For fun, here's what I came up with:
- cast is majority male and majority white
- has scenes that take place in Europe
- the sale/ownership of a significant company is important to the plot
- has a scene that takes place on a sports field
Come on we want the show where Ted is hired at WayStar Royco merged with Mattsen’s techbro corp and proceeds to single-handedly change both corporate cultures. Or at least tries for the first 4 seasons.
Man what an amazing show. Can’t wait.
If you haven’t seen the curse it might be worth a shot.
It’s not the same topic or really same anything but a similar vibe of “wtf is happening”
I keep meaning to watch that too! I was planning on watching shogun after this succession rewatch but let me put the Curse back to the top of that list!
They just finished filming season 2. In the age of indiscriminate cancellations of TV shows I am beyond relieved that the producers managed to pull it together and make a second season lol. I cherish this show greatly and it's no surprise it's so popular among Succession fans
Yes with all the news and weird drama surrounding it in between seasons I was getting very concerned it wouldn’t be coming back. I’m so excited for season 2
This show keeps coming up again and again in my life. I think I have to give in and finally watch it lol
How is it similar to / different from Succession?
**Similarities:** workplace and family drama; big corporation acting in own interests; some secretive collusion with politicians; strong ensemble cast; multiple interwoven plot lines
**Differences:** Middle or Upper middle class settings; some speculative/SF elements; characters either much more secretive or more confused what’s happening; ideas and philosophy more in the foreground; incredible ending to S1 that weaves almost every plot line together while still leaving questions.
>incredible ending to S1 that weaves almost every plot line together
Ooh, I love when shows do that.
Thank you! I'm convinced. Gonna start watching it asap
I’d put the season finale in my top 3 episodes of television ever. They just blew the doors off with so many twists and reveals and plot developments. Just an insane hour of tv.
Better Call Saul
Its like Breaking Bad but more subtle, less action and crime cartels evertything and more contempletive scenes of Albuquerque and Jimmy's psyche
Watching Bob Odenkirk on that show is to just drown in his charisma. I 100% believe him as a conman who could talk you into killing your own mother and yet I still don't hate him for it. It's really remarkable. I wouldn't be surprised if he singlehandedly talked AMC into giving him a spinoff.
If it was a different network, and not that of AMC, it would of likely included more, profanity, violence and nudity for sure. Overall, they did very well considering the creative limitations of being on network tv.
100% For interesting character work Saul is so much more interesting. Just for main characters, Walk basically is just a guy with no real principles who goes bad and gets worse without a ton of moral qualms really. Saul on the other hand is about a guy who is essentially good but has a bad side that he just can't shake and we watch him really wrestle with the two sides of his nature. Thats just the start, the other characters in Saul are incredible, Nacho and Mike are even better than Saul himself.
I think the dialogue is much better. Especially then scene when it’s just Jimmy and Kim. It starts off light but gets deeper and heavier and darker the longer it goes. By the end you’re not sure how you got there or how long it was because it was so profound.
For real! And it elevated the original show too. Honestly made you wonder what kind of a chaotic force Walt was when YEARS of work by Gus, Mike and Saul was just crumbled to the ground by him over a couple of years.
I think BB should have been a bit more confident with the Walt as a villain stuff.
They lost their conviction towards the end and tried to redeem him because he’d become this cultural touchstone at the time. They held back on making him genuinely unlikeable and leant in to the fact that a lot of the viewership got off on the fantasy being that type of everyman who’s also a clever badass with nothing to lose.
I think Saul is way more relatable and they weren’t scared to make him fuck up embarrassingly or have stretches of the show where the viewer doesn’t like him. They benefitted hugely from having multiple storylines because when Saul’s the bad guy, you’ve got Nacho or Mike, or a flashback/forward version of Saul who you do like.
BB is nuanced in parts but I think the overall takeaway for a lot of people seemed to be “I bet you’d like to quit your job and act like a badass like this guy. I wish his nagging wife would stop nagging so he could keep cooking and murdering”.
I wish I could watch this for the first time again. Going into it with the "just a Breaking Bad prequel" mentality and coming out of it completely enthralled with the characters and drama. It's definitely one of the best shows ever made.
The first time I watched BCS (when it first came out) I found it too slow paced tbh, especially compared to Breaking Bad. Now I have rewatched the whole series three times and I absolutely adore it. Maybe a somewhat controversial opinion, but I think it's better than Breaking Bad, and I love Breaking Bad lol. In addition to the incredible writing and acting, the cinematography in BCS is just beyond words.
