Sussexion

HBO's Succession seems ripped from royal headlines

No spoilers this week as Jack Hughes traces the uncanny similarities between HBO’s Succession and the real-life drama of the House of Windsor.

by Jack Hughes

This week the best show on television, HBO’s Succession, returns for its triumphant third season. Of all the shows whose production schedules were disrupted by the pandemic, Succession was the most frustrating because of the dramatic cliff-hanger on which its second season ended, two years ago, on October 13, 2019. The Roy family was a house divided facing the greatest challenge to their crumbling empire.

It’s fitting, then, Succession’s return coincides with another imperious family drama – that of the British Royal family. The Royals and Roys have much in common these days, as both are full of complex characters who are each, in their own ways, deeply flawed. The plots of both familial storylines are pots boiling over with fratricide and regicide, as siblings turned against each other, their parents, and their grandparents. 

In both cases, the family feuds were long-simmering in private but exploded into the public eye as the family weaponized the press to level allegations against each other ranging from racism and sexual misconduct to greed. (Prince Harry Duke of Sussex’s Oprah interview about his secession from the Royal family being the real-world drama equivalent to Kendall’s press conference during Succession’s second season finale.)

Viewers are left watching car-crashes in slow motion, struggling with which driver is at fault and whether anyone in either vehicle could realistically survive. Netflix’s The Crown is perhaps the best show about the Royal family of the past, but Succession is the closest on-screen reflection of how the House of Windsor is today. We may have a favorite character in each, but it’s hard to say when so few of them are sympathetic.

Teasers and trailers for the third season of Succession have left us wondering just how family patriarch Logan Roy could possibly get out of the chaotic mess his offspring have sprung upon him. The monarchy’s matriarch, Elizabeth Regina, faces much the same dilemma as she tries to preserve ‘The Firm’ so she may be succeeded on the throne by a family member who still has any residual moral authority to reign.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Roys and Royals adopt the same strategy. We won’t know until after the first few episodes have aired, but we can at least look at the new tactic being employed by the Royals. Having understood their ship is taking on water the Royals’ first instinct – the same as the Roy’s – was to throw a blood relative overboard. It didn’t work for either of them, so the Queen had to look at other options.

It became clear this week Her Majesty has come to the realization that to stop her ship from taking on water she needed to stop the rising sea levels caused by climate change. Put another way, with ‘The Firm’ firmly entrenched in a defensive posture on a range of social issues from income inequality and racial diversity to sexual depravity, they had to ‘plant’ the Royal standard in the ground of environmental sustainability.

To that end, the week started with Prince Charles’ prideful boast that his car runs on white wine and cheese. A couple of days later his son, Prince William, fired a photon torpedo at nonagenarian icon William Shatner arguing we shouldn’t try to explore new worlds but instead must try to fix our own. Lastly, the Queen made a rare regal intervention saying she’s ‘irritated’ by the environmental inaction of world leaders.

To have the three most senior members of the Royal family make media-catching comments on the same topic in the same week had to be coordinated – it couldn’t be coincidence. (William’s wife Kate showed her colors by recycling a previously worn green coat.) The timing was assiduously astute, just days before the start of the upcoming COP26 Climate Conference being held this year in the United Kingdom.

In fairness, Charles has long been an outspoken advocate on the environment – albeit with some fairly unconventional ideas – so the future monarch has a modicum of credibility on the issue. That said, he’d be a more relatable messenger if he didn’t sound like Logan Roy’s flighty firstborn son Connor urging people to convert their vintage Aston Martins to run on hyper-decanted vintage wines from their vast cellars.

Speaking of wine and cheese, the Roys and Royals offer up other perfect pairings. William and Kate have a certain Tom and Siobhan vibe. They are the only true power couple, and you get the sense she’s a lot better at the game than him. It’s a role reversal in terms of who has the Roy(al) blood in their veins but watching how she has handled herself in the feud with Harry, Kate clearly hopes to ‘shiv’ Meghan Markle.

In terms of supporting characters, the most obvious is that Logan’s acerbic brother Ewan Roy is the fictional version of the late Prince Philip. Ewan and Logan have been together for over 80 years, like Elizabeth and Philip, with Ewan, like Philip, clearly being the most vocal about his disgust for the state of the world. (It helps that Ewan is played by James Cromwell who portrayed Philip in the 2006 movie The Queen.)

Perhaps the biggest stretch is with the beloved character of Cousin Greg. Greg is at once a babe-in-the-woods working behind the scenes who might, despite the odds, end up succeeding – in every sense – where and when all others fail. He’s a third-generation character, Ewan’s grandson, which makes Greg closest to Prince George. (Regular readers of The Experiment will know our views on the future George VII.)

Scratch that, Cousin Greg isn’t the hardest to match with his counterpart among the cast, the toughest is actually the youngest of Logan’s children – Roman. The Royal Roman isn’t Prince Andrew (who’s been typecast in the role of Uncle Lester), and he doesn’t have that much in common with Prince Edward, the youngest of the Queen’s children, other than Edward also had a mixed record in film/TV production.

All this brings us back full where both stories intersect today – Kendall/Harry have publicly declared war on their families. For her part, Her Majesty is trying to rally the remaining Royals around a righteous cause in the hopes that by protecting the environment she can preserve her empire. Logan would be wise to take a similar tact to take on rogue Roys. For both, the order of succession will be anything but orderly.

Jack Hughes is a communications consultant based in Canada. His previous contributions to The Experiment include “Same of Thrones,” “Tippecanoe and Agnew Anew,” “Harris / Shuri 2020,” “Bidenfeld,” “Firth and Firthiness,” “The Ballot of Bill McKay,” and “The World Wants ‘The West Wing,’” among others. His inexplicably extensive writings on Dan Quayle are “The Unusual Suspect,” “The Unusual Suspect II,” “The GOPfather,” “Porqua, CoQau?”, “Quayle’s Hunting Season” and “I Told You So.” Connect with him on LinkedIn here.  

---

What do you think of today's email? I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback. I might even put ‘em in the newsletter if I don’t steal it outright.

Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Unless of course you were forwarded this email, in which case you should…

Someone asked me recently if I really did Noom or if this is just an ad. I really lost 40 pounds using Noom. I really have kept it off for more than a year. You really can, too. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works.

We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment. 

We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some

Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House.