History Series / Succession

** Additionally, after seeing the extensive abuse, bullying, [[spoiler: rape]], and lies that are deeply embedded in the foundations of Waystar-Royco over the course of the series, [[spoiler:it calls into question if their father's legacy is one really worth inheriting, and whether or not it's fitting that Mattson, the man who ''does'' take ownership of the company, is exactly the kind of amoral scumbag who'd feel right at home walking in Logan Roy's shoes.]]

** Additionally, after seeing the extensive abuse, bullying, [[spoiler: rape]], and lies that are deeply embedded in the foundations of Waystar-Royco over the course of the series, [[spoilers:it calls into question if their father's legacy is one really worth inheriting, and whether or not it's fitting that Mattson, the man who ''does'' take ownership of the company, is exactly the kind of amoral scumbag who'd feel right at home walking in Logan Roy's shoes.]]

** Additionally, after seeing the extensive abuse, bullying, [[spoiler: rape]], and lies that are deeply embedded in the foundations of Waystar-Royco over the course of the series, [[spoilers: it calls into question if their father's legacy is one really worth inheriting.]]

** Logan himself was raised in part by "Evil Uncle Noah", whom he claims to his children was an even more abusive and controlling uncle than they might think of him. Indeed, when we see shots of Logan half-dressed there are many scars across his back similar to those given by belt or cane beatings. The only time he actually seems ashamed of his abusive behavior toward his own children is after he backhands Roman. This provokes an unprecedented but still half-hearted apology the next day.

* AintTooProudToBeg: The downside of being around Logan Roy is that you're eventually reduced to begging; Kendall crying that he's sorry in "No One Is Missing" (and asking to be let go in "Chiantishire"), Shiv letting herself be vulnerable and asking Tom to be protected in "This Is No Time For Tears", Roman stunned that their parents would screw them over so hard in "All The Bells Say", even his employees and extended family are terrified of "Boar On The Floor."

** Kendall and water, after the death of the waiter in season one (who died after Kendall drove the car into water). "Washing our hands for absolution", complaining that Logan is drowning prosecutors in compliance bullshit, the rain when he miserably tries to shove money in the letterbox of the waiter's family, trying to commit suicide in the pool, and the panic attack in the bathtub. His actor, Jeremy Strong, only adds on, saying that a lot of the time, Kendall will think he's waving when in reality he's drowning.
** Dogs. Caroline says that she wanted dogs, but Logan would have kicked them as he never saw anything he loved that he didn't want to kick to see if it would come back, Logan calls Kendall a Labrador when blackmailing him and complains about his [[PuppyDogEyes doggy evils]] in "All The Bells Say", Roman is called a slime puppy and sick puppy, has painful memories of a dog cage that everyone says he enjoyed, calls Waystar like a cage for him and got sent to military school because dad saw him and Kendall as attack dogs.

** "Killer." Logan torments Kendall because he believes he lacks "killer instinct" and he's not "a killer", but Kendall is also wracked with guilt over being an ''actual'' killer, of the waiter he left to die when they went to get drugs at Shiv and Tom's wedding reception.

** "Bullshit." Characters frequently ask for "no more bullshit", "cut the bullshit", and refers to stuff as "just bullshit."

** In "Austerlitz", Shiv calls Logan out on the hit-pieces that say Kendall is using again, as soon as Roman finds out his brother is doing meth he prioritises rescuing him over doing what his dad says, Kendall repays the favor by snarking at Logan for never giving Roman any credit and for calling Shiv a coward until she cries, and Connor hugs Shiv after all the drama, hoping she at least had some fun.
** In "Pre-Nuptial", Connor offers to fulfil the father role when Logan doesn't bother showing up, and the golden trio share a sweet giggly hug before the wedding itself, in the "old place" where they viewed as a comfort away from parents before.

** Everywhere in "This Is Not For Tears", from Shiv and Kendall making sure that Roman is okay after he tells them not to make jokes about the HostageSituation, Shiv's guilty conflict over her brother vs her husband, Roman and Shiv sincerely saying Kendall did a good job, Roman defending Gerri, Stewy not taking the deal if it means his ex-friend loses a board seat, even Logan loving Kendall so much that he makes the comparison of sacrificing him will make the sun rise again.

