with anyone - we could do a duel in front of a renaissance painting in the Louvre like a budget John Wick.
Movies move me. Emotionally. Physically. A good movie makes me feel like a puppy dog who has lost all control when the owner walks in. Movies are the culmination of humanity’s ability to tell stories. A beauty that belies the complexity from which it emerges.
Great TV occasionally comes close.
Often TV is just a pleasant film over my eyes, a dull pleasure, a great way to disconnect and escape for a few hours, letting the story wash over me and erase the mundanity that is life. Even when I enjoy TV immensely, I do not lie awake thinking about it and let it drill deep into the pit of my stomach. Once I am done with one show, I move on to the next.
But every once in a while, there is TV that feels like a nuclear blast washing over me, a dimensional portal that seems to have opened up in the skies taking me with it, an ache that feels so nice that I feel compelled to inflict more of it on myself. Often it’s preceded with that grey-noise filled title card that says HBO.
Succession is one such TV.
It’s the kind of TV that reaffirms my faith in my own ability to lose myself in stories.
I had been worried that Netflix had jaded me. I watch TV with one hand on the phone and don’t feel as much for the characters anymore. I had been worried that maybe, after a good run of twenty or so years, I had watched enough TV that all the tropes are visible a mile away, the characters feel made up and even the best acting at best evokes a sense of objective admiration rather than an irrational emotional reaction. I look at shots and say, “wow, that shot is so amazing” or sometimes quip, “this sequence with the background score is so good” and then go to sleep and not think about them.
I used to cry and emote a lot more in movies when I was younger. Then, I used to be embarrassed by it and quickly wipe my tears so it’s not obvious when I come out of the theatre - even to my parents. Somewhere, it stopped. It still occasionally happens when I watch an incredible movie but it feels like movies of the recent past have become quite marvel-like that I rarely ever have a moment that feels like it.
You can accuse me of hyperbole a bit. Whenever I watch something that sticks to me emotionally, I write about it with as much gusto.
Is Succession the greatest TV I’ve ever seen?
Let me tell you that I am this close to saying yes. The only thing that’s stopping me is the fact that I have already seen the greatest TV show ever (and twice, at that) and it’s called The Wire. And it still retains that spot after more than a decade. So, let’s revisit Succession in a decade and if it still feels like it could be the greatest TV show ever I might just change crowns.
But for now, Succession is the second best TV I have ever watched.
I am not going to deconstruct why Succession is so great. Who knows, you may even hate it. But I cannot remember the last time I was this emotionally invested in characters. Oh, I know, when I was reading The Game of Thrones (the book and not the TV show). I remember one evening when I had just read the John Snow part of the twist I shut the book and began to walk around the house saying ‘What the fuck!’ ‘What the fuck!’ ‘This is just not fair’ ‘I hate GRRM’.
With Succession, I watch most episodes with a pit in my stomach and a foreboding that makes me feel not so good all the time. And then, I just laugh uncontrollably. Then, I am biting my nails unconsciously.
Just what the hell is it? Is it a comedy? If so, it’s one of the best ever written. Is it a thriller? It’s certainly as thrilling as David Fincher’s best work. Is it voyeurism? Reality TV? A documentary? Maybe a bit, if you watch the camera whip around trying to keep up with the room. It’s definitely a tragedy. Or else, why do I have tears in my eyes every once in a while and then quickly dab it away?
How can it be everything everywhere all at once?
The true tragedy of Succession though is the fact that it’s over. But I do believe that great things have to come in small packages. N is 4’11”, after all.
100% rotten tomatoes. 10 on IMBD. Take wherever inane numerical points that will signal pre-eminence. Doesn’t matter. I will always remember it as being the greatest show on TV of all time, except for The Wire.
Could be Worse,
Tyag
