Andrew Katz ’26

by Andrew Katz ’26 on September 25, 2025

In 1999, when HBO released the first episode of The Sopranos, the standard for television shows changed. The Sopranos followed the life of Tony Soprano, a sociopathic mob boss who had to balance the drama of his biological family and his organized crime family. This show kick-started the Golden Age of television shows, which we are still in today. As people look for more shows that can match the level of The Sopranos, very few are able to do it. The most recent show to reach this upper tier of television shows is Succession.

Succession, running from 2018 to 2023, is a fictional show loosely based on the Murdoch family. The story begins with Logan Roy, the CEO of Waystar Royco. This is a giant corporation that has many different entities including ATN News, which delivers a shocking announcement on Roy’s 80th birthday that he is not planning on retiring, as he was expected to. This devastates Kendall Roy, his eldest son, who was supposed to be the future CEO. As the title of the show is Succession, the story follows the drama of the fight over who will be Logan Roy’s successor when he finally retires. For most of the show, there are three main contenders to the Waystar Royco throne: Kendall, Roman, the youngest son, and Shiv, the daughter. Other characters in the show are also trying to climb the corporate ladder. Two of these characters include their cousin Greg and Shiv’s husband Tom. The show, through four seasons, consistently shows the cynical nature of our capitalist world, especially through the characters doing the most embarrassing things just to be associated with power and wealth. The scene that shows this the best is the “boar on the floor” scene.

The “boar on the floor” scene takes place as Waystar Royco is attempting to acquire Pierce, another media empire. This plan goes south when someone from Royco’s side leaks this information to the press to tank the deal. Logan becomes angered by this act of disloyalty, as it is one of his main values, and he decides to have dinner with everyone aware of the deal. Logan questions people about their thoughts on the deal. He eventually pulls out three people whose responses he did not like, and tells them to sit on the floor. He then makes them oink like pigs, further humiliating them. As the men comply with this humiliating ritual, Logan throws two sausages for the three men and states that whoever doesn’t eat one is the one who ruined the deal. Though this game has nothing to do with actually finding out who leaked the information, it shows the power Logan holds, as he can have high-up executives humiliate themselves just because he chooses to. This scene also shows what greed can do to someone.

Everyone in the room lets this happen as they are scared Logan will take their power away. This one scene is representative of the entire show. Every person around Logan will do whatever he wants because of his power and their greed to be associated with wealth and power. They are puppets of Logan’s throughout the show, doing whatever he wants. Very few times have people ever gone against him, and if they do, they fail. Succession shows that this cynical nature is what our capitalist society rewards. One must be willing to sacrifice all values to be considered successful. When people sacrifice their values, only care about themselves, and are obsessed with power, they become sociopaths. And what Succession tells us is that only sociopaths win this game to acquire power and wealth in our society today. Overall, Succession is a must-watch TV drama that shows us the darkness in our society. Succession beautifully balances seriousness with the satirical scenes of the show and ends perfectly, making you want more of the show instead of dragging the story longer than needed. If you enjoyed shows like The Sopranos (1999), The Wire (2002), or Breaking Bad (2008), you will likely love Succession.