* BigFancyHouse: All of the Roys have very expensive homes, though they live in New York City, so they're not very big. Connor's hacienda in the desert counts, however, and the biggest example is the castle where Tom and Shiv's wedding takes place, which is Caroline's familial estate. The first episode of the second season, titled "Summer Palace", is named after the Roys' massive Hamptons summer home featured in it.

** In "The Disruption", Shiv and Kendall reverse "Safe Room." While she doesn't know she's broken yet, he recognises that she's in his position from the last season and feels sorry for her (while also being glad that it's not him anymore).
** In "This Is Not for Tears", when everyone is arguing who to sacrifice for the cruise scandal, Tom backs the suggestion to sacrifice Karl while calling him a "sausage thief", referring to Karl stealing his sausage during Boar on the Floor in "Hunting."
** In "The Summer Palace", Connor reveals that he is attempting to purchase Napoleon's dried, preserved penis at auction. When he presents Roman with a maca root in "All the Bells Say", Roman asks if it is another famous historical figure's dried penis.
** In "The Summer Palace", Roman suggests fending off Sandi and Stewy's bear hug by ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''-ing them, running around the theme parks in ghost costumes to convince them they're haunted. In "Kill List", Kendall and Roman attempt to scare Matsson away from buying Waystar without arousing the suspicion of the board, and when he catches on to their plan he accuses them of trying to "Scooby-Doo" him and asks if they will try to convince him the parks are haunted next.
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Logan in "Retired Janitors of Idaho", an early sign that he is suffering from a U.T.I. and losing his mental faculties.

* CatharticCrying: Jeremy Strong improvised Kendall's crying at the end of "Nobody Is Ever Missing", calling it a culmination of everything he's gone through and just wanting comfort in his dad's arms.

** In "Shit Show at the Fuck Factory", Gerri tells Kendall not to jump when he hears the news of the debt problem, which comes off as a joke, but then fast forward to "Safe Room", where he's BeingWatched as he thinks about jumping off his father's building, and Gerri's comment makes it look like everyone knows Kendall has suicidal leanings.
** In "Safe Room", Greg asks Tom if he can be transferred out of ATN because he's disturbed by the company culture, with one example he cites being "human furniture." [[spoiler:In the series finale, after offering to keep Greg on despite Greg's attempt to sabotage the Waystar-[=GoJo=] deal, Tom places a furniture sticker on Greg's forehead, making Greg a symbolic type of "human furniture."]]
* CerebusSyndrome: The cruises and the sexual assaults that were covered up (and how it shows off the ignored rotting abuse in the Roy family) makes the first appearance in "Sad Sack Wasp Factory", making the show more of a dark tragicomedy than a BlackComedy with sad elements.

** The core of the phrase "no real person involved", which refers to lower-class people, usually who work for Waystar Royco (but sex workers are also included) and were abused (usually sexually) or actually ''murdered'' on their cruises.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Andrew Dodds, the waiter that Kendall accidentally kills, first shows up in "Pre-Nuptial", giving Greg non-answers on whether he should tell Tom about Shiv or not, and they spend the night together.

** In "Shit Show at the Fuck Factory", Shiv refuses to call Caroline because she'll make it all about herself. When the woman shows up, it turns out it's not an unfair assessment.
** In "Lifeboats", when Kendall gets up early to be CEO, the camera focuses on waiters taking out the trash, something that will repeat after he kills a waiter, and triggers his breakdown/confession in "All the Bells Say."

** In the season 3 episode "Lion in the Meadow", Tom recounts the story of Nero and Sporus - Nero once pushed his wife down the stairs, then castrated his favorite slave boy Sporus and married him instead. He then tells Greg that he'd "castrate and marry [him] in a heartbeat." This [[spoiler:parallels the season 3 finale, where Tom betrays his wife Shiv (by telling Logan about her plan to block the [=GoJo=] acquisition, thus forcing her out of the company) and protects Greg (by securing him a major promotion at the new [=GoJo=]-owned Waystar). While trying to convince Greg to go along with the betrayal, Tom asks him: "Do you want to come with me, Sporus?"]].

