Succession‘s f-bomb dropping patriarch, Brian Cox, might be rejoicing. He won’t have to endure what he called Jeremy Strong’s “f*cking annoying” method acting for much longer. The HBO juggernaut series is coming to an end while it’s still a highly anticipated weekly watch, and there’s something to be said for that approach. Not every show can announce its impending departure and launch such emotional memes overnight, after all.
There’s also something to be said for how Shiv Roy remains the series’ least likable character (with some stiff competition), but at the moment, Shiv is not doing so well following Tom’s stunning (and perhaps inevitable) betrayal. We only have one more season to find out how she copes with this reality, but why is the series coming to an end after Season 4?
As creator Jesse Armstrong told The New Yorker, the on-its-face dilemma of the series (who will succeed Logan Roy and whether Waystar Royco will even continue to exist in its current capacity) will likely be tied up soon. And the show feels so “muscular” while addressing this matter that Armstrong believes anything else would feel inferior. The tone would need to change, and it wouldn’t be as consistently compelling. Armstrong would rather “go out sort of strong” than head somewhere subpar. He had more to offer:
“[T]hat was definitely always my preference. I went into the writing room for Season 4 sort of saying, ‘I think this is what we’re doing, but let’s also keep it open.” I like operating the writing room by coming in with a sort of proposition, and then being genuinely open to alternative ways of going. And the decision to end solidified through the writing and even when we started filming: I said to the cast, “I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I think this is it.’ Because I didn’t want to bullsh*t them, either.”
You heard him. Now I will cross my fingers for Gerri to rise up, recover from the di*k pic scandal that was definitely not her fault, and destroy everyone. Laser eyes! The Boys crossover. Let’s do this.
(Via The New Yorker)