The Succession Finale – “You are not serious people!”

Man hands on misery to man.

    It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

    And don’t have any kids yourself.

(Philip Larkin, 'This Be the Verse') 

*

And so it’s all over, and the laurels belong to Lukas Matsson, seizing control of Waystar Royco and installing Tom Wambsgans as his CEO. ‘Tom wins’ proclaim a handful of headlines, but that’s mistakenly overstating his true status as a Medvedevian puppet to the Putin-like Swede. No matter, for most of us, Logan Roy’s critique of his children - “I love you, but you are not serious people” - is what lingers as the dust settles upon this magnificent four seasons of television. It is the fate - apologies to Connor – of Kendall, Shiv and Roman that are dominating the chatter. All of us are ready to analyse - and in the therapeutic sense, too - these three unforgettable characters.

Roman, Shiv and Kendall - 'a meal fit for a king'

My own analysis, took a slightly surprising turn this weekend when I was reminded of what I’ve come to think of as a rather pertinent Theodor Adorno quote. In his essay ‘Free Time’, Adorno expands on hobbies.  

Time and again in interviews and questionnaires one is asked what one has for a hobby ... I am startled by the question whenever I meet with it. I have no hobby. Not that I’m a workaholic who wouldn't know how to do anything else but get down to business and do what has to be done. But rather I take the activities with which I occupy myself beyond the bounds of my official profession, without exception, so seriously that I would be shocked by the idea that they had anything to do with hobbies - that is, activities I'm mindlessly infatuated with only in order to kill time - if my experiences had not toughened me against manifestations of barbarism that have become self-evident and acceptable. Making music, listening to music, reading with concentration constitute an integral element of my existence; the word hobby would make a mockery of them.

Notwithstanding my admiration for how highly Adorno regards his extra-curricular activities, there’s something a tad pedantic and self-congratulatory about his distaste for the word ‘hobby’. Adorno has hobbies, he just doesn’t choose to call them that because he takes them seriously. But for me, that’s the point. Hobbies, particularly ones that you truly enjoy, are deadly serious. And in turn, thinking about Logan’s devastating dismissal of his children as ‘not serious people’ led me to think about the hobbies of Kendall, Shiv and Roman. What exactly are they? Well, other than the rap-music with which Kendall affectedly soundtracks his commute, there's not much there. Shiv - for many people, the most rounded and worldly of the Roy kids – ostensibly has a penchant for politics. Yet, it’s safe to say that beneath the veneer of her occasional liberal proclamations, this is just a means to power. Indeed, as with all the Roys - particularly Logan - principles don’t come into it. As Shiv says to the 'possible' president-elect Jeryd Mencken (a terrifying amalgamation of Donald Trump and Jordan Peterson), her father didn’t have principles and was only about ‘money, winning and gossip’. Taking her husband Tom's hand, for her own curtain call, was an indication that her espoused liberal principles have crumbled in the face of a possible return to the lower tiers of power. Which just leaves Roman.  

Does Roman have hobbies? Well, of a sort. There’s the dabbling in film, of course. And a penchant for masochistic sex, best exemplified by the intriguing and erotic relationship that he has with the wonderful Gerri, the latter being utterly in control of this 'partnership' and proving the adage that you should never underestimate the power of a middle-aged woman. Indeed, this coupling provides me with my favourite scene in the whole of Succession, with Roman and Gerri squabbling on the staircase of an Italian mansion, the former attempting, as is his wont, to subjugate himself in front of his occasional mistress. A fresco of a cowled monk, looks up intrigued from the Gospels, providing the perfect Greek chorus to the scene, just one of countless strokes of genius to be found at the heart of this drama.  

Not an approval of unsolicited dick pics by the way, and to be seen very much in context

Out of all the curtain calls of the three siblings, there is perhaps the most hope for Roman. He sits at the bar, a faint trace of a resigned smile on his face as he sips a Martini. Maybe taking film a bit more seriously is on the cards. Or, more likely, he’ll channel his masochism elsewhere. Incidentally, all three children are quite clearly masochists: Roman who knows and revels in it; Shiv, lurching back towards Tom as he treats her ever more poorly, beginning to realise that she is; and Kendall, hopelessly unaware that he is. As I wrote last week, quoting Philip Larkin, ‘They fuck you up your mum and dad’.

Don’t get me wrong. Along with almost all of the characters in Succession, the Roy children are monstrous human beings: cynical, unprincipled, and largely bereft of empathy. And perhaps because of this, and despite a bottomless pit of money, deeply unhappy. Yet on some level, we have ended up caring about them. Roman’s breakdown at his father’s funeral was heartbreaking. Often we’d find Shiv put forward as the person that we’d most like to see ‘succeed’. And who could not help but feel a warm, toasty glow inside at Kendall - for the very first time - lighting up with that beatific smile as his siblings anointed him?    

Larkin's final piece of advice was ‘get out as early as you can’. And whilst he clearly means stop propagating, it is, given the obvious toxicity of finding yourself as the head of a media empire, applicable to Kendall, Shiv and Roy. Go have fun with Peter’s cheese in your terrible mother’s kitchen; order a second Martini at the bar, and then a third; get a proper hobby and take it seriously. Very seriously! Because that's what serious people do.