** In the pilot, Logan baits Greg with "I'd do anything for my brother", but adds on "''if he asks''", knowing Ewan would hate doing anything of the sort.

* HonestyIsTheBestPolicy: Subverted in "Hunting", when Gerri expresses doubts and is let go, Greg thinks he can do the same because Logan just praised her honesty. Logan tells him there are no rules.

** In "Lifeboats", Kendall thinks he's done good by getting the debt sorted out thanks to an investment from Stewy. Then he hears his dad wants to see him, gets called a fucking idiot, and walks out like the beaten down dog he is.

** In "All the Bells Say", not wanting to admit anything yet, Kendall complains that Shiv, Roman and Connor can't do an intervention on him because they all have something wrong with them too. They point out that a suicide attempt (and this is the only one they know about!) crosses the line.

** The season finales ("Nobody Is Ever Missing", "This Is Not For Tears", "All the Bells Say", "With Open Eyes") have all been named after lines from the poem [[https://poets.org/poem/dream-song-29 "Dream Song 29"]] by John Berryman.

** In "Celebration", Kendall goes on a tirade against giving board seats to Marcia and accuses her of being a GoldDigger in an extremely vulgar manner, only to realize Marcia was right outside the door on her way to tell them dinner is ready.
** In "Hunting", when Logan is insulting Frank about his trophy girlfriend "sucking some waiter's dick in Palermo", Kendall twitches. Considering Logan's later taunting that Kendall fucked the waiter he later killed, he probably knows full well what he's doing, though Frank asks Kendall what the hell is going on.

** Trying to sniff out who betrayed him in "Hunting", Logan encourages everyone to drink more and stay in the room, as that might get tongues loosened.

** In "Safe Room", Shiv watches Kendall and Logan be (assumedly) close with a look of disappointment on her face the same way Roman did in "Pre-Nuptial."
** "All the Bells Say" has Shiv and Roman repeat a conversation they had in episode two, only instead of "it's not going to be you as CEO because... you know", it's "dad won't pick you because he thinks there's something wrong with you" honesty.
** In "Chiantishire", Kendall asking to be let go and Logan wanting to keep him in the mailroom calls back to two scenes, "Lifeboats", in which Rava doesn't want to stay and Kendall is EntitledToHaveYou, and "Safe Room", in which Greg wants to be "professionally open" and Tom demands he stay.

* InterruptedSuicide: In "Safe Room", it's offscreen but Kendall gets fetched by Colin when he's very close to jumping off the roof, and it's safe to say that Logan was told about it afterwards.

* InvisiblePresident: "The Raisin", who is never seen, never heard, and unlike ''Series/{{Veep}}'' the RunningGag of NoNameGiven is never RunningGagged.

* ItsNotYouItsMe: After Kendall is denied the CEO job, he confronts Logan with "you fucked me", Logan starts with the line and then proceeds to list the reasons why it was all his son's fault (was in the nuthouse three years ago, bent over for Lawrence, chose family over business).

* LameComeback: When Logan threatens to grind Kendall's bones to make his bread, Kendall retorts that he's going to "run up off the fucking beanstalk", much to Logan's amusement.

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: The subtext of the morning after "Boar on the Floor", with Tom awkwardly agreeing with some Waystar guys that he had too much to drink and can't remember anything.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: All four season finales, "Nobody is Ever Missing", "This Is Not For Tears", "All the Bells Say", and "With Open Eyes" are phrases from the poem "[[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48265/dream-song-29 Dream Song 29]]" by John Berryman.

* ManlyMenCanHunt: Subverted in "Hunting", where the men would love to believe they're manly, but get their hunting made easy by staff. Tom lampshades it, saying they're all such shitty hunters that they're shooting piggies in a barrel.

** With all the gross subtext implied, Kendall and Logan. Strong even said that Kendall in the s2 finale was showing love in the violent way that it was taught. The bear hug is charmingly described as trying to fuck dad to death, what Logan does with Kendall in season two gets paralleled over and over to sexual abuse, Logan being kind about his son to Josh gets dismissed as "you'll say anything to get fucked on a first date", and according to Kendall they've been doing this shit forever. (but after all that, a rejection from Logan can still make Kendall suicidal.)