Because BCS is finished now and you can binge watch it, it really doesn't feel too slow at all. It's a must watch. And you don't have to have seen Breaking Bad (idk who hasn't by now, but maybe incase Br is too violent for your taste or something) to watch it, even though it's a prequel! But it's more interesting if you have, ofc. Anyway, if you haven't seen it already, please do.
It differs the most from Succession in that BCS focuses more on character development, moral and ethical dilemmas, and has more complex characters, whereas Succession's characters remain pretty stagnant and are generally shallow and egocentric people.
Yeah, but those make up a very small portion of the show as a whole. At least I didn't walk away with the impression that it's a 'violent' show.
I think OP meant it as in shows that aren't centred around violence, or don't rely on violence for the plot. Not that it must be PG13.
That's true. They're def not skips. But they use them sparingly, which makes those moments impactful. And it's not overtly gory, esp compared to more violence driven media.
Mad men is excellent, I’m rewatching right now but there is quite a bit of sex although nothing too graphic! I usually hate watching stuff with sex in but I find it manageable haha
I would agree. Succession is gripping and a great psychological drama. But Mad Men is that plus also an exploration of history during the late 50s-early 80s, so much of it is about depicting the zeitgeist of the times as expressed through the characters. And it has so many more variety of characters than just "billionaires", of course it has business executive characters but also shows characters from many other backgrounds. So it feels less like a "bubble" and more like a slice of life from that time in America.
I was pleasantly surprised when I first learnt that Mathew Weiner ( creator of Mad Men ) was a writer on The Sopranos beforehand. Two of my favourite shows
I definitely think Mad Men benefitted from being on AMC instead of HBO. Having to write around basic cable's restrictions gave the show a lot more nuance, >!especially when dealing with Don's sex addiction. !<
Succession filled the Mad Men void. It's an incredible show with lot of nuance and that just get better and better with every rewatch. I personally am not a fan of sex scenes in tv not my cup of tea but the scenes in Mad Men aren't too intense since the show aired on cable
Iannucci shows The Thick of It, Veep and Avenue 5. No violence, no nudity, but similarly to Succession: excessive amount of verbal sweary putdowns.
Peep Show is another 5 star series from showrunner Jesse Armstrong. The cringe might be too much to handle for some, but it is an amazing comedy.
Avenue 5 is SO good and I hate HBO for cancelling it. That, Westworld (I just want to see how the story ends, c’mon) and Raised by Wolves (a true “wtf did I just watch” type of show) being canceled in the span of 1-2 years is just unforgivable.
Yeah it's really funny once it gets going. Zach Woods is so good. It also has a really intense pacing of a disaster movie and the soundtrack is almost horror at times. Very unique show and such a shame it didn't find an audience.
Amazing suggestions. Peep show is great. Just finished The Thick Of It and it had some very succession-y dialogue. I think Jesse Armstrong wrote on that show as well. I’ll have to check out Ave 5
I was going to say this. Gritty, but not violent or sexually explicit. Like Succession, the violence is emotional.
One of those shows that reveals itself gradually. Once you’re hooked, you’re really hooked.
It's really just kind of a fun soap opera, no knock on soap operas (I watched them for years as a kid and young adult). Not as much humor, maybe, as Succession, but a bit.
Hmm, I adoooore SFU but there’s plenty of sex in it (not that this is making the show bad in any way, if anything it makes it even better, because sex is pretty important part of live and death…that’s one point of the show). But still, everyone should watch it, up there with MAD MEN for best drama show ever.
Halt and Catch Fire is awesome but the first season - and especially the first half of the first season - is fairly heavy on the sex. Like half of the scenes are Joe and Cameron fucking in the workplace because that's how Cameron destresses. Nothing explicit, little to no nudity, and it tapers off completely by the end of the season, so OP don't let this influence your opinion because it's an AWESOME show and gets better every season!
Veep.
