Here's Everything You Need To Know About 'Succession'

Succession, HBO's newest drama, was a sleeper hit in the summer of 2018. It took both viewers and critics by surprise with a slow burn that suddenly became a runaway train. The show, loosely based on the Murdoch family who built the Fox media empire, is like if someone transported Tywin Lannister and his family to the 21st century. The series is so riveting fans are already asking if there be a Succession Season 3. If the premiere of Season 2 is anything to go by, one should hope so. Warning: Spoilers for Succession Season 2 follow.

The series focuses on Logan Roy, the family patriarch, who founded Waystar RoyCo and created the crown jewel news network ATN. Season 1 began when he had a stroke on his 80th birthday. By Episode 5, he had recovered, but his son, Kendall, was not ready to back down on inheriting his father's Iron Throne.

Like Cersei, he believed himself a power player with a Littlefinger-like mind. In reality, he's more like Edmure Tully, failing to pass a vote of no confidence against his father after getting stuck in traffic. By the end of Season 1, he had started a hostile takeover instead. (See? The GOT comparisons are spot on.)

But in the season finale, Kendall, high out of his mind, drove off a bridge into a river. He escaped the car, leaving his passenger trapped inside. Rather than call for help, he returned to the party, changed his clothes, and danced the night away with his kids. The next day, when the car was found with evidence Kendall had been in it, Logan held it all over his son's head. The hostile takeover ended now, or Kendall would spend the rest of his life in Chappaquiddick-inspired hell.

Season 2's premiere begins all of 48 hours later. Kendall's trip to rehab ends abruptly so he can help put out the hostile-takeover fire. Kendall is now a shadowy specter of a yes man to his father, bleating out the pre-programmed lie: "I saw their plan, and my dad's was better."

The power vacuum left in Kendall's wake changes the game for his siblings. Oldest brother Connor (from Logan's first marriage) tries to stay out of it by running for president. That leaves little brother Roman, a playboy with his own skeletons, and sister Siobhan (Shiv) to fight for RoyCo.

Roman is convinced he's win. Between male primogeniture and his proposal to sell all the entertainment holdings of RoyCo and hold on to just the News division, he believes Logan will pick him. But though he proposed Waystar follow in Fox's real-life footsteps, by the end of the premiere, it's Shiv who gets offered her father's ring of power. This despite her on-going rebellion of working for ultra-liberal candidates, and her disappointing choice of milquetoast husband, who Logan deems unworthy of her.

Is Logan for real? Or is this offer to Shiv just a way of manipulating her back into the fold? Succession Season 2 already has fans glued to find out what happens next.

HBO renewed Succession for Season 2 only two episodes into Season 1. Hopefully, by Season 2 Episode 2, Succession Season 3 will be on the way as well.