Television series

Succession

A media dynasty tears itself apart in real time, as four adult children circle their ailing father's throne with all the grace of vultures at a picnic. It's viciously funny, genuinely sad underneath the tailoring, and built on dialogue so quotable you'll be reciting it for years. Watch it for the performances, the boardroom knife-fights, and the slow-dawning horror that nobody here is capable of being loved.

TVMaze rating7.5

If you liked this

The Sopranos1999

The other great HBO family saga — a patriarch presiding over an empire built on rot, and children who can never quite escape his orbit or his approval. Same DNA, mob suits instead of boardrooms.

But Slower burn, more violence, and six seasons is a real commitment before the family curse pays off fully.

The Sopranos poster

Arrested Development2003

A wealthy, catastrophically self-involved family destroys itself for laughs instead of tears — same appalling entitlement, same running jokes about who gets the money, dialed up into pure farce.

But Broader and sillier by design; if you want Succession's melancholy undertow, this won't give it to you.

Arrested Development poster

Billions2016

Hedge-fund titans and prosecutors locked in escalating, ego-driven combat, with dialogue nearly as quotable and a cast who clearly relish saying terrible things beautifully.

But More testosterone-fuelled thriller than family tragedy — the emotional wounds are shallower, the plotting pulpier.

Billions poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ran1985

Succession is Lear in a media empire; Ran is Lear in feudal Japan. Same collapsing patriarch, same warring heirs, same question of what an inheritance is actually worth once you've destroyed everyone to get it.

Kurosawa's samurai retelling of King Lear, in which an aging warlord divides his kingdom among sons who promptly tear it — and him — apart, in some of the most stunning images ever put on film.

But Subtitled, three hours long, and formally austere; there's no banter here, only grandeur and grief.

Ran poster
More like this (8)

Yellowstone2018

Swap Manhattan skyscrapers for Montana ranchland and you get the same war: an aging patriarch, squabbling heirs, and a birthright nobody can agree how to divide.

But Politically and tonally very different — earnest where Succession is ironic, and considerably more sentimental about land and legacy.

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Mad Men2007

Corporate ambition curdling into personal ruin, told with the same patient, novelistic control and a similar fascination with people who mistake power for love.

But A cooler, more meditative pace — less banter, more silence, and a very different decade's worth of repression.

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The Crown2016

Another dynasty, another aging figurehead, another set of children groomed for a throne that eats them alive — just with tiaras instead of Waystar lanyards.

But Stately and reverent where Succession is savage; the humour is dry to the point of vanishing.

The Crown poster

House of Cards2013

Ruthless ambition, marital chess-playing, and characters who treat other people as instruments rather than humans — the political cousin to Waystar's boardroom knife-fights.

But Colder and more cynical still, with less of the dark comedy that makes the Roys bearable company.

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Ozark2017

A family drawn deeper into moral compromise to protect wealth and status, watching each member's conscience erode a little further with every episode.

But Crime-thriller stakes replace corporate ones — more cartel, less quarterly earnings call.

Ozark poster

Dallas1978

Oil money, family betrayal, a patriarch nobody can kill off — the granddaddy of every rich-family-at-war drama that followed, including this one.

But Pure eighties primetime soap: big hair, bigger shoulder pads, and none of the modern show's irony or psychological depth.

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The Corporation2003

Where Succession dramatizes corporate amorality through one family, this pulls back to show the system itself operating by the same cold logic, in the real world, with real consequences.

A documentary that argues, with real rigour and no small amount of dark humour, that corporations behave exactly like psychopaths — a diagnosis Waystar Royco would pass with flying colours.

But It's an essay film, not a drama — talking heads and argument, no Roys to root for or against.

The Corporation poster

Dynasty1981

Take away Succession's prestige lighting and literary allusions and you're left with this: the same fight over a family empire, just gleefully, unapologetically trashy instead of Emmy-baiting.

The unashamed trashy ancestor: oil barons, catfights, shoulder pads, and a family so rich and horrible to each other that Succession practically owes it royalties.

But It's soap opera in the purest, campiest sense — no subtlety, no irony, just glorious excess played entirely straight.

Dynasty poster

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