** In "Hunting", Logan loudly targets everyone except Kendall, putting his hands on his shoulders as a sign of protection and owning him, giving new context to when he does it to child Kendall (who also bows his head and looks uneasy) in the credits.

** In "Chiantishire", Roman (drunk on being his dad's fave) stands between Kendall and Logan like Kendall doing his dad's bidding in "Hunting" to gang up on Roman, both of them their dad's attack dogs.

** As well as the ArcWords "is this real", no real person involved. The Roy family aren't really "real", with all their wealth shielding them from the outside world, but it's also Kendall/Shiv/Roman's status as abused trophy children that parallels them with the migrant workers and sexual abuse victims of the cruises. Season Two Kendall is a dead-eyed broken EmptyShell, and he projects that Roman isn't a real person either when he has a later breakdown at his party, hitting Roman's TraumaButton.

** In "Safe Room", on Shiv's first day at Waystar, Tom does an unfortunate analogy that ends up with Shiv having sex with her dad.

* PastVictimShowcase: Done by the camera at the end of "Hunting", as Shiv is happy to be finally bought in, but Kendall is in the background of Logan's study, silent and part of the scenery, showing how her being bought in is going to end up.

* {{Patricide}}: Kendall makes a lot of references of killing or being able to kill/replace Logan, but ultimately, he doesn't want him dead, panicking when it's time to actually deliver the "let's fuck dad together" bear hug and admitting "I'll be broken when you die", despite the fact that being around his dad has made him think about killing himself multiple times. It's also implied that the vote of no confidence is the first time he's really tried to kill his dad (Roman telling him he'll only be respected that way), but he's tried to squirm away before, fucked it up and brought back under heel.

** In "Safe Room", Cyd complains that if they cave to firing neo-nazi Ravenhead, then who's next.

* SexIsViolence: Most of Logan's language is mixing sex, violence and degrading anyway, but he apologises to Frank for the boar on the floor night as "things got a little fruity". Frank goes along with it, and Kendall looks like he wants to be dead.
* ShadowArchetype: The Old Guard (Frank, Gerri and Karl) represent who Logan wants his children to be like; Kendall to be like Frank a doormat who always comes back, Shiv to be like Gerri putting everything else on hold for Waystar, and Roman to be like Karl, sexual deviant,but loyal and willing to beg. Logan even mistakes Kendall for Frank while he is piss-mad in "Retired Janitors of Idaho".
* ShallowNewsSiteSatire: Vaulter is a trendy online media brand recently acquired by media titan Waystar Royco. It seems loosely based on various media companies, such as ''Vulture'' (note the name), ''Vox'' (for its explanation articles), and Buzzfeed (for its clickbait). A visit to the Vaulter offices in season two shows that it is populated by young writers and has a fun, open-concept type of office. They have headlines like "Wait, Is Every Music/TaylorSwift Lyric Secretly Marxist?" and "5 Reasons Why Drinking Milk on the Toilet Is Kind of a Game-Changer". However, the show portrays their business model as unstable, as they can artificially inflate data and are subject to the whims of the Facebook algorithm; by episode's end, [[spoiler:Logan orders Kendall to dismantle it for being hogwash, and so the latter fires everyone and incorporates only their revenue-generating ideas into the greater Waystar portfolio.]]

** Kendall's not so ambiguous disorder (at least not the main one) is bipolar, and the drugs this man takes react with bipolar in... interesting ways, both in show and in real life. In "Prague", when he's depressed and with suicide so on his mind he's wearing a shirt about it, he's adamant about getting ket (decreases suicidal leanings in bipolar patients, although in small doses, and Kendall isn't the best at harm reduction). But when he gets two {{awful truth}}s in one, that dog pound was real and enjoyed, and he's still seen as a Roy, he aims to do so much coke his heart explodes and he's full of hypomanic posturing until it wears off next episode and he's back to panicky little nothing.

