My thoughts on how Succession's intro sequence has a lot of subtle details, and foreshadows much of what comes in the time ahead. For my previous video on Succession: • Should You Watch Succe...
The kids are shown in formal wear, suits and fancy dresses. They are dressed like adults, not children. As children they were expected to be adults. However, as adults they are still just children in adult clothing.
One thing i notice during the intro. When they did the family photo with all four kids and Logan. The next scene cuts quickly to young Shiv all by herself which perfectly represents the treatment of isolation she experienced from the entire family. She always feel left out.
Also in season 1 Logan is alone with kid Kendall but later all the kids are together showing that the succession is open for the taking and whoever can join
I actually figured it was foreshadowing that she'd end up mostly alone. And i just wrapped up the finale a few hours ago... Things weren't looking peachy for her
Don't forget that there is a scene of teenage Shiv was alone and Logan touched her shoulder from behind and her facial expression changed from looking sad to looking scared.
Right before that there is a cut with the same iconic picture of the siblings together expect Connor is farther apart from the rest of the siblings adding to the the theme of him always being left out
I didn’t realize how significant the back to back shots of Logan at the table were until you made the grainy vs clear distinction. The film is grainy when he’s with family and it clears up when they’re all replaced with business people outside of the family, it perfectly encapsulates that stylistic choice
I think part of the significance of the intro sequence is the fact that we have never gotten even one single flashback in this series. This is the only glimpse into the past. Everything else is alluded to in convos. Idk what this means but thats what stuck out to me
I love the music! THINK ABOUT IT! I think that the facial expressions of the children change from anticipation of being with their dad and how special this can make them feel to puzzlement over why he is constantly walking away from them and leaving them behind. Even his wife has been conditioned to feel this way which leads to the break up of her marriage...she is not a child to be dismissed and overlooked... which was the same reason his second wife gave when they seperated. I particularly notice the stance of the children after their dad leaves them where two have clenched fist and two have their hands held behind their backs. The oldest and youngest are standing to attention with their hands behind their backs in response to their dad's authority and in strict obedience to stand up straight and wait to be spoken to, they believe their dad loves them. The middle children are clenching their fists as a reaction to their dad's tyranny and indifference to their need for his love and there is a growing resentment. It takes the oldest child such a long time to understand that he is not loved and it has devastating affect on his psyche and you can sense his wounded soul while the other three have formed a sibling bond that seems indifferent to their half brother's pain which is also unloving...and with which the three can depend on for support and camaraderie when they have experienced episodes of their brutal, ruthless father's tyranny. I can't wait to see how the three sibs deal with their young cousin who has grown up with his grandfather's self-righteous hypocrisy and undaunted claim to superiority over his young brother (demonstrating a long term animosity between two sons). The cousins grandfather is an elitist who embraced pure capitalist is also a philanthropist and who has money invested which builds upon itself and for which we know nothing of what his financial portfolio consists of...we know he is also a billionaire who doesn't work...what was his job before "retirement"? The cousins uncle is a "captain of industry" who embraced pure capitalism and whose decisions affect the economy of the country and the personal lives of his employees. The introduction hints to the devastating effects of the love of money over the love for his family and ingratitude towards his employees who make his wealth grow every day of their lives. There remains a disconnect in his personal relationships demonstrated with clarity when we see his daughter walking her pony the way you'd walk your dog instead of riding it because her dad finally got the pony years after she begged him for one and now she is too big to ride it and enjoy it. I thought their dad was an atheist until his second wife talked about a Catholic funeral. CHILLING TO THE CORE! Does he love his children? I know that the writers have wanted us to believe it to be so (greg-speak) but I am not convinced. His contemptuous attitude is backed up by his familial cannibalism and I suspect that their hapless to savvy cousin will succeed because he remains on the "outside" of his uncles dominance and control just enough that he can learn from this self-destructing family before it totally implodes. Quite frankly the introductions is missing old photos and ought to have included the occasion where "Greg the egg" was treated like the family "pet" and poked fun of by everyone else placing him on the receiving end of a family joke...it would be such a pleasure to watch this cousin reign supreme in the end. Can't wait! The music fills my heart with dread and makes me want to watch this tragedy unfold even though I hope for a miraculous saving grace to rescue them all. Thanks for reading all of my analysis. (4-25-2023). I love to hate this drama.
Sometimes there are flashbacks in conversation/dialog, like with the mother talking about their childhood or the divorce, or Conners mother being institutionalized and not seeing Logan for many years- and Roman in the dog pound. In any case, we get the idea there was a lot of loneliness for each of them and no sympathy for that bc they come from money.
