Succession – Season Three: The Complete Scripts

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Succession: Season One will include an exclusive introduction from creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong. Season Two, Season Three and Season Four will also include exclusive introductions by other screenwriters on the show including executive producer Frank Rich and executive producer and writer Lucy Prebble. Seasons One, Two and Three will be published on 18th May, with Succession: Season Four shortly following the end of that series. The complete, authorised scripts, including deleted scenes, of the multiple award-winning Succession . They reveal a unique insight into the writing, creation and development of a TV sensation and a screen-writing masterpiece. With an exclusive introduction from creator Jesse Armstrong.

Such is the dense world-building in the series, much of the material that the writers pore over doesn’t even end up making it to TV. But often, it’s something tiny, easy to miss, a minor detail that makes so much else make sense; a shred of lore that twists the knife or unscrews the cap on the poison that was already so potent; something that the actors were privy to all along. Like, in the third episode of Season 1, after Logan has survived an early health scare, Kendall looks around his dad’s office: He looks at the chair behind the desk. Sitting in it would be too much, right? Instead he sits on the desk like it’s a park bench. Closing his eyes he breathes in, as much as anything, to calm his own nerves. Contrast that with the show’s finale, in which Kendall has no such compunction about occupying the seat, even putting his feet up—an action that revolts his sister and helps set into motion her change of heart and vote. And speaking of his sister, she, too, has a stage direction that foreshadows the events of the finale. Roche: There’s something quite British about that, like, “Oh look at this amazing view … but look at the bins over there.” One of the things Jesse wanted to think about was that while great wealth can insulate you from a lot of life’s problems, there are some things that are just inescapable. You can’t make everything pretty all the time.

Success!

The ‘Boar on the Floor’ episode: ‘Brian did a phenomenal job. Everyone on set was terrified.’ Succession, season two. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy Jesse Armstrong (creator and executive producer): When we were starting the show, it was that great period when we all thought it was hilarious that Trump was doing what he was doing – he was a joke candidate whom the establishment would never let happen. We started shooting when the conventional wisdom was still that Hillary would win. Any similarities to the family in the show are coincidental – that was us putting our aerial into the general political and cultural ether, rather than trying to reflect it. Ted Cohen (writer) : I love writing for underdog characters. And they’re all underdogs, except for Logan, which is probably why it’s so much fun. Tom and Roman are just so heartbreaking. As an American, I always want to create a happy ending and you’re never allowed to do that on Succession. I’m a frustrated optimist. If you’re a member of a family like the Roys, it’s like being a royal: you don’t get to leave. You’re addicted to the pain. So I don’t think it’s done because we’re all sadists or anything like that. Writer/producer Lucy Prebble & Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman, on the set of Succession, season one. Photograph: Ursula Coyote/HBO There’s a lot of TV out there. We want to help: Every week, we’ll tell you the best and most urgent shows to stream so you can stay on top of the ever-expanding heap of Peak TV.

Carragher: One of our writers went to a wedding where they named the tables after TV characters that they liked, and Cousin Greg was one of them, which was a sign of how things had tipped over. Season two marked out Succession as the show that everyone was watching, with the series winning big at the 2020 Emmys, with prizes for acting, writing, best drama, and directing. The writers were also starting to see a marked change. In the wake of an ambush by his rebellious son, Kendall, Logan Roy is in a perilous position, scrambling to secure familial, political and financial alliances. A bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war. In the end, we’ve been left with just 39 episodes of Succession, but reading through the book of scripts feels like finding a trove of more. Sometimes it’s a scene that didn’t make the cut, like Shiv and Rava passive-aggressively planning a lunch. Sometimes it’s an idea that didn’t make it past infancy in the writers room. (Prebble writes that “for a while there, for a playful couple of hours, we were a show where Tom went to jail.”) Sometimes it’s a proposed song that was excised. (Imagine a version of Succession that contains a “Walking on Sunshine” needledrop, as Armstrong originally proposed to conclude the series’ third episode, rather than Nicholas Britell’s iconic score!)Tony Roche and Georgia Pritchett on set: ‘This big American drama was written by a group of scruffy, shambolic British comedy writers.’ Succession, season one. Photograph: Colin Hutton/HBO Earlier this week, following Succession’s series finale, lead actor Jeremy Strong participated in a handful of interviews in which he praised the twisted minds responsible for the show. “This is a moment where there’s a writers strike, right?” Strong asked CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the anchor played a clip of Kendall Roy. “And so it feels important to say that none of this show—this show doesn’t exist—that the writing is everything.” In another conversation, with Deadline, Strong was asked why Succession resonated like it did. “The answer lies in this moment and the writers strike,” he said. “The answer is writers. It’s Jesse Armstrong’s writing. It’s his insight.” Pritchett: After the finale of season two, Kendall gets to be Meghan. He’s putting himself outside the family. He doesn’t get his Oprah interview, but some other stuff goes down … I wonder if the sad I’d be from being without you might be less than the sad I get from being with you? Pritchett: It’s also about: “How much can you get away with when you’re rich?” Which is pretty much anything. I had a lot of ideas about how it might change Kendall and how he’d become a better person. But, no. It certainly affected him for a bit but – rather brilliantly – he’s moved on. ‘I’d been reading about Stalin ’: the show gains ground