MY HEART BELONGS TO DADDY (SUCCESSION, SEASON TWO)

  

It's hard to write about the second season of 'Succession' without giving away some key plot twists from the previous season.

So, in the style of a newsreader urging viewers to look away now if they do not wish to hear the result of tonight's football match, I've penned this advisory.

If you don't want to know what happened in Season One of 'Succession,' please find another review on this website.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!!)

Season Two of 'Succession' finds Jeremy Strong's Kendall Roy a cowed and broken man.

Recuperating in Iceland at his father's behest after the spectacular failure of his boardroom coup, Kendall is summoned to appear on TV to declare the takeover of Waystar Royco dead.

Also in hoc to his father over the cover-up of a 'Chappaquidick' style car crash that killed a waiter he was doing drugs with, Kendall goes on the record to claim Brian Cox's Logan Roy has a much better plan for Waystar Royco than the bid he almost fronted.

However his siblings are unmoved.

Watching Kendall's prodigal son act, Kieran Culkin's Roman and Sarah Snook's Shiv are pretty dismissive.

Shiv's ego is boosted when Logan invites everyone to a family lunch in the Hamptons where Roman makes a great play about treating Kendall like a traitor.

Unable to get an honest opinion from his children around the table about the future direction of the company, Logan meets each of his kids individually to discuss whether he should sell the family business.

During their meeting, Logan privately intimates to Shiv she is the anointed one who will take over as CEO after him.

Cock-a-hoop, she doesn't initially disclose this to her husband, Matthew Macfadyean's Tom, claiming instead she has been offered Chair of Global News.

Shiv has, however, recently been promoted to the role of Chief of Staff to Eric Bogosian's Senator Gil Eavis' Presidential campaign and she must sever her ties if she is to embark on her three year apprenticeship to the family throne.

With Waystar Royco executives weighing up whether the company should become a digital media conglomerate, Roman further twists the knife in Kendall by insisting Vaulter, the startup his brother acquired while Logan was in intensive care, is losing money.

In the battle of the siblings, Logan sides with Roman when he is told staff at Vaulter want to unionise and subsequently orders Kendall to shut it down.

Proving his loyalty to his dad, Kendall executes his father's order by blocking Vaulter's WiFi and telling staff the company is being terminated.

Kendall tells Rob Yang's stunned company founder, Lawrence Yee he is merely following Logan's orders.

Meanwhile Nicholas Braun's Greg is approached by Jessica Hecht's Michelle Pantsil who is writing an unauthorised biography of Logan.

He cuts the meeting short after realising she is secretly recording the encounter and later confides to Tom during a family hunting holiday in Hungary that he met the biographer after Logan flies into a rage about someone talking to Pantsil.

Logan is also furious when he discovers a company, PGM Media he is planning to take over has been informed of his intentions by Roman.

Meanwhile as Alan Ruck's Connor announces his intention to run for the Presidency, Logan starts to woo Holly Hunter's PGM Media chief executive Rhea Harrell promising her a major role in his company.

Waystar Royco, however, is mired in a scandal about one of its news anchors having alleged Nazi sympathies and there is a security alert in its headquarters with reports of a gunman roaming the building.

A much more disturbing scandal rocks Logan's company as New York Magazine reveals there has been an attempt to cover-up a sex scandal and alleged murder in its cruise liner business.

After failing to suppress the story, Logan and his executives face the scrutiny of a US Senate hearing with Gil Eavis leading the charge.

Such is the roasting, they must decide which one of them will be sacrificed as a corporate patsy to pin the blame on.

If you thought Season One of 'Succession' was savage, just wait to you see how low the characters are prepared to sink in Season Two.

Jesse Armstrong and his excellent team of writers plumb the depths of corporate cruelty in their withering takedown of a dysfunctional family that revels in disloyalty, bullying and greed.

As in Season One, Armstrong and his writers Jon Brown, Tony Roche, Georgia Pritchett, Will Tracy, Susan Soon He Stanton, Jonathan Glatzer and Mary Laws conjure up memorable TV moments of jet black comedy and bombard their audience with great one-liners.

Among the highlights is Tom's off the scale insecurity about the panic room he is bundled into with Greg during the security scare.

