Nicholas Britell – Main Title Theme of "Succession" (2018)

I watched the last episode of the HBO television series, Succession, earlier today.  

I can’t tell you how sad I was to finish that show, WHICH IS NOT ONLY THE GREATEST TV SERIES IN HISTORY BUT ALSO THE ULTIMATE ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

I was so emotionally drained when that final episode ended that all I could do was lie down on my sofa and take a nap.  But unfortunately, I found myself unable to fall asleep – my brain was too busy thinking about what I could say in this post that would communicate the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of Succession. 

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Wikipedia calls Succession a “satirical black comedy-drama television series.”  That description couldn’t be wronger.  (Someone doesn’t know what in the hell black comedy is.)

The principal cast members of “Succession”

The show’s creator has characterized it as a tragedy, and that’s exactly correct.  It has many comic moments, but ultimately there’s nothing funny about Succession – the main characters are all deeply troubled and wounded people who can’t trust anyone, especially their closest family members.  (The classic tragedy that Succession makes me think of is King Lear, Shakespeare’s play about parent-child relationships gone very, very wrong.) 

Succession also has some things in common with The Godfather, another great work of art about families and betrayal.  

Just imagine if The Godfather was forty hours long instead of merely six-plus hours long.  (I’m only including the first two Godfather movies – you can have Part III.). Then you might have something as great as Succession.

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Every aspect of Succession is just about perfect.

The writing is probably the strongest element of the show – there are literally hundreds of memorable lines in Succession, but the whole of the script is much greater than the sums of its individual lines because the characters talk exactly like you would expect them to talk.  (No one makes speeches in Succession – they just talk.)  

I didn’t like all of the actors right off the bat, buy by the end of the series I found the portrayal of each major character to be utterly convincing.

Succession is breathtakingly beautiful show.  HBO spared no expense – it was filmed at a stunning modern mansion in Pacific Palisades, an English castle, the Plaza Hotel in New York City, a rustic Adirondacks resort, a Tuscan palazzo, a villa on Lake Como, a Long Island estate that is the second-largest private home ever built in the United States, a 279-foot-long yacht, and some Norwegian locations that have to be seen to be believed.   (You can click here to learn more about those locations.)

Even the show’s soundtrack is remarkable.  I found Nicholas Britell’s score infinitely more effective than any original movie or TV series score that I can remember.  (The show’s main theme draws from Beethoven’s Pathétique sonata – and while I would never compare Britell’s music to Beethoven’s, I could easily see myself listening to the Succession score on its own merits.)

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There have been many, many great television series in the last decade – including Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Fargo, Homeland, Orange Is the New Black, The Sopranos, The Bridge, and The Killing (to name a few).  One of the reasons I rank  Succession ahead of all of them is that its final season is even stronger than the seasons that preceded it.  (All too often, a series starts strong but limps to the finish.)

The soundtrack composer saved his best for last as well.  Click here to hear half an hour of musical excerpts from Succession’s fourth season – the music is more than a match for the almost unbearable dramatic intensity of that season’s episodes.

Click here to listen to the main title theme of Succession.

Click here to buy that theme music from Amazon.