@@constanceaverman4364You asked if Logan loved his children. I'm not sure. I do think he very much enjoyed being the focus of their attention, and he enjoyed them competing for his attention & love. I was really surprised to see that he actually took action to go see them when they didn't come to his party. It hurt him when they stopped dancing attendance on him. But even then he couldn't truly be kind or loving, he pretty much just wanted them to come back and give him attention again, which they didn't seem happy to do anymore. Such a sad dysfunctional dynamic. Fun to watch though!
Also, notice the shot of the back of Logan’s head at the dinner table, then cut to the board room. The kids are at the dinner table, but NONE of them are in the board room
Con's mother is institutionalized, Ken is attention starved, Shiv has no connection with her mother and Romulus is beaten up by his father. A materially rich childhood, but a sullen and empty family life. It sometimes seems as if they have no nostalgia at all.
no nostalgia at all... you can see the proof of it when roman is asked somewhere in season 3 : "any past good memories with your father?" and roman just keeps on saying "next question"
Look at the image of the kids feet. The three full-bloodied siblings have both feet in the shot while the half brother only has one foot to denote his status as the half-brother to the three siblings.
@@human_aka_manav where did you find out? I'm not saying you're wrong btw, I just read that it was around 30,35,40 in a few articles and just believed it but I'd love to know if the writers have out something official or if the ages are mentioned in the show
@@mushy470Well just like you've said, the writers haven't really mentioned the timeline of these characters but Kendall was like 39 and turning into his forties around season 3 and as he once mentioned that he did something bad to Roman when Rom was like four year old, that makes us think that he's around his mid-late 30's and as for Shivyyy, She's in her early 30's idk maybe 33 if I'd guess
From the music, to the isolated mansion, to kids dressed as adults, to an afternoon where mom and dad had an argument and dad is leaving, it gives off so much sad moments children experience, this intro gives me Sunday afternoon school years sadness flashbacks
The last two shots say it all for me: the kids are finally gathered, lined up, and Logan is there, and when he leaves (passes on) all of their heads are chopped off by the edge of the frame. Robespierre in composition.
I remember in the beginning that oddly dissonant music didn't sit well with me. But it grew on me very quickly and now I love it, I never skip or try to fast forward through it. I agree with you that the opening sequence brilliantly gives us a perfect view of this family. The kids always seem to be looking for their father, who is always off in the distance. he makes a brief appearance for the purpose of the photo and then immediately walks away without even acknowledging the kids who were standing beside him. Other than that one time, he's always walking away from them. The mother looking at him as he is obviously having a conversation with whoever he was most recently involved in one of his many dalliances is a nice touch. It's all there, the complete picture of this very sick family.
@@Sk8forsocks OMG, I agree. That music is best music ever used for television, except for maybe Barney Miller or Welcome Back Kotta, or MASH, but none of those are used throughout their shows. I can hum it in my head for 8 hours, and it just gets better every minute. It can be played at any speed, with any set of instruments. Just genius. I would put it in a category with Philip Glass because of its utility. It's not just "opening music". Thanks.
Logan’s face does appear though. On season 1 intro, the very first shot is him resting his hand on Kendall’s shoulder and immediately walking away awkwardly. Even more heartbreaking.
Exactly. The most disturbing part of that is how he steps back first after the photo is taken, as if he's disgusted by having to appear loving. As he walks off, Kendall looks after him longingly, with an expression that says "what is dad thinking?". It always seems like the kids concern is what dad is thinking. It's perfect.
I would also add that I always believed that the footage shown is purposely wrong in the sense that the kids shown there cannot possiby be the Logan kids. Not only because the footage is implied as much older that the age the characters are today (we should be seeing an 80's VHS style rather that a much older 8MM footage), but also because we clearly see the 4 kids of roughly the same age but we know Connor is much older and Shiv is much younger (also kid Shiv does not look AT ALL like adult Shiv), so what gives? Well I think is meant to transmit a puzzling sensation that we can't even see them as a family because that would imply that at one point in time they were a family when the sad reality is they never were and there's no way that casual footage actually exists of them. Its fake, a facade. Just like a lot of their intentions and actions in the show.
Exactly, it’s definitely not the Roy kids or their family. I remember seeing someone say the writers say the intro was just meant to show a reflection of that affluent lifestyle. In my head I’ve always called it “the sad kid intro” because even though it’s not *our* sad kids, other sad kids are dealing with the same stuff. It gives me the same feeling the theme tune does, where it feels like what they’re going through will never end and play on a loop forever. There will be other kids dealing with a father figure like Logan with a life that *seems* opulent and picture perfect.
