‘Succession’ Season 4 gets a farewell fit for the Roy family in New York

Heirs apparent and double-crossers gathered Monday for a more-is-more, only-in-New-York kinda party.

Easily one of the most glamorous parties I have attended — and trust me, I have been to a lot of a parties — it was frisson cranked up to a Manhattan 10 for the “Succession” premiere atop Jazz at Lincoln Center (a Season 4 cork-burst doubling as an HBO farewell for the dastardly series, considering that this is the final stretch). Held, in part, inside the Appel Room — a space evoking a modern Greek amphitheatre, complete with soaring 15-metre glass wall overlooking the N.Y.C. skyline and Central Park, blurs of yellow taxi in the distance — it all seemed to be life imitating HBO imitating art imitating the dysfunctional Roys imitating …

You get the drill.

Not in Kansas anymore, certainly, I thought, seeing the ribbon of sushi being served on long, snaking tables by world-famous Masa (the three-star Michelin restaurant famously considered the most expensive sushi bar in America). It went on and on. Or the spectre of Jeremy Strong — who basically plays Hamlet with a baseball cap, Sad Boy Kendall Roy — found slurping on caviar served in miniature ice cream cones. Or the sheer breadth of celebrity: philosopher malcontent Fran Lebowitz strolling by in her signature jeans and Savile Row blazer; Matthew Broderick giving us an OMG “Ferris Bueller” reunion when seen catching up with his old pal from the ’80s, Alan Ruck (now Connor Roy) in the Emmy-winning “Succession”). Life moves pretty fast, indeed.

Oscar Isaac, here. Katie Couric, there. Alexander Skarsgård! Rupert Friend!

Remarkably, all my greatest dad dance fantasies crested at one point when I was caught in a fast-moving swarm encircling the amazing Brian Cox, a.k.a. the f-bomb-dropping mogul Logan Roy.

Surrounded by many of his fictional children, including Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, it was a moment that has become viral now on social media: the storied elder thespian madly dancing to “Call Me Maybe,” the contagious bop by Carly Rae Jepsen. Not on my 2023 bingo card, this … but there you have it! Later, we also went all out dancing to ABBA’s “Lay All Your Love on Me,” Mr. Cox still in the groove.

“The beginning of the end.” How Snook (who plays prodigal daughter Shiv) sized up the night to me when we spoke. Looking jaunty in a silver cape and sporting a baby bump — the premiere coincided with the announcement that she is expecting her first child with husband Dave Lawson, an Australian comedian — the actress was clearly taking it all in. An emotion also felt by all earlier in the eve during a big-screen reveal of the first episode of this latest season (which is dynamite, by the way … brash and brisk, stakes raised for a final familial showdown).

Before the screening, the cast walked onstage to a live rendition of the now iconic “Succession” theme with composer Nicholas Britell himself at the piano.

Five years since its debut? Seems like a blink, but so much has happened during the run of the show: an absurdly acid vivisection of power and privilege and media and all things one per cent, as Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO, nodded to in his opening remarks.

The show, after all, rocketed onto our screens during the Trump presidency, survived a global pandemic and coincided with industry intrigue aplenty inside HBO itself (HBO parent WarnerMedia was sold to AT&T, which then sold it to Discovery in 2022).

Munching on HBO-branded M&Ms on hand for guests at the screening, I could see why the cable giant would want to give this calibre of valedictory shindig for “Succession.” In the span of titles the channel has wrought — everything from “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” to “Big Little Lies” and “Sex and the City” — this one will definitely go down as one of its tastiest. Not to mention, lightning-in-a-bottle. Even now.

Having long been one of the shows that plays footsie with the zeitgeist, the party for this newest season was happening mere blocks away from the shambolic symbolism of Trump Tower — the whole city holding its breath over an expected indictment of the former president. As this celebration unfolded, this high-class delirium, it was also not lost on some of us that it comes just as Fox News is readying to present oral arguments in a billion-dollar defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, c/o a suit accusing Fox of knowingly spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election.

Given the Venn diagram between “Succession” and Murdochology — the real-life arcs of the infamous media clan, its power struggles, the strings attached — something on our tongues, too, was the news broken just that morning that Rupert, the overlord, was engaged. Yet again! At 92. Wife No. 5, following his split with Jerry Hall.

Life and art, man.

Sitting down with Nicholas Braun a few days later — he plays fan fave “Cousin Greg”on the show — he told me that showrunner Jesse Armstrong has been very good at predicting news trends. “As much as it seemed, in Season 1 or Season 2, that this family was perhaps on its own axis … the longer the series has gone on it feels like we are not dramatizing that much.”

Speaking to its strengths, Braun pointed to the musicality of “Succession” dialogue: “the rhythm is a trademark of the show, like jazz” and to its location shoots (this season they go to Norway, which he said is “the most beautiful place I have ever been to”). As for his own character, “he hasn’t been battered enough by this world. There is an earnestness. Being the most earnest person is very fun for me.”

Greg, he said, remains “a hopeful person.”

For now?

Shinan Govani is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani

SHARE: