Succession

As the Roy family's fleet of helicopters land for their final outing, there's no point in resisting this sumptuous programme. There really is nothing else ...

Based on the glimmering episodes I’ve seen so far, Succession intends to go out on a peak that people will still be talking about in 20 or 30 years. Yes, I can see that it is sumptuous, dense and brilliant, and that at its best it has some of the finest dialogue not just on TV now but on TV ever. It’s great that it’s a lot of quite nasty, unlikable people being funny. It feels clever in the same way that putting your hand up and saying the right answer in a classroom is clever: in a smug and self-satisfied way. But, sometimes, watching it I feel as if I’m being cornered at a party by someone telling me about a non-fiction book I “have to read” while I watch other people laughing and having fun. I know it’s a thinly veiled portrait of the Murdochs and it’s whip-smart and Machiavellian.

Succession returns with a crunchy peanut butter of a premiere for its fourth and final season as the Roys prepare to do battle one last time for the Waystar ...

Finally, we come to the last of the Roy children. So, in the midst of Logan’s furious dealings with his children, in the middle of a high-stakes acquisition bid, Greg fails to read the room once again and asks his uncle for a private chat. Some of the finest acting I’ve ever seen, and this in a show filled with brilliant, powerful performances. When Shiv says it’s time to move on from the marriage, all Tom can say is “uh huh.” He tried to talk to her about his feelings but she shut him down, as usual. Logan’s top security guy / bodyguard Colin (Scott Nicholson) informs Greg that he’ll need to search her on the way out and Greg decides he’ll just hang back rather than break the news to his date. Later, Tom approaches Greg to tell him he’s the laughing stock of the entire party for bringing such a grotesque plebe to the private affair. The show opened up on Logan’s 80th birthday, so it’s only fitting that now—three seasons and nearly five years later—we get to watch him grit his teeth at “Happy Birthday To You” being sung by “the monsters” as he calls his too-happy guests. They’re in the process of starting up a new media company called The Hundred which is, according to Kendall, “Substack meets masterclass meets the Economist meets The New Yorker.” It’s a “private members club but for everyone” and “an indispensable bespoke information hub” that offers “high-calorie info-snacks” with the “ethos of a nonprofit but the path to crazy margins.” And so The Hundred is dropped like one of Kendall’s girlfriends and off they rush to buy a dying legacy media brand. She’s walking away with a ridiculous amount of money and a punch to Logan’s kidney. They meet with Nan who is every bit as conniving and money-and-status-obsessed as the Roy family, but too concerned with her image to just admit it. Fast forward to the even of the final sale of Waystar RoyCo in the Season 4 premiere.

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Succession Season 4, Premiere Episode, “The Munsters.”] Succession offered viewers plenty to ponder upon its ...

It appears that this Season 4 version of Greg is sort of that “boo souls” result from their Season 3 finale conversation. And as for the ways in which they’re disgusting, Braun adds, “It’s Greg-Tom disgusting. So Greg is basically right up there. When we meet him Tom is heading up ATN. As for what viewers can anticipate from the pair’s workplace dynamic, Braun teases, “Greg is definitely several rungs up on the ladder. [Succession](https://www.tvinsider.com/show/succession) offered viewers plenty to ponder upon its fourth and final season return on [HBO](https://www.tvinsider.com/network/hbo) and [ HBO Max](https://www.tvinsider.com/network/hbo-max), among which includes Greg ( [Nicholas Braun](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/nicholas-braun)) and Tom’s ( [Matthew Macfadyen](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/matthew-macfadyen)) new duo nickname, “the disgusting brothers.”

Succession star Matthew MacFadyen actor opens up about the final moments on set of the HBO show and his character Tom Wambsgans.

He views his career like the ocean, where the lulls of looking for the next right project are followed by the crest of a really good moment; the trick is to wait for the wave to come. “I love that they’re quite bloody-minded and gladiatorial in that we shoot a 10- or 12-page scene in one continuous take and then do that eight or nine times over,” he explains. “It started to feel like it was more definitive as we got closer to the end, and I trust Jesse and his team to decide how to go out on a high,” he says. “It was pretty brave and cool that he was willing to be the fall guy for the family, and [last season] when he sensed that Shiv [Sarah Snook] was disappointed that he got off the hook, and in fact maybe wanted him to go to jail, it was a death by a thousand cuts,” he explains. He didn’t have the chance to explain his reasons to Shiv, or to have the chance to tell her that there wasn’t anything he did that she wouldn’t have done. He says the cast “sort of knew the end might be coming” and that Armstrong had spoken to them to lay the groundwork for the end while still leaving room to change his mind. “It was sort of awful,” he says. [ breakdown of the show’s single successful marriage](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/succession-season-4-episode-1-shiv-tom-1235360644/); Macfadyen is most moved by his character’s attempts to process the abbreviated split. Despite his often outwardly cheery demeanor and constant quips (episode 401’s riff on Greg’s date’s handbag nearly rivals the great deck shoes castigation of 103), Tom hasn’t been a stranger to melancholy. “In a word, I thought it was great,” he says of the season-three [cliffhanger](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/succession-recap-season-4-premiere-1235353506/) that saw Tom cutting his wife out of her family’s company. [Matthew Macfadyen](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/matthew-macfadyen/) is nothing like Tom Wambsgans. But now, as the high-octane family drama [launches its fourth season](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/succession-season-4-episode-1-shiv-tom-1235360644/), Wambsgans has climbed the ranks to become billionaire Logan Roy’s double-crossing right-hand man — all much to Macfadyen’s delight.

It's clear from the jump that Shiv and Tom are no longer pretending to be a happy couple. A tense phone call in the first scene suggests they're on a trial ...

Shiv stops by to grab some new clothes for her hotel room, only to find Tom wandering out of the bedroom in his little pajama V-neck. Tom is also ready to call it quits, having come around to the fact that his wife would rather use him as a business tool than grant him a shred of dignity or care. It’s clear from the jump that Shiv and Tom are no longer pretending to be a happy couple. Shiv wants to divorce Tom, as is usually the inclination when your husband tells your dad that you’re planning a hostile takeover of his company. [Connor and Willa](https://www.thecut.com/2021/12/willa-connor-roy-proposal.html)? [Gerri and Roman](https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/succession-kieran-culkin-j-smith-cameron-kiss.html)?

While patricide plan B gets underway, the leggy princeling 'rummages to fruition' at his uncle's superbly squirm-inducing party. Welcome back, Roy-alists!

That sepia title sequence was subtly tweaked, with a shot added of the StarGo app (complete with slow loading). With Logan and his lieutenants at the other end of a phoneline, he was on the back foot for once. [Grey Gardens](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/14/grey-gardens-anniversary-hamptons-documentary), going Mano a Nano”. Their financing was “robust”, but they wouldn’t “take your properties and roll them in the dirt” like evil pater. When Shiv returned to their Broadway apartment to collect some clothes, she and Tom quietly agreed they had reached the end of the road. He tried to lighten the mood by getting his inner circle to give him a “roasting”, but, understandably, they were all too terrified. The contrast between the genteel Pierces, who pretend not to care about money, and the venal Roys, who care about little else, was beautifully portrayed once again. Not to be confused with the gimmicky cricket tournament, this was “a one-stop info shop for smart people”. “I feel like we’re in the middle of a bidding war,” said the pearl-clutching matriarch Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones). Before she was ejected, she and Greg found time for a fumble in a guest bedroom. How about marrying underneath the Statue of Liberty with a brass band and assorted hoopla? His sole confidantes were his “friend, assistant and adviser” Kerry (Zoe Winters) and his bodyguard, Colin (Scott Nicholson).

From Logan's fate to the future of the Roy family kids, we're reflecting on what could lie ahead in the final episodes.

That gullible nature could get him in trouble and continue to set him back to the point where he ends up where the show began, back home with his mother, estranged from his wealthy family. Sure, Willa benefits from Connor’s money and it helps his image to have a woman on his arm, but Season 3 teased a growing bond between the pair when she stood up for him at Kendall’s ( [Jeremy Strong](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jeremy-strong)) garish birthday celebration. And considering his early win over Logan this season, we’re nervous about the low that may be lingering around the corner. Is that for the best? That support may be wavering with Connor’s proposal of a flashy wedding, which has been teased in the trailers for the season. Even with his newfound status as Tom’s right-hand guy, he’s still floundering in the high-class environment if Logan’s party is any indication. As sad as we are to imagine it, Kendall isn’t safe from potential trauma. “I’ve got my f**king suspicions.” By episode’s end, Logan is sitting in a lounge chair at home where he’s tuned into the news. If that puts Tom and Shiv back in close proximity, laying the groundwork for a new dynamic, perhaps there’s a chance they don’t walk away from the relationship after all. “We can’t know but I’ve got my suspicions,” Logan said to the man. [Sarah Snook](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/sarah-snook)) and Tom ( [Matthew Macfadyen](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/matthew-macfadyen)) are not good for each other, and their marriage was toxic at best, but there’s some part of them that loves each other, and that much was obvious in their moving breakup and divorce decision. [Justin Lupe](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/justine-lupe)) and the eldest Roy sibling, Connor ( [Alan Ruck](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/alan-ruck)), may have a mutual understanding when it comes to their equally beneficial relationship, but his desire to remain in the political conversation appears to be laying some cracks in their otherwise rock-solid foundation.

A guide to the week's best and worst TV shows and movies from The Daily Beast's Obsessed critics.

Remember when we all had [“City of Stars”](https://www.thedailybeast.com/ryan-gosling-on-being-saved-by-love-in-the-romantic-musical-la-la-land) and [“Someone in the Crowd”](https://www.thedailybeast.com/emma-stone-on-the-romantic-la-la-land-young-people-have-fallen-into-a-lot-of-cynicism) stuck in our heads in late 2016? [played a main character](https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-york-city-is-the-invisible-eternal-hero-in-morning-sun) in a number of wonderful TV shows, from [Sex and the City](https://www.thedailybeast.com/and-just-like-that-is-nothing-like-sex-and-the-cityin-the-best-way) and [Broad City](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-broad-city-finale-was-just-about-perfect) to [Seinfeld](https://www.thedailybeast.com/origins-of-festivus-revealed-to-be-really-dark-by-seinfeld-writer-dan-okeefe) and [Friends](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/lisa-kudrow-is-ready-for-another-comeback). In fact, rarely ever does a show set in New York ignore the sweeping skylines, the bumbling subways, and the ever-juicy gossip whispered in crowded, dimly lit bars—each an alluring draw to almost every NYC-based show. [Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-real-housewives-get-into-a-heated-fight-over-vaccines-on-real-housewives-ultimate-girls-trip-season-2) was the ultimate treat for Housewives fans who spend hours online begging Andy Cohen to rehire their favorite axed reality stars. While these women contribute a lot to their individual franchises, we learn very quickly—at least in the RHUGT’s first three episodes—that they might not have much to bring to their expansive rental in Thailand aside from stale, rolled-over conflicts and Marysol’s bedazzled tumblers. Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip Season 3 squanders the genius of last season’s conceit and sends a batch of current Bravolebs to Thailand. To steal a turn of phrase from grandly intimidating corporate mogul Logan Roy ( [Brian Cox](https://www.thedailybeast.com/brian-cox-on-successions-season-2-finale-and-season-3-trump-murdoch-scottish-independence-and-playing-lbj)), Succession has lost none of its juice in in its fourth—and, according to creator Armstrong, final—go-round, whose premiere (on HBO Mar. And to be fair, it is named after Matthew Quirk’s 2019 novel of the same name; one of those giant-cover-font, John Grisham-esque novels that jump out at you from the Barnes & Noble sale rack. But the titular night agent in Netflix’s The Night Agent is an agent, who works at night, and—get this—is waiting for a phone call! [Jesse Armstrong’s HBO hit](https://www.thedailybeast.com/adam-mckay-cant-believe-were-nostalgic-for-the-bush-and-cheney-years). Without it, the TV landscape is going to have a noticeable, Roy-family-shaped hole in its programming. We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t.

The $83 million Los Angeles property is owned by Austin Russell, the founder and CEO of Luminar Technologies.

