A Broader Perspective On This Series

I didn't know this show was considered a comedy and when I was watching the first episode and the first thing I thought of, tone wise, was how much this show is like House of Cards. If you go back to HoC's British roots it is a comedy. It's not a comedy in the way that Monty Python or one of the great Britcoms are. There are no quirky eccentrics or mustachioed, blustering superiors. (A Fish Called Wanda is not all that British in terms of comedy, it's more like an American comedy with Pythonesque dimensions.)

A better way of thinking about Succession is as a Dark Dramedy.

One reason I think a lot of Americans will have a problem with this show is that usually, we laugh at the characters finding themselves in situations that are over the top and/or we could never imagine we would be in. With Succession, much of the humor is rooted in a discomfort we understand.
We've all been Greg at some point in our lives: awkward, unsure but trying to play it off. A lot of have had Toms in our lives, a person who says things that seem mean and offensive but follows it up with a smile and "I'm just kidding".

The last part 1/3 or episode 6 [spoiler]was cringe humor at its best. Most people have been in the position of running late for something important. while every traffic nightmare that can happen does. While Kendall is running to get to the office, he's listening to his coalition fall apart *and* a paparazzo is watching him and questioning whether he is back on drugs or not.

Kendall doing the walk of shame after being fired is more uncomfortable than funny. The faces of the other people in the office who are trying to ignore and gawk at the same time is definite comedy gold. [/spoiler]

So yeah, this is all about rich assholes behaving badly but, they actually have consequences for being assholes and those consequences can make for some delightfully painful, dark comedy.

I bingewatched the series in a few days... heres my take... I found each character to be mean and nasty, cut throat and conniving right from the very start. There was no build up as to why all the underlying hatred of one another. The younger brother Romeo was so annoying,,,like a gnat that wouldnt go away. Couldnt stand his character.
The siblings were so detached from one another until the 9th episode, where they finally hung out for 5 min and smoked a joint together. But it didnt feel credible. It felt so staged.. I just didnt buy it.
Ok so how about the whip marks on Logans back? They show them when he exits the pool. Never to be referenced again..Could it be his wife inflicted them?
What about when Logan, in his drugged state from the hospital and his stroke, guided Shivs hand to his private parts? Could there have been some sort of molestation in her younger years? Too many things, without any resolutions.
The actor who played Kendal was very convincing... but still I didnt quite care about any one character. Even Greg, the sweet cousin that tries to fit in, still had a devious side to him...Perhaps to protect himself from any implications later on... And Tom, well, Tom was borderline abusive to him. In any case, the whole Dallas theme, of gaining control of a big company wore thin. The most interesting character to me, was Logans wife. Now theres a woman with many layers. Maybe in season 2, they will explore her more.

If A Fish Called Wanda and Wild Target are your touchstones for British comedy, then I think it's fair to say that you don't understand British comedy. Watch Armstrong's other stuff and you'll have a better chance of appreciating the achievement that is Succession. Peep Show, In the Loop and Armstrong's Black Mirror episode are all recommended. However, Armstrong usually works with other writers, which makes it difficult to separate out what is really him.

Veep is essentially a replay of The Thick of It, though a worthwhile one. It was created by Armando Iannucci, not Armstrong, who was just one of many British writers on the show. (Interestingly, Veep's writers were all British until season 5.)

It was pretty good. I've watched the first two seasons. I hoped it would end there, as the 2nd season had a bit of fluff (not a huge amount, but not as tight as the first), but ended strongly...

I liked the Machiavellian elements, the struggle to keep the family together, the business together, etc... There was enough of the outside world to give context as well.. but those elements of power/family were the strongest parts of the show.

On the comedy side things. In terms of mood and atmosphere, I think they were going for a documentary style look, with the zooms and the lens going in and out of focus, similar to In The Loop, but I think given the setting and the way they did the lighting it comes off a lot more polished then documentary style...

As for the tone of the comedy, there is some odd behaviour and while there were moments of cringe, it didn't colour the entire show that way...

I thought the series could be seen as a tragic tale if you look at it from Logan's point of view, rather than any of the other main characters... Ultimately, he is trying to bequeath his family the legacy of what he had built, while keeping them intact as a family and maintaining control until the end... This is a balance and challenge that is familiar to any business owner, even of modest scale... The stakes in Succession are just that much larger...

But it seams like this is going to Season 3... So it tells me they don't actually have an idea of what the full thing is and they're just making it up from season to season, so it's hard to tell if it'll continue to be compelling to watch.

I tend to prefer mini-series for this reason. I'll still probably watch the first couple of episodes of Season 3 when it's out... We'll see how it goes from there

I tried getting into the story but the characters are written with such unredeeming malice that it's hard to just take it all in and observe the family conflict unfolding.

I guess that the premise is playing on the King Lear trope of a powerful and respected family estate slowly eating itself into ruin due to greed and corruption which were at the heart of what elevated this family to its heights in the first place. Okay, cool. I'll just stream the various version of King Lear and Kurosawa's "Ran" instead.

I was also surprised to learn that Succession is supposed to be a comedy! I was surprised because it is not funny.

Are we watching the same show? I just started it the other day, and I'm already halfway through season two...It's got everything: Amazing acting, great character development, crisp dialogue, and humor by the truckload...Every episode has at least a few funny lines, I can't remember the last show (or movie ftm,) that has made me literally LOL as much as this! Reminds me a lot of Deadwood...

I disagree with every point you made.

I think it boils down to taste and expectation.

Btw, I don't like Curb Your Enthusiasm at all but I can binge watch Larry David's Seinfeld.