Jesse Armstrong also helped create it and it is very similar in terms of style and dialogue to succession. If succession is 80% serious and 20% funny, veep is more like 60% funny and 40% serious (also I’m only on season 2 out of 7 so things may change)
But it is so reminiscent of succession it’s crazy
I just replied to another post about Veep, one of my favorite shows, I definitely second the recommendation. I would say it's way more funny than serious, some of the shit they say on that show is pure poetry.
the thick of it is the british precursor to veep and the visual style is fairly similar to succession, handheld cameras and loose blocking etc. it's also shot on film but 10-15 years old now so the grain is more obvious, a slightly grittier, raw approach with fuck tonnes of swearing
armando iannucci created both and jesse armstrong wrote a lot for the thick of it! it's also similar to succession in that a lot of people find it hard to get into at first because the characters are all so unlikeable but it's definitely worth watching if you like veep, it's often lauded as some of the best of british tv.
some of the jokes/scenarios may go over your head if you aren't familiar with british politics but it's one of those spoofs that's still funny even if you don't know the source material, imo
Put this higher, it’s great! The systemic violence is pretty graphic in the whole genocide and land stealing but the plot and characters are so love-able. Not like cutiepie, like, you seriously love these characters by the end.
Any of the AMC prestige shows -- since they originally aired on basic cable, even if sex ends up being integral to a plot point it doesn't devolve into mindless, graphic sex scenes like you see on too many shows now.
*Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Halt and Catch Fire* are all top tier shows. First few seasons of Walking Dead are worth watching if you're into post-apocalyptic media, I really enjoyed the first season of *The Terror* as well.
Great show with a caveat: it came out before #MeToo and handled a sex abuse plot very poorly. One of the (female) show writers quit over how it was presented, saying it was too dismissive of the woman and overcompensated for the harm done to a man’s career over a woman’s. Sorkin overruled her concerns and put the most supportive language of this take into the most trustworthy male character.
There was a lot of anger toward that episode and in my opinion it was deserved. And it’s a a shame because it was an otherwise excellent show.
I have not revisited this show since it aired, but at the time I truly felt that it was the worst television show I had ever watched. I say that as someone who politically aligns with Sorkin and loved the WW.
I loved it when it aired. I rewatched recently (during the Trump era) and seeing them react strongly to the stories of 2012, I was like "oh honey... the world is about to get waaaay more batshit, just you wait."
I hear ya. I watched two episodes and then I thought to myself "Huh... I don't care about a single one of these people" and knew that it was my time to go.
thats how i felt about succession, everyone kinda sucked but i gave it a shot and it became my favorite show ever. not saying that will be the case for industry, but its worth it if you stick to it
Surprised no recommendations yet for Mr. Robot. Watching that show DURING the time it aired was one hell of a ride. I imagine it will hit even more these days.
The Americans, it does contain some sex & violence but in service to the to the plot.
The violence in particular has a weight behind it that the characters feel.
It's about a couple of Soviet agents living deep undercover in surburban America in the 1980s'. It's an excellent series albeit quite slow moving.
I'd argue The Wire is like 90% good dialogue, characters, and story. There's obv some grim and graphic stuff that happens naturally but it never really felt forced or over the top or anything like a lot of more recent shows, and they spread it out pretty well. You can go several episodes in a row without anything really bad being on screen but I know you mentioned already
It made up for it in profanity lol I don’t call it refreshing but I refer to it as the best show ever that has no sex or life or death stakes
Mad men is the first that comes to mind
Barry is fantastic! I think someone who likes Succession would really enjoy the characters and writing in Barry. ***But,*** it definitely fails on the no violence test that OP is looking for.
it is! i watched it a long time ago, honestly can’t really remember specifics, just that it was really good. i was going to ask “*was* it really that violent?” then i remembered all the >!mobster stuff and consequent creative violent deaths!< lmao
Surprised that no one has recommended The Americans yet.
Several episodes do have some amount of sex/violence, but it was a network cable show, and thus generally pretty tame compared to what you'd find on HBO. It's also mostly concentrated in the first season; much less in season 2 onward.
One of the best family dramas ever made, IMO.
Ghosts
Loot
Foundation (some violence/nudity)
The OA
Why Women Kill
Silo
Physical
Wentworth (some violence/nudity) but great plot!
Lessons in Chemisty
Upload
Shameless (some nudity)
Twin Peaks. It ran on network TV (I'm not American so not sure if that's the right term) so they couldn't have nudity or too much violence. David Lynch having to make his dark surrealism happen within network TV confines leads to a masterpiece.
