A highly polished exercise in treading water: Season 3 of Succession reviewed

At one point in an early Simpsons, Homer comes across an old issue of TV Guide, and finds the listing for the sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. ‘Gomer upsets Sergeant Carter,’ he reads — adding with a fond chuckle, ‘I’ll never forget that episode.’ Even for British viewers unfamiliar with the show, the joke is clear: that’s what happens in every episode.

Sad to say, this popped into my head while watching the first in the new series of Succession. The acting, script and direction are as brilliant as ever. Nonetheless, once Logan Roy began yet again to dangle the possibility of becoming the next CEO of his media empire before his rivalrous offspring, it was hard not to wonder if the iron law of diminishing returns might be in the process of claiming its latest victim.

The episode picked up the story just after the series two cliffhanger: instead of taking his pre-arranged fall for the cover-up of sexual abuse on the company’s cruise ships, Logan’s son Kendall had used a press conference to place the blame squarely on his old dad. Now, having refreshed himself with a brief breakdown, Kendall is making a bid (yes, another one) to take over the business.

Not, needless to say, that Logan is taking this lying down, threatening — give or take a few expletives — to ‘grind Kendall’s bones’. Meanwhile, he’ll step down as CEO and give the job to, well, someone else. Cue the traditional jostling for position among the traditional candidates.

Every individual scene on Monday was perfectly put together. Jeremy Strong is still miraculously good at simultaneously conveying — by the use of eyes alone — Kendall’s effortful belief that he can topple his father and his underlying fear that he can’t.