* SinEater: In "Sad Sack Wasp Trap", Gerri tries to persuade Tom to cover up evidence regarding several illegal acts committed on the company's cruise lines. As seen in the page quote, Gerri likens this to Tom being a sin eater.
* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: Kendall was completely absent in the trailer for "All the Bells Say", both because of the DrivenToSuicide CliffHanger of "Chiantishire", and because any of his scenes before the InternalReveal have him as a ghostly EmptyShell.

** Caroline and Marcia both make cracks about Shiv sleeping around. And while that's true she does, Marcia decides to call her a spoiled slut after Shiv wants to take down Logan for ''sexual abuse'' in cruises. Her brothers also add on, Kendall (who does SexForSolace [[{{Hypocrite}} just as much as she does]]) lashing out that she only has any worth for her "teats", and Roman obsessed with how much sex she has.

** When one of Waystar-Royco's movie productions is panned by critics and dubbed "The Biggest Turkey in the World", the firm harnesses this reputation to try and make it a cult hit. They even have staff (including Roman at one point) dress up as giant turkeys at their theme parks.

* StockholmSyndrome: Only one line makes sense in Kendall's "L to the OG" and that's "I've been through hell, but since I stan dad, I'm alive and well", during a time when he's Logan's submissive little doll.

** On the drive to get cocaine, Kendall and the waiter listen to "The Isle of Arran" by Lyle Carner, with the last line before the swerve being "my dad didn't want me".

** In "Pre-Nuptial", Kendall and Logan have a tense talk where Logan wants Kendall back in the fold. He'll get his way in the next episode, but in the worst possible way for Kendall.

* ThanksgivingEpisode: "I Went to Market".

** One of the themes of the show is that if the siblings actually come together, like at the end of "Austerlitz", or the hug in "Pre-Nuptial", or "All the Bells Say", they have a chance to prove they haven't been completely ruined by both their father always pitting them against each other and their own moral-rotting wealth. They're also the only ones who (despite arguments and being ConditionedToAcceptHorror) know what they've been through and can only really offer love/comfort to each other, even if it's still awkward and mangled.

* WeddingEpisode: "Nobody Is Ever Missing", "Chiantishire" and "Connor's Wedding".

** "Connor's Wedding". In two words: [[spoiler:Logan dies]]. In a greater number of words: [[spoiler:Logan dying completely upsets all of the power dynamics happening at the company, especially as there is no real heir apparent to run the company and there are an abundance of challenges facing each of the major characters]].

** In "Connor's Wedding", it seems like a run-of-the-mill episode, even one of the more lighthearted ones, and then [[spoiler:Roman receives a call from Tom: "Your dad is sick. [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath He's very, very sick.]]"]]
** In "With Open Eyes", the series finale, [[spoiler: the bottom completely falls out of Kendall's plans to win the vote:]]

* WimpFight: Roman and Shiv get into a slap fight in "Shit Show at the Fuck Factory", and so do [[spoiler:Tom and Greg]] in the GrandFinale.

* WorstNewsJudgementEver: The EvolvingCredits will have a Fox-like news headline each season spewing something ridiculous, like "genderfluid illegals entering the country twice".

* YankTheDogsChain: "Chiantishire" has Logan admit that the buy out that made Kendall spiral at his birthday (and what his son is crawling back for) was "a bit of fun", and never actually intend to deliver on it.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In "The Summer Palace", Roman and Shiv warn Kendall that Logan will use him and throw him away when he's all dried out. "Safe Room" has him know this full well, admitting if dad didn't need him, he doesn't know what he would be for, and by the end of the season he's the sacrifice, Logan digging his own grave by inadvertently admitting he doesn't count either his son or the waiter as a real person.

* AintTooProudToBeg: The downside of being around Logan Roy is that you're eventually reduced to begging; Kendall crying that he's sorry in "No One Is Missing" (and asking to be let go in "Chiantishire"), Shiv letting herself be vulnerable and asking Tom to be protected in "This Is No Time For Tears", Roman stunned that their parents would screw them over so hard in "All The Bells Say", even his employees and extended family are terrified of "Boar On The Floor".