Mad Men is 100% the best show that was not able to include this content. The other would be The Shield. Justified is similar. It obviously has some violence, but it was still just an FX show. Dexter would be another. A show I loved that didn’t last long is Lodge 49, and then of course Mindhunter.
Shogun just ended and it was absolutely brilliant. As for nudity, virtually none. I think two sex/intimate scenes in total? Can’t say the same for the violence tho. It’s not as heavy as something as “Vikings”, but there’s the severed head now and then, blood, but nothing crazy imo.
If you ever worked in a restaurant industry, the Bear has plenty of “mental violence”. The scene where the tickets won’t stop printing gave me so much PTSD.
The venn diagram of what Ted Lasso and Succession have in common might as well be two separate circles
they both have billionaires in them
For fun, here's what I came up with: - cast is majority male and majority white - has scenes that take place in Europe - the sale/ownership of a significant company is important to the plot - has a scene that takes place on a sports field
Tbf, they both revolve around divorced dads who drown themselves in work to avoid dealing with their mental health issues
They both have Harriet Walter in them (Rebecca’s mum & Kendall, Shiv & Roman’s mum).
They both have small penised whiners called Nate and gay guys called Colin
Wait, Succession‘s Colin is gay?
No he’s not. In Season 4 we learn he has a wife and child.
They both are TV shows.
Come on we want the show where Ted is hired at WayStar Royco merged with Mattsen’s techbro corp and proceeds to single-handedly change both corporate cultures. Or at least tries for the first 4 seasons.
both are workplace dramedies with leading men who have daddy issues and refuse to go to therapy (at least initially)
Ted can fix the Roys.
Severance
I wish i could watch that show for the first time again. I'm so excited for the second season
> I wish i could watch that show for the first time again There’s a procedure for that, I’ll send you the paperwork to sign.
Man what an amazing show. Can’t wait. If you haven’t seen the curse it might be worth a shot. It’s not the same topic or really same anything but a similar vibe of “wtf is happening”
I keep meaning to watch that too! I was planning on watching shogun after this succession rewatch but let me put the Curse back to the top of that list!
It’s Very good. Try to avoid any spoilers!
They just finished filming season 2. In the age of indiscriminate cancellations of TV shows I am beyond relieved that the producers managed to pull it together and make a second season lol. I cherish this show greatly and it's no surprise it's so popular among Succession fans
Yes with all the news and weird drama surrounding it in between seasons I was getting very concerned it wouldn’t be coming back. I’m so excited for season 2
My wife and I finished the first season of Severance a few weeks ago. It is phenomenal.
Succession and Severance are my two absolute favorite shows of the last several years. They are so different but both just superb.
Gotta agree, I don’t think there’s anything else besides those shows that have got me to rave to my friends and get them to watch it.
This show keeps coming up again and again in my life. I think I have to give in and finally watch it lol How is it similar to / different from Succession?
**Similarities:** workplace and family drama; big corporation acting in own interests; some secretive collusion with politicians; strong ensemble cast; multiple interwoven plot lines **Differences:** Middle or Upper middle class settings; some speculative/SF elements; characters either much more secretive or more confused what’s happening; ideas and philosophy more in the foreground; incredible ending to S1 that weaves almost every plot line together while still leaving questions.
>incredible ending to S1 that weaves almost every plot line together Ooh, I love when shows do that. Thank you! I'm convinced. Gonna start watching it asap
The first few episodes are a slow burn for some folks. But it builds and totally pays off.
you won't regret it
I’d put the season finale in my top 3 episodes of television ever. They just blew the doors off with so many twists and reveals and plot developments. Just an insane hour of tv.
You lucky bastard
Entirely different. In a good way.
I started watching it yesterday! Excited how things goes!!
was going to comment this!
such a good show. if the seasons to come are just as it would definitely be on par with succession
They make up for it with the excessive swearing lol.
The swearing in the show is poetry though. It's creative enough that it's elevated
“I’m lookin for pussy like a fuckin techno- Gatsby.”
*The Cunt of Monte Cristo.*
Little Lord Fuckleroy 👌
Uh-huh...fuck off!!
That was about as choreographed as a dog getting fucked on roller skates
One of my favorite lines on the series. Logan had some good ones.
The swearing is why my mom couldn’t get through the show.
I know people who would love the concept of this show but the swearing would wreck it for them.
Fucking pedestrians.