Yeah, you've perfectly articulated the thought that stirs somewhere in the back of my head as I watch the opening credits. It's like they used a cine film from a similar family they came across somewhere or other, and put it out as a 'close to', which no one would know whether it was a real one or not (hence Logan does not appear - the only one who'd be recognised). Like the way a news organisation could use a fake clip to illustrate a point, for which the watcher would be unable to judge its veracity.
Succession does have a remarkably good intro sequence. I think it's really cool how the intro offers some insight and a closer look at the kids' childhoods and their relationship dynamics with Logan since within the show they never have any flashbacks like that.
Thank you for this breakdown it is certainly iconic ! I felt Logan was the cameraman for the shots where he doesn’t appear at all also speaking to his disassociation, not fully participating WITH his children but in his hubris showing how successful he is through the privilege of his offspring. The shots of him walking away IMHO were take by Caroline giving further insight into their relationship. She doesn’t like him let alone love him and he doesn’t deserve to be in full frame when she controls the camera. But the takeaway is the same, this total dysfunction plays itself out downstream (much to our enjoyment) as this amazing story unfolds.
Something else of note is the music. I think it’s half-Kendall half-Logan. The deep bass and the classical orchestra are like the two sides of the characters. For the whole show, Kendall always has deafening music to drown out his addictive personality, while Logan is always two steps ahead and so articulate with his routine. Considering season 1 only showed Kendall in the last part of the intro, I think maybe the whole show was going to be more about Kendall rather than the other siblings.
This was quite good. The various random photos you put in there helped my ADHD brain stay focused. I thought your analysis was interesting. I look forward to hearing more of your pop culture analysis. Subscribed.
I never ever thought that the family in the intro was a younger Roy family. I always believed that it was just a reflection on the themes portrayed in the series: power, wealth and high expectations of the children born into it. I saw it more of a pastiche of ‘particularly American’ class structures and patriarchal, maybe even Tyrannical pressures on the offspring. It has a fifties/sixties style to it rather than an late seventies/eighties timeframe of when the Roy kids would have been in adolescence.
Exactly, I immediately read it as metaphorical. One of the most striking scenes is the very last; a man is walking away, just out of frame. The four children looking in his direction. They are obsessed with knowing what he’s doing, and getting his attention.
Spot on!!! I just completed more or less the same with some added points. They tried to correct this for S2 with more 80s but it was a mistake to break away from the themes of S1s intro. Come the finale season I feel like they had somewhat corrected this but S1 just hit it home so well!
that shot of young logan and his kids where he has his back to the camera, i always thought that looked a lot like tom. maybe that was intentional too, to give us a hint that tom will end up in logan's chair
Did anyone else catch the StarGo (Waystar + GoJo) app on the phone in the opening credits. Pause the finale at -1:31:55 after the kid is riding the hot wheel. You can see the the StarGo app lit up on the phone. I was so locked in for the finale that I finally noticed it, but of course I went back and it was there since season 4 episode 1. The showrunners had some balls to put this there the whole season, basically spoiling that the Waystar and GoJo deal goes through
The theme music may sound chaotic as you say but I think the rising and falling scales are carefully designed to echo the rise, fall and rise again of the characters’ fortunes.
lol I had a dumb theory that the intro was going to be revealed to actually have been filmed in present day, we'd see it play out with the adults next to their kid counterparts, that it was going to have all been for some elaborate final season movie / documentary about the Roys as a way to prop up their legacy.
I’ve been working on an article for my blog about the best TV show intros and this is at the top of my list for these very reasons. The intro isn’t just a vehicle for the opening credits, but it’s diegetic. Absolute work of genius.
@@lucy-gq4nx Mainly a lot of older intros that make good use to music or have unforgettable songs. Highlander, The A-Team, Airwolf, DuckTales (the original series), Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers, The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly. They may not all make the final cut, but I’m considering all those. I’m open to suggestions too!
How do you figure it is diegetic~? I've never heard it played inside any of the episodes. Diegetic refers to music that both we and the people in the scene hear at the same time, such as like when characters are in a bar.
The Succession intro always reminded me a little bit of the opening to The Game, a 1997 movie staring Michael Douglas. Anyone else ever make that connection?
There is also a scene when there is a boy smoking cigar in the young age and it could be Kendall since the kid has long face just like Kendall. Really shows that Kendall has becoming rebellious since teenager.
Your right the show intro and music has become iconic in just a few short years…Another brilliant HBO show that came out of no where after GOT …sad to see it gone after 4 seasons. It would be so wild if Gerry and Roman hooked up.
