Succession Season 3 DVD Review

Table of Contents

I don’t have HBO and have never watched the series Succession before, so I had to get caught up before watching season three. I had heard some about it but was very pleasantly surprised when I watched it that the series is incredibly well made and compelling.

HBO has really been overachieving in the area of original programming and Succession is another great example of that (for the record, Barry is my favorite HBO series, and everybody should be watching it).

For those that have never seen Succession, it centers on the Roy Family. The Roys own a massive media conglomerate. When their father, Logan Roy (and brilliant Brian Cox), has a stroke it prompts his children to start jockeying for position to take control of the company. In the first season the second oldest son, Kendall, tried to get Logan out through a vote of no confidence but fails and then tries to do a hostile takeover.

Unfortunately, Kendall gets into some serious trouble. And Logan covers it up but now has leverage over Kendall to do his bidding. In the second season the daughter, Shiv, is led to believe she will be the heir and then a bunch of sexual harassment cases from the past come out and Kendall publicly puts the blame on Logan.

Season 3

This brings us to the current season three. Season three jumps right in where the previous season stopped. Kendall is on a public smear campaign, telling the press that Logan knew all about the sexual misconduct.

His siblings, Shiv and Roman, go on a counter-measure campaign of their own to try and stop him. The Roy family desperately tries to hold on to their empire as shareholders have serious concerns about the Roy family and confidence is lost in their ability to run the company any longer.

It all leads to a bid by Logan to just sell the company outright. The children, as the majority of the board, can stop him but Logan might have some tricks of his own up his sleeve.

Succession Season 3 Trailer

What I Liked and Didn’t Like

What I Like

First of all, the acting in this show is wonderful. Brian Cox, in particular, really shines as Logan Roy. He brings the bravado to the character that is necessary while allowing the cracks underneath to show through from time to time. Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy is superb as well. He brings that nastiness as he is constantly trying to take down his father and take over the company. While it seems entirely like an evil character, he really seems like a man out to prove himself in the shadow of his father.

The guest stars are on a high level as well. Alexander Skarsgard comes in as the CEO of a streaming platform that can easily read through Logan’s exterior and considers buying the company. Perhaps the best performance of the season comes from Adrien Brody as a shareholder that has lost confidence in the family’s ability to work together.

The show is wickedly funny! It’s classified as a dark comedy and definitely has a lot of drama in it, but it is broken up with some hilariously funny moments that break up the seriousness. It’s well done and extremely smart. A few tweaks could make the show a straight drama. But it’s these moments that remind you that this is a satire and kind of allow us not to feel so bad for the characters.

What I Didn’t Like

Throughout the first two seasons, the primary focus of the series was on the Roy family. Season three deals with them but there is a lot of attention on the business. Board meetings, shareholders, company sales. These scenes have value and are entertaining. But I just felt like I wanted to see more of the family interaction and not so much of the business side.

There seems to be a little bit of lack of growth with the family. Being a dark comedy, this could be intentional (shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia intentionally create characters that never grow). The characters are basically the same people we met in season one.

On one hand, I can see that we are supposed to accept these flawed people and just see what troubles those flaws cause but, on the other hand, I sometimes would like to see them learn from their lessons and show a little bit of growth.

Technical Aspects

Unfortunately, there is not a lot going on with this release. Given it’s a DVD release rather than Blu-Ray or 4K you do have the limitations of your media device.

If you don’t have HBO Max, it’s worth watching on DVD but if you do, you’ll get better picture quality on the streaming platform (assuming you get good internet speeds). There are not a lot of extras or goodies. The release is mainly focused on the show itself.

Succession Season 3 DVD Special Features

Who Said It?
Succession: Controlling the Narrative
Roy Family Food Chain