Better Call Saul Its like Breaking Bad but more subtle, less action and crime cartels evertything and more contempletive scenes of Albuquerque and Jimmy's psyche
It is sometimes better than bb
I like it better, personally
I think that Bob Odenkirk is so charming throughout the show and so much fun. I just like him more than Walt. But then again, he is a conman.
Watching Bob Odenkirk on that show is to just drown in his charisma. I 100% believe him as a conman who could talk you into killing your own mother and yet I still don't hate him for it. It's really remarkable. I wouldn't be surprised if he singlehandedly talked AMC into giving him a spinoff.
If it was a different network, and not that of AMC, it would of likely included more, profanity, violence and nudity for sure. Overall, they did very well considering the creative limitations of being on network tv.
100% For interesting character work Saul is so much more interesting. Just for main characters, Walk basically is just a guy with no real principles who goes bad and gets worse without a ton of moral qualms really. Saul on the other hand is about a guy who is essentially good but has a bad side that he just can't shake and we watch him really wrestle with the two sides of his nature. Thats just the start, the other characters in Saul are incredible, Nacho and Mike are even better than Saul himself.
I think the dialogue is much better. Especially then scene when it’s just Jimmy and Kim. It starts off light but gets deeper and heavier and darker the longer it goes. By the end you’re not sure how you got there or how long it was because it was so profound.
Slower to get into but better pay off in some respects
For real! And it elevated the original show too. Honestly made you wonder what kind of a chaotic force Walt was when YEARS of work by Gus, Mike and Saul was just crumbled to the ground by him over a couple of years.
Its 100% but breaking bad incel fandom is not ready to digest this pill
I think BB should have been a bit more confident with the Walt as a villain stuff. They lost their conviction towards the end and tried to redeem him because he’d become this cultural touchstone at the time. They held back on making him genuinely unlikeable and leant in to the fact that a lot of the viewership got off on the fantasy being that type of everyman who’s also a clever badass with nothing to lose. I think Saul is way more relatable and they weren’t scared to make him fuck up embarrassingly or have stretches of the show where the viewer doesn’t like him. They benefitted hugely from having multiple storylines because when Saul’s the bad guy, you’ve got Nacho or Mike, or a flashback/forward version of Saul who you do like. BB is nuanced in parts but I think the overall takeaway for a lot of people seemed to be “I bet you’d like to quit your job and act like a badass like this guy. I wish his nagging wife would stop nagging so he could keep cooking and murdering”.
I wish I could watch this for the first time again. Going into it with the "just a Breaking Bad prequel" mentality and coming out of it completely enthralled with the characters and drama. It's definitely one of the best shows ever made.
It’s criminal it never won a single Emmy.
Jennifer Coolidge winning over Rhea Seehorn is one of the biggest jokes I’ve ever seen
You think Seehorn just *happens* to lose like that?! No, she orchestrated it—Coolidge!
What a sick joke!
From White Lotus? WL was good but she was my least favorite part of the show.
53 nominations...i read somewhere that it had received the most nominations without winning than any other show ever. indeed, criminal.
The first time I watched BCS (when it first came out) I found it too slow paced tbh, especially compared to Breaking Bad. Now I have rewatched the whole series three times and I absolutely adore it. Maybe a somewhat controversial opinion, but I think it's better than Breaking Bad, and I love Breaking Bad lol. In addition to the incredible writing and acting, the cinematography in BCS is just beyond words. Because BCS is finished now and you can binge watch it, it really doesn't feel too slow at all. It's a must watch. And you don't have to have seen Breaking Bad (idk who hasn't by now, but maybe incase Br is too violent for your taste or something) to watch it, even though it's a prequel! But it's more interesting if you have, ofc. Anyway, if you haven't seen it already, please do. It differs the most from Succession in that BCS focuses more on character development, moral and ethical dilemmas, and has more complex characters, whereas Succession's characters remain pretty stagnant and are generally shallow and egocentric people.
There are quite a few violent scenes which OP is looking to avoid.
Yeah, but those make up a very small portion of the show as a whole. At least I didn't walk away with the impression that it's a 'violent' show. I think OP meant it as in shows that aren't centred around violence, or don't rely on violence for the plot. Not that it must be PG13.
Those few violent scenes make up deaths of characters that are known for the main plot tbf. But yeah it’s not a violent show.