3:58 Oh my the lapels!!! Kendal is the only one wearing an ill fitting poorly made suit. He is also the only boy showing his hands and his jacket is opened. He is a mess; If I had to guess who would get the business based on this photo... Roman !!! hands down. He is impeccable, hands hidden, only boy wearing white and a smile;
I think the kids on the intro are supposed to be the Roy children. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. Who cares if the boy standing slightly apart from the other 3 is not old enough to be Connor? The point gets across. That the father is Logan is shown by the cut away to old Logan himself in his sweater. The entire sequence is one of children growing up with great material privilege but a with a distant father walking away and no mother at all.
But the timline doesn't make sense. These videos appear to be from the 50s/60s. The Logan children are millennials, so born and raised in the 80s & 90s (except Conner).
Yes, and he was posing with young Kendall. How do I know that kid is Kendall? Because that kid looks so proud just like Kendall who's always proud of what he's doing.
@@user-something19At the intro, Logan was still marrying Caroline, the mother of Kendall, Roman and Siobhan / Shiv (Connor's mom was in asylum) . And yes, the red hair woman is Caroline in younger age so that's why Shiv has a red hair in her adulthood. Also, Logan married Marcia when his kids are in adulthood.
The intro to the fourth season also revels the end, at least of the future of the company: StarGo is the name of the app on the cellphone at the table. As in WayStar + Gojo = StarGo. An "easter egg"? 😉
From ChatGBT: I apologize for the confusion in my previous response. You are correct that the opening credits of "Succession" feature AI-generated images of children and an elephant. The images were produced by a company called Elastic, which is known for creating title sequences for TV shows and movies. Elastic used AI algorithms to generate the images, which were then combined with live-action footage and other visual effects to create the final sequence. As for who was credited with the production or paid for those images, that information is not publicly available. It's likely that Elastic was paid a fee for their work on the title sequence, but the specifics of their contract and compensation are not known. Similarly, the individuals who created and trained the AI algorithms used in the sequence are not
I would also like to point out that at the end of the intro you can see all 4 kids next to each other standing up but their heads are off camera... It looks like they are hanging...
I appreciated your style of narration in this. I had two similar videos in my list, and soured on the other one because it had that stilted university student/bad lecturer academic style that so many people fall into the trap of (after years of having that exam-friendly sterile approach drilled into them throughout their education). This, on the other hand, sounded like someone equally informed and intellectual, but able to speak more organically - and it's much, much more compelling to listen to. I'd bother less with the context matching video clips though, as honestly they're more fun for the creator than the viewer. I was going to do a whole series that way and never finished producing the second because it demanded so much time for ever few seconds of imagery. If the link is too clever and abstract then it distracts from the speech, and if it's too basic then it just feels a bit corny and on-the-nose, like "Ah, coarse and fine, and we're seeing grain". I don't envy people who have to find footage for their narration, but unrelated TV clips really don't hurt much if the narrator's content is interesting enough, because we're mostly just listening anyway. Oh and those stock clips make me scroll away from the video portion entirely; I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I can't deal with the phony awful visual acting in those things, they're awful. Great idea for whoever came up with selling them to youtubers, but soul draining to actually look at. I wouldn't bother saying all this if your content wasn't worth the effort.
I found it fascinating in the recent joke RU-vid where it’s impossible to not play an existing song, Britney’s song sounds exactly like succession theme in altered form.
We do see Logan's face in the intro--or at least, the children's father, assuming those are the Roy children, and that is the younger Logan (only reason it wouldn't be is that the ages are a bit wonky, what with Conner being so much older, whereas the 4 children in the intro seem relatively close in age).
In the final moment of the opening credits, the frame is set in a way that it looks like the children are hanged. their heads are not in the frame and the their feets are emphasized. Representing that being in the Roy's family means you're doomed.
I always thought the family was Logan's family becoming more of an old money feel.. but then it occasionally shifts over to what could've been the actual kid's and their era of footage.. but it's barely even there because if they had these memories they were fleeting. I was really expecting to get the backstory after his scene of walking out of the pool, likely in this last season but.. we don't ever get that flashback. We know they're broken people by now though so do we really need to see the past anymore? I would still love to see it but I feel it won't happen
Hah, I'm just re-watching the first season (which I'd largely forgotten) looking for Easter eggs. And the intro to that shows a younger Logan's face at a number of points. Then they took it out for later seasons. I agree its a better choice.
Who spotted the spoiler in the last intro( last episode of finale) whetr we see a contract with the new company name showing a Merger of Waystar and Gojo?
Great as it is, it seems wrong that the intro film looks like it was filmed back in the 60s, on Super 8, whereas it would've been only 30 odd years ago max when video cameras were common.
