In my opinion based only on what I have seen, there has only been one truly great fictional American TV show from the past five or so years. This show mixes high stakes drama with laugh out loud comedy. It surpasses anything anyone else seems interested in doing in Hollywood. Every conversation, sentence, word out of these characters’ mouths is completely ripe for analysis. But everything has already been overanalyzed, because this show has completely captured the attention of many Americans. When you look at the numbers, it isn’t as big as any show on network television. Twice as many viewers tuned into the second episode of “Elsbeth” (2024)! However, the audience it does have is one that loves analyzing it: the people on the coasts. These are the people whose influence really matters and any show influencing them really really matters and that is why “Succession” (2018) occupies a very unique place culturally.

“Succession” is about the Murdoch family. Some articles will use the term “inspired” and others like to point out similarities between the plots and ideas and other media organizations. Even producers of the show have talked about the influence they got from other families. However, at its core, “Succession” is about three siblings vying for their dad’s role as CEO of Waystar Royco. Logan Roy, like Rupert Murdoch, encourages his children to compete for the title of CEO or “successor.” The Murdoch family also has three standout siblings who are very similar to the three siblings in “Succession.” The comparison could work a little better, since one or two traits of Lachlan Murdoch’s are really more like Kendall’s, and Rupert Murdoch actually has six children, and three of these children aren’t in contention, whereas Logan Roy has four and one isn’t in contention. However, it works fairly well, but my strongest points are that Lachlan spread a rumor among the family that James was leaking stories to the writers of “Succession,”  and when Rupert Murdoch divorced one of his wives during the series, one of the terms of the settlement was that his now former wife couldn’t give story ideas to the writers of “Succession.” 

Before the succession battle, Rupert Murdoch served as the co-chairman of Fox Corporation (enfolded in this corporation are Fox News, Fox Sports, and so on) and was the executive chairman of News Corporation, which is the parent company of the American newspapers New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, the British newspapers The Sun and The Times, and also the American publisher HarperCollins. After the succession battle, Rupert Murdoch stepped back, giving his CEO spot to Lachlan, but he still has tremendous amounts of power and billions upon billions of dollars. 

So here’s why we care about the Murdoch Family: they have a monopoly on conservative news and then some. Rupert Murdoch started out in the 1990s, using previously unacceptable levels of sensationalism to sell papers, and once this method proved to be economically successful, these levels of sensationalism suddenly weren’t so unacceptable, and now any list of most powerful media moguls has his name close to the top of it. And in 2016, he too supported Donald Trump’s campaign for President. Many articles attest to the fact that Murdoch did not like Donald Trump; however, he didn’t want to pivot away from his conservative viewership. Supporting Donald Trump and validating many of his insane theories has given Rupert Murdoch more power than it would’ve to have gone against him. So, the broader message is that Rupert Murdoch is and has been actively hurting our country and increasing the spread of misinformation.

Rupert Murdoch’s kids sadly aren’t any different (just like their “Succession”  counterparts). James Murdoch, the Kendall Roy of the family, is sort of hailed as the competent and kind liberal heir, but he worked for his dad for many years and has a previous history of helping his dad spread misinformation (in 2009, the New Matilda wrote an interesting piece pointing out the various problems with praising James Murdoch). Despite a glowing New York Times profile, he still comes across as out of touch, especially when he implies that his success is more the result of hard work than luck. Nearly his entire career has been spent working at companies his dad owns and, when it wasn’t spent that way, he was still using family wealth to fund his own endeavors. I personally believe that he is only a liberal now because he was clearly not going to be chosen as CEO (a New York Times article notes that James’s switch away from his family’s politics happened as his brother Lachlan was getting more power). Kendall presents himself to the media as a liberal but it becomes clear that his liberalism has more to do with being anti- his father than anything else.

Elisabeth Murdoch, the Shiv Roy (Don’t believe me? Take it from her own daughter), has a similarly glowing profile of her in The New Yorker that feels more than a little off. When asked about her father in a previous piece from The Guardian, she avoids the question and the answer she gives is not very negative (which makes sense given that she does still rely on her father. Despite being hailed as a good businesswoman, her father bailed her company out when it was falling into debt). Her fictional representation, Shiv, similarly cares about liberalism to the extent that she cares about being acceptable to the circles she runs in, but she does not want to fight her father. She would rather just distance herself from him.

