Does Succession undermine its own class politics by creating sympathy for its characters?

BuzzFeed News

In a recent article in The Week, Aaron Bady questioned whether Succession really hates the super-rich since viewers are made to sympathize with some characters. Alison Wilmore explores the idea further, adding: "It's hard to imagine how anyone could watch Succession and not understand that whichever of these characters might win, the rest of us still lose. There's no good guy who, if crowned, will go on to triumphantly dismantle the most harmful parts of the Roy empire and donate its earnings to ProPublica. There's only a collection of stunted adults who see themselves as separate from the rest of humanity and who are warped by their need to get approval from a man they all at least partially loathe. While the first season of the series was more insular in how it laid out the Roys' awesomely damaged family dynamics, the second has turned outward to show the ways in which they damage everything they come into contact with — poor little rich kids or not, they give far more than they get. Succession invites you to choose your fighter and understand that each one of them will just do whatever's necessary to shore up the company that provides them with the most power and wealth."

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