Maybe the images at the intro are from a future documentary filmed after season 4 about Logan Roy, his legacy and his children. They took artistic licenses like the children ages and appearance. Since they are in a media business make sense.
I largely agree with everything you say, however, I think the sequence demonstrates a very privileged and financially unlimited world adorned with endless opportunities that are normalised into an almost unrivalled incarceration of luxury which proves to be their silent nemesis by creating an oblivious mental block for the kids in not being able to perceive the functioning reality of the world around them. Hence we constantly see their social misalignment of the wider world whilst they unconsciously trample societal norms. In my view this sequence is genius and sets a perfect stage way before the curtain even rises.
I wish I understood the imagery. I don't understand whom the opening sequence is supposedly filming. Video cameras had replaced home movies way before Connor, Kendall, Shiv and Roman's time. The clothing and hairstyles of the four kids wearing white at the manor house are suggestive of the 1950's. Those kids would be maybe 80 yo today. Their features aren't at all like the Roys'; and their age range is different, too. The manor house itself looks European or Californian, not like suburban New York. Only quick clips of a red haired girl with three teenage boys and dad looks somewhat plausible, though even then, their style of dress is wrong for ca. 2000 when the Roy kids might've been the ages depicted in the film. It's not a film of the senior Roys, either. As we saw in the Scotland episode, Logan Roy grew up in a humble home in Scotland. He isn't "old money." He emigrated as a young man to work for his uncle in Canada (?) and started to build his business from there. It's not clear if Logan had become super wealthy by Connor's early years. We don't know how old Logan was when he started buying mansions. The music is very good. Evocative, timeless.
Yeah, I think it's supposed to be deliberately misleading? Although I assume that Logan and Caroline lived with the kids in an English manor type house at some point, since it was established that Caroline was from a wealthy British family. Kendall, Roman and Shiv were all born in England. After the divorce, Logan won full custody of the children and took them to live in the U.S.
"Spoiler" It is not Logan, but Tom.The grainy scenes are taken from the future with Tom and Shiv's children following in Logan's footsteps. Prove me wrong ;)
You could of mentioned how the intro changed at least from S1 to S2 and borrows heavily from the opening of David Finchers "The Game". One reason for them changing it for S2 is it looked too old. Like the 50s or earlier and then to update they interspliced more 80s camcorder footage. Personally, I preferred the S1s intro to any other future incarnation because of its call back to " The Game". Also I never saw these kids in the intro as being those of Logan's or the versions of the characters as they were younger because they were so off in appearance again they did try to changed this in the S2 intro and imply that the redhead is Shiv etc but the younger girl is brunette and has brown eyes and ultimately this damaged the gravitas of the intro when it was much more ambiguous and more thematical. These children look Italian and again harks to "The Godfather" another film Succession borrows from. I think the clearest thing it establishes just like "Godfather" is this is a family dynasty potentially in the making - themes of wealth, grandeur and opulence as well as the price that has on them as a family
Nice wrap. Maybe you didn’t mention it, because it’s so glaringly obvious and 100% taken for granted, but the kids are also always shown within their privileged upbringing and yes, never seem happy. To me, this is to show how the Roys are new money trying desperately hard to be old money (as new money often does). Contrast this with the Pierce family (very obviously modelled on the Bancroft family but even older money than the Bancrofts) and the Pierce-Roy dinner party when the Roys were mercilessly portrayed as new money. Speaking of real life families, the Murdochs are not exactly new money so I actually doubt the hard comparisons between the Roys and the Murdochs.
There shouldn't be hard comparisons between the two families especially since the liberties of fiction come into play. In any case the Roy's are seen as New Money from an American perspective as it appears Logan made his success when he got of the boat from Scotland.
Many events in the show are taken exactly from Rupert Murdoch's real life. there are lots of other moments that reference other extremely wealthy families, but the Murdoch's are the main inspiration. ATN is Fox News, obviously. Murdoch didn't exactly come from nothing, but he did actually build a small local news station into a media empire.
I like a lot of different intros but The Succession intro is one I skip every time. I find the old footage approach very dated (90s car commercials, etc.) and the fact that some of it is shot on film (as evidenced by the sprockets) is ridiculously anachronistic. It seems out of place to me that the family of a media mogul would be recording their home movies on film like it was the 1960s. Logan Roy could have a pro camera crew there with one phone call. I still enjoyed your breakdown.
No. As Rhea pointed out, correctly, Shiv"s not as smart as she thinks she is. And any time she's given a chance in the spotlight, she bumbles terribly.
