All good things must come to an end, even in the world of multiple Emmy Award-winning television shows. That adage does not hold true for many shows in the ruthlessly competitive world of streaming-age television and its thunderous battles for viewership but it has been taken to heart by Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, who announced this week that the forthcoming fourth season of his phenomenally successful tale of wealthy family back-stabbing and spoilt-brat sibling treachery, will be its last.
In an exclusive interview with The New Yorker this week, Armstrong told the magazine, “I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind. From season two, I’ve been trying to think: is it the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?” He said that he had got together with the writing team of the show, which has become a hot, much talked about and critically acclaimed anchor show for HBO, in 2021 and said, “Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?”
Armstrong and the writers, “played out a number of scenarios”, — they could do a few short seasons or two more, or decide to let the show continue indefinitely and turn the show, “into something rather different, and be a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks”.
Not all cultural production has to continue forever, just because we’d love it to.
In the end it was decided that the best option for the Roy family and the viewers, was to, “do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong,” which was always Armstrong’s preference. As Armstrong pointed out in his interview, “there’s a promise in the title of Succession, I’ve never thought this could go on forever.”
The decision is also one that, when considered in relation to the broader history of television, is a bit of a dazzling power move, worthy of the kind of endgame play that Logan Roy himself would be proud of. In a world in which so many streaming services are competing for audience attention and awards, the battle between quality and continued audience attention and expectations often ends with shows that began with strong premises and singular characters, overstaying their welcome and diluting their initial potential through the production of too many seasons intended only to satisfy loyal audience fanbases.
So many shows in television history, from The Simpsons to The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones have not known when to quit and retire gracefully. This usually means that over time, the wide general audience and critical success they may have garnered in their initial breakout phase has been steadily reduced to smaller numbers of diehard viewers. TV’s greatest works — The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad — have more than just great writing, acting and storytelling in common; they also know that nothing lasts forever and that the best stories are those with satisfying beginnings, middles and endings.
HBO, who have refused to comment other than to say that the information given by Armstrong in his New Yorker interview is correct, have at least proved that it still occasionally is a home for serious artists by respecting his decision and not trying to force him to wring every last drop out of the Roy family for commercial gain, as it did in the case of Game of Thrones, which lost its way and wide appeal several seasons before it finally came to a frustrating and overdue end in 2019.
The network’s interest might, however, be piqued by something else Armstrong told The New Yorker, that “maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite? Maybe there’s something else that could be done, that harnessed what’s been good about the way we’ve worked on this. So that is another true feeling.”
Whether that means viewers will be treated to spin-off shows such as “The Tom and Snooki Show”, or “Cousin Greg’s House Party,” remains to be seen but for now, season four of Succession seems set to be the one in which the show delivers on the promise of its title — someone must succeed to the head of the throne of Logan Roy’s multibillion-dollar empire. Spin-off shows are hard things to pull off and in recent television history only Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan with Better Call Saul has managed to create a spin-off that’s been as well received by audiences and critics as its progenitor show was.
In a pop culture moment characterised by the Marvel Comics Universe overkill of spin-offs, sequels and a proliferation of film and television properties that seek to tell every possible story within its sprawling galaxy of characters from the recognisable to the lesser known, for the purposes of profit, Armstrong’s decision is even more commendable. Bringing a successful show to a close is a hard thing for any showrunner to do; bringing a hugely popular and awarded one to an end, even more so.
All that he needs to do, now that the cat’s out of the bag, is give us a season that delivers on its promise; secures Succession’s reputation among the small pantheon of truly great and influential television shows and reminds us that not all cultural production has to continue forever, just because we’d love it to.
• Succession season four starts streaming weekly on Showmax from March 27.
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