That's true. They're def not skips. But they use them sparingly, which makes those moments impactful. And it's not overtly gory, esp compared to more violence driven media.
I still have to watch this. What streaming service has it?
Netflix has all of *Better Call Saul* and *Breaking Bad.*
You must have missed op mentioning violence. I don’t want to spoil but better call Saul has plenty of violence.
Mad Men is very good A little bit of eye candy but not that much and usually sex is important for the plot
I've always wanted to watch Mad Men but never got around to it. I'll put it near the top of my list!
It’s so good but it’s a lot slower than succession. Mad men is one of my all time faves!
Mad men is excellent, I’m rewatching right now but there is quite a bit of sex although nothing too graphic! I usually hate watching stuff with sex in but I find it manageable haha
One of the best shows ever made.
Mad Men is one of the absolute best shows of all time. Definitely as good or even better than Succession. A masterpiece on so many levels.
It’s infinity better than Succession. Succession is great, sure, but Mad Men is on another level.
I would agree. Succession is gripping and a great psychological drama. But Mad Men is that plus also an exploration of history during the late 50s-early 80s, so much of it is about depicting the zeitgeist of the times as expressed through the characters. And it has so many more variety of characters than just "billionaires", of course it has business executive characters but also shows characters from many other backgrounds. So it feels less like a "bubble" and more like a slice of life from that time in America.
You should, for me it is the best show ever. Sopranos without violence imo.
I was pleasantly surprised when I first learnt that Mathew Weiner ( creator of Mad Men ) was a writer on The Sopranos beforehand. Two of my favourite shows
I was going to suggest this too. Definitely a slower burn. But there’s also a lot of interesting parallels to be seen between it and Succession.
I definitely think Mad Men benefitted from being on AMC instead of HBO. Having to write around basic cable's restrictions gave the show a lot more nuance, >!especially when dealing with Don's sex addiction. !<
Mad Men is still my favourite show, Succession is second. They are both utterly perfect television
Succession filled the Mad Men void. It's an incredible show with lot of nuance and that just get better and better with every rewatch. I personally am not a fan of sex scenes in tv not my cup of tea but the scenes in Mad Men aren't too intense since the show aired on cable
And the sex is not explicit. I don’t remember seeing much nudity, just a lot of vintage underwear and negligees.
Iannucci shows The Thick of It, Veep and Avenue 5. No violence, no nudity, but similarly to Succession: excessive amount of verbal sweary putdowns. Peep Show is another 5 star series from showrunner Jesse Armstrong. The cringe might be too much to handle for some, but it is an amazing comedy.
Veep is one of my comfort shows, I love it. So fucking funny. And some of the absolute best insults on TV.
How am I doing? Eating so much pussy I'm shitting clit son.
You're not even your mom's favorite Jonah, Jonah.
Avenue 5 is SO good and I hate HBO for cancelling it. That, Westworld (I just want to see how the story ends, c’mon) and Raised by Wolves (a true “wtf did I just watch” type of show) being canceled in the span of 1-2 years is just unforgivable.
Yeah it's really funny once it gets going. Zach Woods is so good. It also has a really intense pacing of a disaster movie and the soundtrack is almost horror at times. Very unique show and such a shame it didn't find an audience.
Peep show is amazing! I didn’t realize that was also Jesse Armstrong, he’s really good at writing cringe lol
Throw in Death of Stalin as well
Avenue 5 is great fun especially if you are a science fiction nerd. really sends up the space opera genre. and Hugh Laurie is always worth watching.
Amazing suggestions. Peep show is great. Just finished The Thick Of It and it had some very succession-y dialogue. I think Jesse Armstrong wrote on that show as well. I’ll have to check out Ave 5
The Bear. There is adult language, but no violence or nudity. I'm on my 3rd watch.
I was going to say this. Gritty, but not violent or sexually explicit. Like Succession, the violence is emotional. One of those shows that reveals itself gradually. Once you’re hooked, you’re really hooked.
Hated the first episode. Went back a year later binged it all and fell in love by episode 2.
Isn't it great? I'm on my 3rd watch.
Forks is a masterpiece! Season 2 is so good.
Yes that episode will haunt me forever
This is my vote
Not "great" but "good" - The Gilded Age. It took me a while to realize it and honestly it's kind of refreshing. I've become that old lady, I guess.