** The dog pound in "Prague". Roman insists that it was abuse, that he was so badly traumatized by it that Logan sent him to military school to avoid dealing with it, and is genuinely furious when Connor and Kendall contradict this. For their part, the brothers insist that it was just regular brotherly rough-housing, that he enjoyed it and wasn't treated as poorly as he says (saying that the dog food he says he had to eat was actually cake), and that he went to military school because he asked to. Connor also claimed that Logan was aware of it and had encouraged it. Kieran Culkin is of the mind that it did happen, but there are so many more worse memories Roman doesn't want to think about, and the big brother who was abused too and otherwise protected him is just a safer target.

** "Killer". Logan torments Kendall because he believes he lacks "killer instinct" and he's not "a killer", but Kendall is also wracked with guilt over being an ''actual'' killer, of the waiter he left to die when they went to get drugs at Shiv and Tom's wedding reception.

** "Bullshit". Characters frequently ask for "no more bullshit", "cut the bullshit", and refers to stuff as "just bullshit".

* AudienceParticipationFailure: Kendall attempts a call and response during "L To The OG", but the audience is either weakly participating or too embarrassed to join at all.

* BirthdayEpisode: "Celebration", "Too Much Birthday" and "The Munsters".

** The showrunner Jesse Armstrong gives more context:[[spoiler: Roman will revert back to what he was at the beginning of the series: a drunken, wisecracking millionaire playboy who will remember the events of the show's four seasons as a "detour". Shiv will remain in the game, but will have an emotionally empty life, as she has neither won nor lost, and her relationship with Tom is unlikely to improve after all the horrible things they've said and done over the course of the series. Finally, Kendall will start a company alone and succeed, but he will never achieve the same power as his father and will always regret losing Waystar]].

** In "The Disruption", Shiv and Kendall reverse "Safe Room". While she doesn't know she's broken yet, he recognises that she's in his position from the last season and feels sorry for her (while also being glad that it's not him anymore).
** In "This Is Not for Tears", when everyone is arguing who to sacrifice for the cruise scandal, Tom backs the suggestion to sacrifice Karl while calling him a "sausage thief", referring to Karl stealing his sausage during Boar on the Floor in "Hunting".

** In "Safe Room", Greg asks Tom if he can be transferred out of ATN because he's disturbed by the company culture, with one example he cites being "human furniture". [[spoiler:In the series finale, after offering to keep Greg on despite Greg's attempt to sabotage the Waystar-[=GoJo=] deal, Tom places a furniture sticker on Greg's forehead, making Greg a symbolic type of "human furniture".]]

** A lone protestor attempts to sour Logan's visit to Dundee by holding up a sign that reads "Roy Cunt".

** Connor, Shiv and Roman are all pissed off at what they think is this happening after Kendall staged a takeover, backed out for no reason they can see, and Logan seems to welcome him back with open arms and a "[[TheMentallyDisturbed he's taken his medicine]]".

* ElectionDayEpisode: "America Decides".

** The Roys refer to the President as "The Raisin". In fact, the audience never learns his real name over the course of the series.

** In season 3 Tom earns the nickname "Christmas Tree", because he serves to have Waystar employees hang blame for their misdeeds on him "like ornaments on a tree".

* FatherIWantToMarryMyBrother: Confirmed by Strong, Kendall embodies "love often wears the face of violence" when it comes to Logan, often paralleled with being his romantic partner (and tired lashing out mother to his siblings) rather than his son. Roman and Shiv have similar issues, Shiv on the outside feeling she has to chase dad like a girl with a crush and Roman brimming with sex problems, and best language he can come up with finally being dad's favorite child is "he's fucking me not you".

* FilchingFoodForFun: In the season 4 finale [[spoiler:Caroline orders her three children not to eat Peter Munion's "special cheese". As soon as she leaves the kitchen, Roman naturally unwraps the cheese and liberally [[ComedicSociopathy licks every square inch of it]]]].

** In "Lifeboats", when Kendall gets up early to be CEO, the camera focuses on waiters taking out the trash, something that will repeat after he kills a waiter, and triggers his breakdown/confession in "All the Bells Say".