Then there's Kendall's toe curling rap for his father at a special gala dinner in Dundee's V&A museum.

In the same episode, there's a hilarious moment when Roman tries to win over Logan's love by buying the Scottish football club, Hearts.

There's a great episode too in Hungary featuring a party game that no family should ever contemplate playing - boar on the floor.

Choice lines pepper the scripts like Tom's comment to J Smith-Cameron's general counsel, Gerri Kellman: "If we're going to kill Bill, I don't want to see Bill."

During a heated argument with Shiv about her desire for an open marriage, Tom makes the bruising observation: "I wonder if the sad I'd be without you would be less than the sad I get from being with you."

And then there's Logan's brutal response to Kendall's question if he had ever regarded him as a potential CEO: "You're not a killer. You have to be a killer. But, nowadays, maybe you don't. I don't know. OK? Are we good? Are you good?"

Such is the ferocity of the humour at times, you can clearly trace the DNA of 'Succession' back to Armando Ianucci's salty Westminster saltire 'The Thick of It' and its movie spin-off 'In the Loop' where Armstrong cut his teeth.

That show, of course, also featured another terrifying Scotsman like Logan, Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker and revelled in its dysfunction.

Mark Mylod and Andrij Parekh return to directorial duties along with Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, Matt Shakman, Becky Martin and Kevin Bray.

All the show's directors allow their cast to shine without ever showboating, while maintaining 'Succession's' reputation for tight, pacy storytelling and extremely slick visuals.

As Logan, Cox continues to cast a titanic shadow over proceedings as the callous father figure who enjoys toying with his children's affections.

Logan seems like an even more warped King Lear in Season Two, flitting between moments of mania and acts of corporate savagery and deviousness.

Strong is compelling as the always vulnerable Kendall, making questionable decisions including a relationship that may yet come back to bite him.

With his many flaws and quirks on clear display, Strong keeps you guessing whether Kendall is a lot more cunning than his father gives him credit for.

The same is true about Braun's Greg who turns out to be a lot more adept at swimming with the corporate sharks than his gormless persona suggests.

Snook's Shiv grows during the second season as her character goes from being quietly cocky about her ascendancy and then less certain of her frontrunner status.

Culkin's Roman remains the king of the snarky comment.

While he engages in a bizarre affair with Smith-Cameron's Gerri that screams mommy issues, Roman shows signs of significant character development after an encounter with an armed militia in Turkey while on a business trip.

As the brittle bully Tom, Macfadyean remains a delight, squeezing every drop of black humour as his character's insecurities are brought to the boil in the most humiliating fashion.

Ruck also shines, drawing out Connor's narcissistic tendencies as he prepares his White House bid.

There are some excellent additions to the cast too, including Holly Hunter as Rhea Jarrell who is a lot more willing to sell her soul than she initially appears, Jessica Hecht as Michelle Pantsil and Danny Huston as the financier Jamie Laird who advises Logan.

The always excellent Jeannie Berlin turns up as Cyd Peach who heads up the company's news channel and clashes with Tom.

Cherry Jones makes an impression as the PGM owner Nan Pierce and Annabelle Dexter-Jones is eye catching as her cousin Naomi, a drug addict who bonds with Kendall.

While the Roys savagely wage their wars of attrition, 'Succession's' writers do a great job laying booby traps that could well explode for their characters in future seasons.

Viewers will also get a big kick out of trying to detect those elements that have been borrowed from real life.

The Roys feel a lot like the Murdochs but there's also elements of the Kennedys, the Maxwells, the Gettys and the Trumps in there.

And that is why the show is so compelling.

Some people will, no doubt, find 'Succession' a little too confrontational for their liking.

But while it may not be universally loved, it remains on course as the show most likely to challenge 'The Sopranos' as the greatest TV drama ever.

With the quality of its storytelling so high, the question is: can its writers maintain that level of consistency in future seasons? 

On the basis of the second season's denouement, the answer is yes. Long may it continue.

(Season Two of 'Succession' was broadcast on HBO in the United States from August 11-October 13, 2021 and on Sky Atlantic from August 12-October 14, 2021)