Have You Noticed that “Succession” Is Like Shakespeare?

Hiam Abbass as Marcia Roy in focus with cast members behind her from “Succession.”
Photograph by David M. Russell / Courtesy HBO

I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but have you noticed that “Succession” is like Shakespeare? Well, if you haven’t, you should thank your fucking cocksucking lucky dipshit stars (sorry, too much “Succession” LOL) because once you start to notice it, boy, oh, boy, it’s all you can notice!

First of all, the characters. When you take a close look at the characters from “Succession,” it’s almost like—are these characters from “Succession,” or are they from one of the great plays by the legendary playwright William Shakespeare? I mean, come on!

I’m talking about not only the brothers (although they alone would be enough to call the Bard to mind) but also the sister. And, this might seem totally crazy to you if you’re not super into Shakespeare, even the bumbling Cousin Greg is like something right out of “Hamlet,” or “Macbeth,” or one of the other ones. If you really think about it, Cousin Greg might be the most Shakespeare-ish of the bunch, and that might hint at his trajectory, vis-à-vis the plot. . . . Not to spoil anything, of course. (When it comes to “Succession,” heavy is the head that wears the spoiler-dense crown of Shakespearian knowledge, if you know what I mean.) And don’t even get me started on the dad!

You can really tell that the writers of “Succession” are, if not Shakespeare themselves, at least heavily influenced by him and his important works. Look no further than the show’s themes for examples of Shakespeare’s influence. Power, ambition, family, business, shouting, deals happening and not happening, death, politics, guys being mean, not knowing what anyone is talking about ever at any point—people with even a casual understanding of Shakespeare’s œuvre can see that parallels abound.

If I were a high-school English teacher? Man, oh, man! You’d better believe I’d have several PowerPoints at the ready about how “Succession” is like Shakespeare. I’d light my students’ minds on fire with that stuff. “Oh, you think Shakespeare is boring?” (That’s me talking to my students.) “Well, what about a little show called ‘Succession’—is that boring to you?”

Or, well, I’m actually not sure if that’s boring to them. Do teen-agers like “Succession”? I guess maybe this would work better if I were some kind of college Shakespeare professor. Yeah, that’s it. I’m, like, a super cool Shakespeare professor at a bucolic university on the East Coast, and I’m, like, (to my students), “Oh, you think Shakespeare is boring? Well, what about a little show called ‘Succession’—is that boring to you?”

No way in hell would that be boring to them. Other professors would ask me for tips, like, “How do you make your subject come alive so brilliantly for your doting students?” And I’d reply, “Oh, I can’t take all the credit. Some of that goes to the creator of ‘Succession.’ By which I mean, Shakespeare.”

Listen, I don’t want to sound unbearably erudite when I say that “Succession” is like Shakespeare, though I know that my saying so has that effect. Shakespeare’s plays were actually written to be understood by everyone, not just the hyperintellectual, and his work remains relevant to this day for that very reason. Even if you find his plays—and, by extension, my comparison of them to “Succession”—confusing, please don’t take that to mean that you’re not smart. It’s possible that you are nearly as smart as I am, and you just haven’t yet put your natural intellectual ability to use. But it’s never too late. Shakespeare is all around us, and he is there for you to discover whenever you see fit.

For example, “Vanderpump Rules” is also like Shakespeare. ♦