** In the season 3 episode "Lion in the Meadow", Tom recounts the story of Nero and Sporus - Nero once pushed his wife down the stairs, then castrated his favorite slave boy Sporus and married him instead. He then tells Greg that he'd "castrate and marry [him] in a heartbeat". This [[spoiler:parallels the season 3 finale, where Tom betrays his wife Shiv (by telling Logan about her plan to block the [=GoJo=] acquisition, thus forcing her out of the company) and protects Greg (by securing him a major promotion at the new [=GoJo=]-owned Waystar). While trying to convince Greg to go along with the betrayal, Tom asks him: "Do you want to come with me, Sporus?"]].

** In "Chiantishire", Caroline shows twice that she'll either choose herself or Logan's approval over her children, telling Shiv she should have had dogs and tells Kendall Logan doesn't want him at the wedding, Roman also worrying that her new husband will screw them over. They're still all heartbroken when she betrays them next episode.

** In the season 2 and 3 opening credits of the show, there is a quick shot of a live news segment on ATN played on a TV screen. The screen proclaims hilariously insane headlines such as "I Smiled At Her By The Photocopier - Now I'm Facing Chemical Castration" or "Gender Fluid Illegals May Be Entering The Country 'Twice'".

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Subverted, as Tabitha having sex with Naomi is seen as disgusting to Roman. Played straight by Logan, who leers at them when they hug in "Tern Haven".
* GreekChorus: [[spoiler:After Logan dies]] the three most prominent members of his inner circle, Frank, Karl, and Gerri, act as a trio for the rest of the final season, shaking their heads at the siblings' foolhardy actions and offering insight from the senior/board member perspective. Roman mockingly calls them "emperor penguins" and Matsson "village elders".

* HiddenInPlainSight: When giving her FalseReassurance on cruises, Logan tells Shiv "There's not one single piece of paper that will make you ashamed of me." A couple of episodes later, when Kendall is being a little shit, Logan wants to have him cut down, but Gerri hushes with "it'd be like shredding a human document".

** In "Safe Room", Shiv watches Kendall and Logan be (assumedly) close with a look of disappointment on her face the same way Roman did in "Pre-Nuptial".

** The image of Roman and Shiv curled protectively around Kendall while he cries in the third season finale is similar to their hug in "Pre-Nuptial".

** Shiv ([[PsychologicalProjection nearly in tears]]) telling Kiera that being The Rape Victim is all she'll ever be has a direct line to Logan telling Kendall that if the car crash comes out "you'll never be anything else".

** Joked about by a jealous Tom, who teases Greg that he's spending a lot of time with Kendall, "a girl could start to wonder".

** Logan hitting Roman is a lot like when he hit Iverson, getting the same PapaWolf reaction from Kendall and excusing himself with "I barely made contact".

* TheMissusAndTheEx: WomanChild Naomi and OnlySaneMan Rava in the same house in "Secession". Instead of seeing how annoyed Rava is about the whole thing, Kendall just sees it as being surrounded by hot women and "he's doing something right".

* NoNameGiven: The President, who only ever goes by the nickname "The Raisin".

** Logan has similar complaints to the ones above about language he's not supposed to use anymore in "Dundee".

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Logan Roy is an abusive father at the helm of a business empire that Roman describes as specializing in "hate speech and rollercoasters". He casually uses racist and homophobic slurs throughout the series, and it's mentioned that in previous decades he ran his company with a "no Blacks, no Jews, no women above the fourth floor" policy.

** Subverted when Shiv assumes that Connor hasn't seen ''Film/IndecentProposal'' (a film where a billionaire essentially just sexually extorts a couple), but Wila has to tell her that it's one of his favorite films.

* {{Scandalgate}}: Shiv refers to the incident at a public panel where she calls her father a "dinosaur" as "dinosaur-gate".

-->'''Shiv''': "Whoever tells Solomon not to asset-strip the baby gets to keep the baby".

** Kendall arrives by limo to a very important business meeting and immediately starts using inappropriately casual lingo, showing how unfit he is for the world of business. The businessman he's meeting balks at being called "dude".

