SHOW OF THE WEEK: Succession (Oct. 17, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)
In the opening seconds of Season 3 of “Succession,” as media mogul Logan Roy and his minions helicopter back from the yacht vacation ruined after son Kendall went rogue, I could imagine the accompanying violin strains being replaced by “The Ride of the Valkyries,” “Apocalypse Now” style.
Logan (Brian Cox) isn’t about to destroy a North Vietnamese village — although I imagine he would if it boosted his ego or his bottom line, and he could get away with it — but as he roars later at underling Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), “This is war!”
Of course, the Roy family has always been at a type of war as Logan plays the kids — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) — against each other, but this season the wounds they inflict seem especially vicious.
Kendall is the immediate target since, at the end of Season 2, he used the news conference at which he was supposed to take the fall for the sex assault and murder scandal plaguing the company to instead implicate his father.
Kendall seems to have irrevocably cast himself out of the family while posing as a woke defender of the women exploited by Waystar Royco’s cruise line, although obviously it’s as much about power, ego and impressing Daddy as it ever was.
And just as obviously, it doesn’t take long for his siblings to at least consider the idea of backing Kendall while trying to gauge whether the wounds inflicted on Logan are enough to take him down this time.
There’s an early scene between Shiv and Roman that perfectly demonstrates the mental calculations each character is always running to maximize their self-interest.
As they watch media coverage of Kendall’s bombshell, Roman asks Shiv what she’s thinking.
“I’m thinking that we just need to back Dad right now and I can’t believe anyone would think anything else,” she replies. Then she adds, whispering, “But what am I actually thinking? Well, I’m thinking, is he toast?” to which Roman responds, “I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be thinking: Is he toast?” as Shiv smiles.
HBO has asked critics not to reveal spoilers so I won’t tell you where everyone lands as the jockeying for power continues — and having seen only seven of the nine episodes, I don’t know how it ends — but some deep wounds are inflicted, not only by Logan but by the kids on each other.
Despite its concerns with power, money, politics, media and corporate arrogance, “Succession” has always been a show about family and, particularly, the damage done by an abusive, emotionally unavailable parent, a theme that Season 3 really brings to the fore.
The show’s brilliance — besides the smart scripts, the excellent acting and directing, and the fact it’s thrilling even when it’s just people in a room talking to each other — is that it makes us care about the fates of its conniving, damaged characters despite how loathsome they are.
But it’s Shiv who earns my particular sympathy this season, at least part of the time, as it becomes increasingly clear she’ll never wield real power in the company because of her gender.
The patriarchy is firmly in charge, but one suspects that even if Logan were out of the picture the rot at the core of the family would continue to spread. There is no happy ending imaginable for the Roy clan, who all seem miserable all of the time — with the possible exception of Greg (Nicholas Braun), who continues to offer some comic relief along with Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).
But this misery is well worth our company. This new season of “Succession” is as addictively watchable as the first two.
Short Takes
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of T+E
Bathsheba (Oct. 11, 9 p.m., T+E)
Whether you believe in the paranormal or you just like a good ghost story, this two-part series is scary enough to spook you. I don’t mind telling you the back of my neck prickled as I sat in my home alone after watching the first episode. It’s about the true story behind the 2013 movie “The Conjuring,” which blamed the haunting of a centuries-old Rhode Island farmhouse on a 19th-century woman named Bathsheba Sherman. It turns out the rumours about Bathsheba being a witch who killed her children are a bunch of hooey, which doesn’t help explain the frightening things that happened to the Perron family when they moved into the 1700s Richardson Arnold House in 1971, including apparitions, voices in the night and even physical injuries. Whatever it was, it still moves four of the five Perron daughters to tears all these years later. The docuseries includes the usual mix of re-enactments with witness and expert interviews, led by Indigenous paranormal investigator Erin Goodpipe, who visits the house to try to communicate with its spiritual residents. Incidentally, the house is currently up for sale by the current owners, who also claim to have experienced strange phenomena while living there.
“Bathsheba” is appropriately part of T+E’s Creep Week, which ends Oct. 17 and includes the debut of “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life” (Oct. 15, 10 p.m.), a series in which the horror filmmaker gives us not just tales of things that go bump in the night but the fallout in the lives of the people who experienced them.
Roast Battle Canada (Oct. 11, 10:30 p.m., CTV Comedy Channel)
In this competition show based on an American original and a Quebec spinoff, Canadian comedians insult each other in a way that’s hopefully funny enough to be declared the winner by an expert panel that includes K. Trevor Wilson of “Letterkenny,” Sabrina Jalees and superstar Russell Peters. I’m not gonna lie, the judges and host Ennis Esmer were sometimes funnier than the comics onstage in the debut episode, although the competitors did get in some laugh-out-loud zingers. And it perhaps goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, this is not stuff you want to be watching with your kids or any easily offended member of your household.
Canada’s Drag Race (Oct. 14, 9 p.m., Crave)
Yes bitch, Canada’s version of the wildly successful “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is back for its sophomore season. The 12 queens competing are not so Toronto-centric this year, with four queens from Quebec, four from Vancouver, one from Ottawa and the show’s first Calgary queen in Stephanie Prince, who’s already looking like a formidable competitor as well as a potential villain. There’s also an assortment of body types and ethnicities among the cast. Canada’s most famous drag queen, Brooke Lynn Hytes, is back to lead the judging panel alongside stylist Brad Goreski, actor Amanda Brugel and TV personality Traci Melchor. Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg, daughter of David, is guest judge in the season premiere. Time to get to werk.
Crave also has Season 2 of the Cape Cod crime and drugs drama “Hightown” on Oct 17.
The Great Canadian Baking Show (Oct. 17, 8 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem)
Ready, set, just try to watch this without running to your kitchen to find a pastry to stuff in your mouth. Ten new amateur bakers from across Canada compete for bragging rights with the often impressive results judged by pastry chef Bruno Feldeisen and pie expert Kyla Kennaley. Comedians Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis have managed to evade the revolving host door to return for a second season of taste-testing, encouraging and uttering the words “Ready, set, bake!”
CBC also has “A Suitable Boy” (Oct. 17, 9 p.m.), the BBC adaptation of the 1993 Vikram Seth novel about a young Hindu woman’s search for love among three potential suitors. It’s a bit overstuffed, but beautifully shot and capably acted.
Odds and Ends
So many screeners, so little time: I didn’t get a chance to check out “Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol,” debuting Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. on Showcase, but if adaptations of Brown’s Robert Langdon novels are your thing you might want to watch this. Ashley Zukerman (“A Teacher,” “Succession”) stars as Langdon.
Showcase also has Season 4 of “The Sinner” Oct. 13 at 10 p.m.
Netflix brings you Season 2 of the popular “The Baby-Sitters Club” on Oct. 11 and Season 3 of “You” on Oct. 15.
This week, Disney Plus has “Just Beyond” (Oct. 13), a YA horror series featuring supernatural phenomena inspired by the graphic novels by R.L. Stine.
Finally, if you’re a fan of British period drama and/or nostalgia, know that a remastered version of the 1981 miniseries “Brideshead Revisited,” starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, drops on BritBox on Oct. 12.
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.
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