Great acting, great writing, perfect characters

“Succession” has to end on Sunday, because what else is there to say that has been said so hilariously, so brutally, over the past four seasons?Rarely – in fact, did No TV shows have dissected 21st-century media empires and the transactional TV news networks that feed them. Anything else is superfluous, or overkill.

So this great series with its provocative heart and anarchic soul must come to an end. On one obvious level, “Succession” has been a dark, dystopian bird’s-eye view of our current divisive moment, like so many other notable dystopian TV shows in recent years. In the “Successor” world, Waystar Royco has created a moral vacuum in America so profound that saboteurs (or demagogues) have no choice but to rush in. That’s what makes this series so exciting, shocking and (yes) sometimes prophetic.

But what makes it so compelling is something else entirely.

Back in 2018, a talented British TV writer named Jesse Armstrong got in touch with Funny or Die’s TV production arm Will Ferrell, Adam McKay Boldface behind the scenes, co-creating a series on Fox News. The idea is based on a fictional family that would vaguely reflect the real-life Murdochs who run 21st Century Fox, while avoiding pitfalls that usually spoil satire on the media (too insider, too obtuse). Armstrong achieves this with a plausible storyline and real-world vibes that have a beginning, middle and (this Sunday) end.

He then assembled an extended cast, most of which were so spectacular that it kept viewers from watching.

In The Patriarch, Logan Roy, Brian Cox created a man so indelible, with such a strong center of gravity, that when he died suddenly in just four episodes of the previous season , it’s as if “inheritance” itself has broken down.

From there where does “inheritance” go? Of course, it always goes where: back to the family, the family dynamic, back to those four tortured siblings whose lives and identities have been completely warped by Logan. Interacting in those families, in all their bitterness, intrigue, backstabbing, and dutiful love, the four protagonists pour themselves into their characters so completely that “inheritance” magically becomes “something else.”

Instead of Dystopia, Inheritance suddenly becomes familiar and intimate because Inheritance suddenly becomes us. Those are our insecurities, our petty jealousies and deeply buried resentments. As a viewer, one always feels superior to Kendall or Reigns — an obvious gloating pleasure in “Succession” — until reminded that you’re not that different from them.

When Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Schiff (Sarah Snook) and poor, utterly devastated Roman (Kieran Culkin) met on Sunday’s “Church and State “When they took the podium at Logan’s funeral, they were no longer just TV characters, but real people stripped down to the bare essentials. We recognize them and better yet know them. They’re human, and now, on the eve of their final scene this Sunday, they’re also — we can all grudgingly admit — cute, even.

HBO didn’t provide the ending for review, but it seems safe to assume someone will “make it,” and it’s even safer to assume that the title’s “succession” will suggest broader or ominous meanings. This hilarious postmodern satire does have a serious message, one it desperately wants to convey: Our institutions have failed us, and big money has corrupted them. The revolutionaries in “Succession” want us to believe, as Sam Cook once did, that change is coming, or has to come. The center is no longer established. The beast has been let go, and it’s not slouching, it’s sprinting.

This is the bleak, dystopian “Succession.” But what we’ve come to cherish over the past four seasons is another, more relatable show — one with unparalleled craftsmanship, great performances, great writing, and flawless characters. After all, the secret to “successful” success is actually quite simple. It’s about love.