* FreezeFrameBonus: All of Shiv/Roman/Connor fake press articles in "Too Much Birthday" are tailored to all their insecurities, SlutShaming Shiv while making fun of her mental health and being Tom's accessory, Connor being mocked for something that happened while he was doing dad activities with his brothers and Roman including his dog motif and sex pestering/repulsion. Compared to the later confrontation, they're messed up enough to take/mean all this in stride.
** In the opening of the show, there is a quick shot of a live news segment on ATN played on a TV screen. The screen proclaims hilariously insane headlines such as "I smiled at her by the photocopier - now I'm facing chemical castration" or "Gender fluid illegals may be entering the country 'twice'".

->'''Logan:''' ''I know that you've read a lot of books about business management and this and that, but you know what?\\''
'''Kendall:''' ''What?\\''
'''Logan:''' ''Sometimes it ''is'' a big dick competition.''

->'''Logan:''' ''I know that you've read a lot of books about business management and this and that, but you know what?\\
'''Kendall:''' What?\\
'''Logan:''' Sometimes it ''is'' a big dick competition.''

->'''Logan:''' I know that you've read a lot of books about business management and this and that, but you know what?\\

'''Logan:''' Sometimes it ''is'' a big dick competition.

->'''Logan:''' I know that you've
read a lot of books about business management and this and that, but you know what?\\

'''Logan:''' Sometimes it ''is''
a big dick competition.

->'''Kendall:''' What?\\
->'''Logan:''' Sometimes it ''is''

'''Kendall:''' What?\\
'''Logan:''' Sometimes it ''is''

->''"Look, here's the thing about being rich, okay? It's fucking great."''
-->-- '''Tom Wambsgans'''

** Matsson is clearly based on Elon Musk, being presented as a foreign-born, tech-savvy genius who is increasingly suggested to be unreliable. Like Musk, he had a reputation for being a coder but is revealed to have simply invested in existing technology. Both men also have a habit of making ill-advised meme tweets that spark controversy and both men buy a platform with the intent of making it an all-purpose platform.

** Shiv's fiancee (later husband) Tom is in a difficult position in the FamilyBusiness because, no matter how often he proves his loyalty to Waystar, Logan doesn't regard him as "one of them" (and even Shiv gets a few moments of suggesting that). He's even suggested to rank below Greg since Greg is at least Logan's biological nephew (although a newcomer) and is always overshadowed by Kendall in particular but even Roman (who Logan doesn't even particularly like). During the cruises scandal, Logan shows some inclination to protect all his kids, but Tom is his first choice to be thrown to the wolves. [[spoiler:However, Season 3 finally marks a defrosting in Tom and Logan's relationship. Tom looks after Logan during his [=UTI=], and then Tom stakes out his loyalty to Logan by turning against his kids, betraying Shiv in particular. Logan dies shortly afterwards, so it's unknown if this would've lasted.]]

** Greg was said to look like an egg when he was born, hence "Greg the Egg"
** Logan occasionally refers to Shiv by her childhood nickname of "Pinkie", usually when he's trying to put her in her place. Presumably using a name which sounds cutesy and girly is intended to humiliate the headstrong, independent, trouser suit-wearing adult that Pinkie grew up to be.

''Succession'' is a [[{{Satire}} satirical]] [[BlackComedy black comedy]]-[[RuleOfDrama drama]] that aired on Creator/{{HBO}} for four seasons from 2018 to 2023. Created by writer Jesse Armstrong of ''Series/PeepShow'' fame, the show focuses on aging media baron Logan Roy (Creator/BrianCox) and his family's struggle to divide his massive conglomerate, Waystar-Royco, among themselves.

* CosyCatastrophe: It becomes clear by Season 5 that the events of the series verge on being a BadFuture. The cosiness comes from the super-wealth of the protagonists, which insulates them from any consequences, but there are mentions of fires, riots all over America, and people potentially being kidnapped.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Greg and Tom. Veers into a villain example at times: they christen themselves "the Disgusting Brothers" after their [[spoiler:[[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal Mistreatment-Induced Betrayals]] to Logan.]]