Finally, Lachlan, Roman Roy, is the only child who is more conservative than his father. He and his father have both been implicated in disinformation lawsuits about the 2020 election. He also has expressed disdain over efforts to fight climate change and got mad at a member of his staff for advocating for same sex marriage. Roman is easier to watch than Shiv and Kendall in so far as he isn’t fake about his political beliefs, and this realness provides a sort of comfort. However, he is by far the worst person of the bunch and cares the least about the people he impacts. He uses his wealth in the most disgustingly awful ways in the series. And yet, for many people he is their favorite character thanks to the way Kieran Culkin presents him as charming. 

“Succession” is allegedly a critique of the Murdoch family. However, I do not think that this is the case. I think that it glamorizes their lifestyles. This is a take that Frank Rich and the other producers and writers have rejected. They all like to point out that the characters are unbelievably awful, and can be seen doing everything the Murdochs probably do: influencing elections, committing major white collar crimes, being generally incompetent, and getting away with all of it because of nepotism. However, at the end of it all, the most important quote comes from Frank Rich himself when talking about the show’s final season (and this is from the same interview where he denies the glamorization accusations multiple times).

“I don’t think we ever had a discussion, ‘Oh, these characters are so hateful that people will be sick of them,’ because people love them,” Rich said.“Go figure, but people love Roman, and they love Cousin Greg, they love Logan. So, no, I think people are sorry to say goodbye to them because they’re very human, very flawed humans, very unlikable in many ways. But you follow them because at some level they’re human.”

This is the problem. You are seeing people doing everything awful and getting very, very wealthy doing it. By the end of it all, they just seem like people. Loveable, real, and flawed people. It is accurate. In all of my readings of the Murdoch family, I do get the sense that these people are very real and sad and desperate, and yet I sort of wish I didn’t know that. I think it is bad for society for all of us to know that there exists not a nebulous mass of evil behind closed doors, but instead real people making these decisions, people who were raised and encouraged by their father to act this way (true to form, Rupert Murdoch was said to have pitted his children against each other during childhood). 

Additionally, getting paid a lot to commit evil acts seems awful. However, humans never having to deal with the consequences of their evil acts and seemingly just having a good and sort of insane time (be honest, the work environment of “Succession” seems fun in the most stressful way possible) and getting paid so so much to be there does also seem sort of fun. Emphasis on the so so much. “Succession”  has shown parts of the billionaire lifestyle that people previously never even conceived of. The characters in “Succession” can do more than buy themselves both jets and friends. They can buy anything, even their morality. Note how well-mannered the wealthy characters are. It goes beyond placing forks and knives on the right spots at dinner tables. The apartments are more than sleek and glamorous, they are so nice that it becomes a whole other world. The watches, the clothing, the parties are all so nice that it begins to feel like every day is a party, and for many of these characters, it sort of is.

They also all seem very cool and always relaxed, while the poorer people in the show come across more as desperate and concerned. Everything bounces off the main characters, which makes sense. It can become very easy to distance the effects of your job from your life. The Murdochs all have seemingly done it. Anecdotally, I have met teenagers who have seen “Succession” and determined that they would like to have an unethical corporate job after watching it (and I do wish there was a study to prove my point and I didn’t have to go off this anecdotal information). The coastal teenagers watching “Succession” have realized that humans can work these jobs and never see the effects of their actions (at the end of the day, as far as we know, Rupert Murdoch is going to the same place as the rest of us). “Succession” makes a very strong case for just focusing on money and realizing that the rest can follow. That life can be very, very nice if you want it to be. That your body adjusts. Once you get all of the wealth and privilege, your ethical system can soon fix itself appropriately. 

The Murdochs know that the show humanizes them. They don’t like to talk about it, and have said otherwise in interviews, but Town and Country claims that the Murdochs watched “Succession” and enjoyed it. I think that they know to some extent that it is really good public relations. Watch “Succession”  for yourself and see how much you root for the Murdoch family to succeed. When you get inside these characters’ heads for four seasons, it is only natural that you will begin to understand them. So here we have a family destroying America and this show makes them seem human. So, the question left is: should “Succession” have not been made at all? I admit that it was an incredibly great show. “Succession”  is Freud, Shakespeare, Veblen, Dostoevsky, Highsmith, Capote, and so much more, all wrapped into one beautiful, easy to watch television series. Obviously, I am obsessed with it. When I started it last year, I watched it all in less than two weeks. I literally lived between “Succession” episodes. I was very, very happy. So I want to end on a positive: keep making shows like “Succession.”  I will definitely watch them until something better comes along. 

Henry Kaplan is a member of the class of 2028 and can be reached at hrkaplan@wesleyan.edu.