Jesse Armstrong described the idea for Succession as «something like Dallas meets Festen.» It was never just a show about money….

Jesse Armstrong described the idea for Succession as «something like Dallas meets Festen.» It was never just a show about money. «What is love in this family?» he said. «That’s one of the questions I keep asking.» Armstrong said he did not know the ending when he made the pilot. «Early, early, I had a sense that the ending would be the dissolution of this enterprise that we follow. And then other things started to come into focus more slowly.» On why none of the children could ever truly win: «The show is about a man who is so all-consuming that his children’s idea of love is a perverted version of love — the idea that love means getting what you want from someone.» On where each Roy child ended: Roman in «a reductive, brutal way.» Shiv in «a terrifying, frozen, emotionally barren place.» And Kendall: «This will never stop being the central event of his life. Maybe he could go on and start a company or do a thing, but the chances of him achieving the sort of corporate status that his dad achieved are very low. And I think that will mark his whole life.» Jeremy Strong on what made the show work: «It’s Jesse Armstrong’s writing. It’s his profound insight and his ability to embed in this satire a completely comprehensive chronicle of the time that we live in, in a painful, tragic, absurd way.» Series: Succession (2018)