Russell is estimated to be worth about [$1.6 billion](https://www.forbes.com/profile/austin-russell/?sh=2a57ebc96aa8) according to Forbes, as of April 2022. Luminar stock subsequently [tumbled](https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/03/22/why-luminars-stock-is-plummeting-today/). Russell founded Luminar when he was a 17-year-old [high school student](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/03/luminar-ipo-mints-a-25-year-old-autonomous-driving-billionaire.html). [born in 1995](https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-a-young-billionaire-learned-some-old-lessons-11616212826) in Newport Beach, California, has been hailed as something of a wunderkind. [trending downwards](https://www.google.com/finance/quote/LAZR:NASDAQ?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinq8SCivz9AhWJTsAKHfFjD-MQ3ecFegQIGhAY&window=5Y), hitting a low of $3.95 in January this year. One of its rivals includes Velodyne, an industry leader that gained its edge as the [first company to commercialize](https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/first-mover-advantage-gives-velodyne-the-edge-says-top-analyst) lidar for autonomous cars in 2007. A number of companies, [including Volvo](https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/6/21248415/volvo-luminar-lidar-self-driving-highway-pilot-spa2), who has partnered with Luminar, have already incorporated the technology into their vehicles. The company said the weak results, falling on the lower end of its guidance range, were “due to timing of program and service revenue recognition.” Its quarterly net loss was $144.8 million or $0.40 per share, nearly two times higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a [$0.22 loss](https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2059304/luminar-lazr-q4-earnings-preview-high-costs-to-mar-margins) per share. [Starchitect](https://palisadesnews.com/ardie-tavangarian-mansion-for-sale-in-palisades-for-27-million/)” Ardie Tavangarian, the mansion features a [plush home theater](https://www.loveproperty.com/gallerylist/114234/a-26-year-old-billionaire-bought-this-83-million-megamansion), spa complex, two panic rooms, and even a retractable roof for stargazing. Last week, Goldman Sachs downgraded Luminar, moving it [from neutral to sell](https://uk.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/luminar-technologies-cut-at-goldman-sachs-on-margin-headwinds-432SI-2959587) with a $5 price target, due to margin concerns. stunning.New Amazon Fire TVs](https://www.amazon.com/b/?asc_campaign=InlineMobile&asc_refurl=https://qz.com/succession-season-4-premiere-austin-russell-mansion-1850268981&asc_source=&ie=UTF8&node=8521791011&tag=kinjaquartzpromo-20) [light detection and ranging](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html),” is a type of remote sensing method that uses lasers to generate information about three-dimensional space.

Nan Pierce's home in 'Succession' season 4, episode 1 was shot at what appears to be Eric Schmidt's $30 million Montecito mansion.

[@kristytipsy](https://twitter.com/Kristytipsy/status/1640231779310403584) identified the location shown as Nan Pierce’s home on the show as the Peabody Estate in Santa Barbara, also known as [ Villa Solana](https://robbreport.com/shelter/homes-for-sale/slideshow/10-best-homes-currently-market-southern-california/39-million-santa-barbara-compound/). The property includes 11 acres of land sitting on a hilltop with magnificent ocean and mountain views, and the grounds are a lush collection of palm trees, lemon trees, pomegranate trees, and more. Amid the intense negotiating taking place, Shiv at least still took a moment to compliment Nan (Cherry Jones) on the exquisite estate—the filming location of which has since been identified as a $30 million California mansion belonging to a former tech CEO. The 22,000-square-foot main house comes in at five bedrooms and includes unique design touches like 17th-century French oak paneling and white Alabama marble; there’s also a separate guest house. [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/eric-schmidt-montecito-home-11599600051), for the price of $30.8 million—well below the $57.5 million it was [ listed for in 2012](https://robbreport.com/shelter/homes-for-sale/historic-solana-estate-hits-the-market-for-40-million-2810996/). [Succession](https://robbreport.com/tag/succession/) is back, baby, and [season 4](https://robbreport.com/lifestyle/news/succession-season-4-1234728134/) opened with a bang of [stealth wealth](https://robbreport.com/lifestyle/news/succession-billions-details-1234808621/) à la Kendall’s unmarked baseball cap, sprawling vistas that are ignored in lieu of furious phone calls and secretive huddles, and enough [creative uses of the word “fuck”](https://robbreport.com/lifestyle/news/hbo-succession-season-4-gift-bags-fuck-off-1234821024/) to power a small country.