HBO’s Succession is one of the must-watch TV shows of this year. Created by The Thick Of It and Veep writer Jesse Armstrong, it has been applauded in past seasons by critics and Twitter alike for its ability to merge drama with laugh-out-loud lines like ‘You don’t hear much about syphilis these days. Very much the MySpace of STDs’.
And Season 3 has maintained sharp, witty writing and even managed to grow its audience. The season premiered to its biggest viewership yet, with 1.4 million watchers in its first episode. It marks the biggest premiere since HBO Max launched in May 2020.
The first episode picks up from where season 2 left off. Logan (Brian Cox) and Kendall (Jeremy Strong) are estranged, Waystar Royco is in shambles, and nobody knows who the successor will be. By Season 3 episode 4, ‘Lion in the Meadow’, we are still no closer. With Waystar amidst an FBI investigation, Logan’s side is scrambling for a way to recover. This episode also has one of the craziest scenes in the Succession’s history happens.
Nepotism hire and best-named man on TV, Tom Wambsgans (played by Pride and Prejudice star Matthew MacFadyen), feels the pressure. With prison time looming over his head, he’s tasked by his wife Shiv (Sarah Snook) to bring Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) to Logan’s side. He tells Greg that he has been reading a book on Roman history, which he bought to bring to prison. ‘Sporus was a young slave boy. He was Nero’s favourite.’ he says. To which, Greg replies, ‘Nero and Sporus? This is not an IP I’m familiar with.’ Tom concludes his threatening story with ‘I’d castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat.’ After which, Tom attempts to get Greg to wrestle him on the floor. The internet was buzzing over this exchange and its insanity.
What’s the whole story of Nero and Sporus?
Roman Emperor Nero’s second wife, Poppaea Sabina, died during childbirth. As Tom says, he caused her death. There is a dispute over exactly how this happened. Some sources say that he brutally kicked her to death.
He chose Sporus, a young slave boy (less than 20 years old) who had Nero’s dead wife appearance. Nero then castrates Sporus and marries a la Outlast: Whistleblower. During the ceremony, Sporus is dressed in the clothes of Poppaea. In his paper, Nero and Sporus, David Woods says that Nero picked Sporus because the resemblance was strong enough that Sporus and Poppaea might have been relatives. But Sporus was not the first man to have had romantic or sexual involvement with Nero. Before this, he was married to freedman Pythagoras.
Why is this important to Succession?
Does this mean that Tom will come out as bisexual, betray his wife Shiv, and marry Greg Hirsch, the walking skyscraper? Only time will tell. But it does give insights into where Tom is mentally. In season 2, the Roys visit the Pierce family, their old money liberal counterparts. At dinner, Logan says, “Like Romans among the Greeks. I’m sure you find us all rather, you know, big, vulgar, and boisterous.” Characters refer to history to show how they see themselves in Succession.
In the bigger scheme of Succession, a show obsessed with power at the top, Tom holds almost none. Suppose Logan is the real King of the castle (and ‘Roy’ came from the Norman word for ‘king’). Then Tom is the dog Shiv keeps, eating Wagyu beef off the floor.
Episode 4 shows that Tom sees himself as an Emperor on the decline. Nero was widely disliked among his people for his tyranny. At this point, Tom has lost his wife, with his servant boy looking to outlast him. In ATN, employees call him ‘Terminal Tom’ because he has ‘cancer of the career’. It’s unlikely that he will remain at the food chain for the whole season, so his arc will be one to watch for in this season of Succession.