HBO fans are used to long waits.
That’s the thing about networks that want quality; they take their time and get it right.
“Game of Thrones” once went 20 months between the end of one season and the start of another. “The Sopranos” had gaps of 16 months one year, 15 the next and 22 months before the final season.
But all of that was without a COVID shutdown. Now “Succession” (shown here) returns at 9 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 17, rerunning at 10 and 11:35 p.m.) … a full two years after the last season ended.
On Oct. 13, 2019, “that bomb dropped, the narrative bomb,” said series creator Jesse Armstrong.
Kendall Roy (left, played by Jeremy Strong) gave a press conference, telling the world that his dad – media mogul Logan Roy (right, played by Brian Cox) – is corrupt.
And what happens as the show – winner of a batch of Emmys, including best drama series – returns? “It felt like, ‘Let’s just pick up the pieces,” Armstrong said in the show’s virtual press conference with the Television Critics Association.
Kendall has a bit of panic, then rushes around. “We see a sort of airborne Kendall at the beginning of the season,” Strong said, “someone who feels like he’s finally wrested himself free from the chains.”
And the others? With two jets ready, they’re on the move and scheming. “Whether we’re in Croatia or Tuscany or in these fabulous hotels, we are always miserable,” J. Smith-Cameron said.
She plays Gerri, the firm’s lawyer and an advisor to some of the Roy siblings. “There’s always this drive for every character to kind of scramble and stay in the pecking order,” she said.
If Logan does step down under public pressure, someone could step in. From his three marriages, he has Connor (Alan Ruck), Siobhan “Shiv’ (Sarah Snook), Kendall and Rory (Kieran Culkin). Then there’s Shiv’s husband (Matthew Macfadyen) and Gerri and more.
“All the characters really think it’s all about them and their world,” Macfadyen said.
For now, it’s Kendall’s story; for as long as he can cling to it, it’s Logan’s. It’s a family story, minus the hugging and hand-holding.
For Strong. It reflects “something that (psychologist Carl) Jung had said, that where love is absent, power fills the void.”
Flawed humans hover around that void. “It’s the best kind of drama,” Cox said.”It’s the kind of drama I always wanted to do and finally (I’m) doing it. And that’s a great gift.”