Barry and Succession: The Nature of Change
Fyi I’m sure many people have pointed this out before. Also this post is sort of piggybacking off of @childhoodtheme’s post of Jeremy Strong’s Vanity Fair interview.
Watching Succession right after Barry is just heartwrenching. They both deal with such intense themes about change. Each show deals with it differently. With Succession, it goes unsaid. You’re meant to watch the show and see for yourself. With Barry, it’s a very present question throughout the show. There are even moments where the characters put that question directly into words. But they end very similarly.
Starting with Succession- one of the general themes is that life is cyclical. Roman doesn’t recover. He doesn’t go to therapy, he doesn’t become a better person. He doesn’t change, he just accepts who he’s always been. In one of his culminating scenes, he simply says ‘We’re bullshit…we’re nothing.’ He, unlike his siblings, has come to terms with the reality of their situation instead of trying to change it. Shiv and Kendall’s arcs are cyclical in a different way. They do not change, and fail to recognize their situation, so they face the consequences instead. Instead of giving up, and getting out in the hopes of a freer life, Shiv does what she’s always done. She schemes, she manipulates, she ruins peoples lives and her own while she’s at it. She’s still striving for what she’s always wanted, but she’s dead inside. And Kendall? Just like Shiv, he ends up where he’s found himself so many times before. He’s alone. He’s failed AGAIN. After scheming and backstabbing and failing to learn and grow once more. His story ends the way we’ve all known it’s had to end, but the way he could never accept. After this long journey, they’re all right where they’ve started. Alone, bitter, and falling back into the same habits they’ve never been able to let go. And it’s devastating.
As stated before, Barry ends in a similar way. Like Roman, Fuches and Sally’s stories end in being honest with themselves and the people around them. Have they really changed? Not entirely. Are they happy? Not entirely. But they’re free- or as free as they can be. They’ll always be tortured by their situation, and by their character, but they’re out. They’re alive. In the same fashion, Barry and Noho Hank’s stories end in a way that reflects Shiv and Kendall’s. They’ve doomed themselves, by not only failing to change, but failing to accept the reality of their lives and what they’ve done.
So I’m losing my mind a little bit. These themes are incredibly interesting to me, and I’d like to explore these ideas more, but I’m going to stop myself before I fall into a pit of depression :) To conclude, these shows are both absolutely fantastic pieces of art. The writing and acting is phenomenal from both shows, and they’re both among the best shows I’ve ever seen, certainly the best shows on television right now. Hats off to both casts and crews. It’s been a wild couple of months.
