10 Shows About Family Dysfunction à la Succession
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TK Shows to Watch About Dysfunctional Families a la Succession
The saga of the billionaire Roy family has finally come to an end. And if the series finale of Succession has left a gaping Waystar Royco-sized hole in your soul—and watchlist—fret not. Tales of dynastic drama and extreme family depravity are to be found in every corner of the TV universe, from old school network to streaming platform. There is literally something for every taste.
Succession with a power matriarch? Check (watch: Animal Kingdom, starring Ellen Barkin). Succession with cowboys? Check (watch: the supremely popular Yellowstone). Even Succession in the world of superrich Bible thumpers? Yes, courtesy of The Righteous Gemstones, another sleeper hit from HBO which returns for its third season on June 18. Whether you're after the guilty pleasure of watching morally corrupt fictional families implode, or simply want to get lost in another fantastic prestige series, below are 10 of the best Succession-like shows to tune into or stream now.
The Righteous Gemstones
The Righteous Gemstones—a dark comedy whose third season premieres on HBO on June 18—is the brainchild of Danny McBride, who also stars as Jesse, a second-generation member (with sister Judy, played by Edi Patterson, and baby brother Kelvin, played by Adam DeVine) of the Gemstones, a family that is world-famous and ultra-rich thanks to the global, multimillion-dollar televangelist and megachurch empire founded by their father Eli (John Goodman). They travel in motorcades of gleaming white G-wagons and Range Rovers, live in mansions on an amusement park-sized compound with a golf course, shooting range, and actual amusement park, and will basically do whatever it takes to protect their holy enterprise, with zero regard for neither law nor scruples.
Arrested Development
Arrested Development, the multiple Emmy-winning cult hit that aired from 2003-2006 on Fox and later had a two-season revival on Netflix (in 2013 and 2018), is a perennial classic and one of the funniest and wittiest shows ever made skewering the one percent. The sitcom centers around the lives of the Bluths, a Newport Beach real estate family of spoiled, materialistic, manipulative, and self-serving individuals. After their patriarch is arrested and jailed for fraud, Michael (Jason Bateman), the only normal one, takes over as head of the family and hilariously attempts to help his siblings, Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), Gob (Will Arnett), and Buster (Tony Hale), their mother Lucille (Jessica Walter), and their extended families adjust to their new circumstances—and be better people.
More: 15 Best Comedy Shows to Stream on Netflix Now
Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom, which ran for six seasons, switches out the patriarchal structures of most dynastic shows for a badass matriarch, who in this case is the formidable Ellen Barkin. She plays Janine "Smurf" Cody, who runs a Southern California criminal enterprise with her four sons. When grandson Joshua (played by Finn Cole, who also stars as Michael in Peaky Blinders) moves in after the death of his mother, he is about to get a crash course in the violent family business, and all the complicated dynamics within it.
Yellowstone
The most popular family in all of TV land? That title undeniably goes to the Duttons of Yellowstone. The Paramount network show is a colossal ratings hit that consistently sets records—and beats them. It's not hard to see why: Yellowstone is about as true-to-American-values as it gets, telling the tale of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), a legacy cattle rancher and largest landowner in the country, who—deep, deep down—is really just a salt-of-the-earth cowboy valiantly fighting to preserve his way of life—and defend what is rightfully his from greedy real estate developers. There is plenty of family dysfunction to go around, too, thanks to his kids: acid-tongued Beth (Kelly Reilly), reluctant would-be successor Kayce (Luke Grimes), and John's very own Judas, Jamie (Wes Bentley).
More: Yellowstone Is Essentially Succession Set in the Modern Wild West
The Crown
La Casa de las Flores
What you might get if Succession was set in Mexico, in Spanish, and was a satire of the telenovela genre, La Casa de las Flores centers on the wealthy de la Mora family, whose picture-perfect flower shop is a front for their general dysfunction and shady behavior—affairs, white collar crime, a secret cabaret business. The series, which ran for three seasons and also had a movie spin-off, received high praise for its dark humor and stereotype-subverting take on race, gender, and sexuality.
More: 13 Spanish-Language TV Shows on Netflix to Stream Now
Empire
At the start of Empire, which ran for 6 seasons on Fox, patriarch Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) has a health crisis that makes him question who among his three sons will inherit the throne of the multimillion-dollar hip-hop label and entertainment company he built with his wife Cookie (Taraji P. Henson). Let the succession battle begin, as the brothers, and various family hangers-on, duke it out for daddy's approval. Sound familiar?
Bloodline
Nothing spells doom quite like a family reunion. Netflix's Emmy-nominated Bloodline, which ran for three seasons from 2015-2017, begins with the 45th anniversary party of the Rayburn House, the seaside Florida Keys hotel owned by Sally and Robert Rayburn (Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard). The couple have four children: local detective John (Kyle Chandler), local marina-owner Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz), local attorney Meg (Dead to Me's Linda Cardellini), and the eldest Danny (Ben Mendelsohn, who won an Emmy for the role), the wayward black sheep of the family, whose arrival from Miami threatens to expose the terrible secrets, lies, and crimes buried deep beneath the Rayburns' sunny veneer.
House of the Dragon
Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the prequel centers on the succession drama that consumes the dragon-taming House Targaryen.
The White Lotus
While it may not necessarily be centered on dynastic dysfunction, The White Lotus is certainly a tale of many forms of one percenter decay. Each season of Mike White's searing eat-the-rich satire (a third is in the works) centers on
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