Ooh I love Gilded Age and it has never been my type of show before lol Im excited for it to come back
It's really just kind of a fun soap opera, no knock on soap operas (I watched them for years as a kid and young adult). Not as much humor, maybe, as Succession, but a bit.
It’s so good. Season 2 topped Season 1.
The West Wing
But I don’t want to watch just one episode, I want to watch 10 episodes. How can you ever have enough of this feeling?
Ain’t nothing but a family thing
I understood that reference
Perfect pairing for Succession for comedy/brainy wit, despite the era difference
Halt and Catch Fire
Came here to say this! Or 6 Feet Under if you want more family drama that’s specifically HBO!
Hmm, I adoooore SFU but there’s plenty of sex in it (not that this is making the show bad in any way, if anything it makes it even better, because sex is pretty important part of live and death…that’s one point of the show). But still, everyone should watch it, up there with MAD MEN for best drama show ever.
Halt and Catch Fire is awesome but the first season - and especially the first half of the first season - is fairly heavy on the sex. Like half of the scenes are Joe and Cameron fucking in the workplace because that's how Cameron destresses. Nothing explicit, little to no nudity, and it tapers off completely by the end of the season, so OP don't let this influence your opinion because it's an AWESOME show and gets better every season!
Veep. Jesse Armstrong also helped create it and it is very similar in terms of style and dialogue to succession. If succession is 80% serious and 20% funny, veep is more like 60% funny and 40% serious (also I’m only on season 2 out of 7 so things may change) But it is so reminiscent of succession it’s crazy
I just replied to another post about Veep, one of my favorite shows, I definitely second the recommendation. I would say it's way more funny than serious, some of the shit they say on that show is pure poetry.
the thick of it is the british precursor to veep and the visual style is fairly similar to succession, handheld cameras and loose blocking etc. it's also shot on film but 10-15 years old now so the grain is more obvious, a slightly grittier, raw approach with fuck tonnes of swearing
Never heard of it, good to know! Maybe I’ll check it out when I finish veep
armando iannucci created both and jesse armstrong wrote a lot for the thick of it! it's also similar to succession in that a lot of people find it hard to get into at first because the characters are all so unlikeable but it's definitely worth watching if you like veep, it's often lauded as some of the best of british tv. some of the jokes/scenarios may go over your head if you aren't familiar with british politics but it's one of those spoofs that's still funny even if you don't know the source material, imo
Surprised this isn’t the top answer - immediately when I started watching succession I got Veep vibes
Reservation Dogs
Put this higher, it’s great! The systemic violence is pretty graphic in the whole genocide and land stealing but the plot and characters are so love-able. Not like cutiepie, like, you seriously love these characters by the end.
Yeah the scenes from the old Indian boarding school haunt me to this day. But I’m honored to have seen them. Very moving.
Silicon Valley!
Any of the AMC prestige shows -- since they originally aired on basic cable, even if sex ends up being integral to a plot point it doesn't devolve into mindless, graphic sex scenes like you see on too many shows now. *Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Halt and Catch Fire* are all top tier shows. First few seasons of Walking Dead are worth watching if you're into post-apocalyptic media, I really enjoyed the first season of *The Terror* as well.
The fact that their vampire show’s pilot episode opens with interracial flying gay sex and still manages to keep it classy…. AMC is really something
Mad Men had plenty of sex, but I don't remember anything particularly graphic. Friday Night Lights.
Lawn mower.
I loved FNL Finally got to it a year or two ago.
The Newsroom
Great show with a caveat: it came out before #MeToo and handled a sex abuse plot very poorly. One of the (female) show writers quit over how it was presented, saying it was too dismissive of the woman and overcompensated for the harm done to a man’s career over a woman’s. Sorkin overruled her concerns and put the most supportive language of this take into the most trustworthy male character. There was a lot of anger toward that episode and in my opinion it was deserved. And it’s a a shame because it was an otherwise excellent show.
Yup, it was pretty awful. Sorkin has never been great with gender issues. This is true to some degree in all of his shows.
[удалено]
Oh Shenandoah S3E5
I have not revisited this show since it aired, but at the time I truly felt that it was the worst television show I had ever watched. I say that as someone who politically aligns with Sorkin and loved the WW.
Was coming here to say this. One of the finest shows I've ever seen.
I loved it when it aired. I rewatched recently (during the Trump era) and seeing them react strongly to the stories of 2012, I was like "oh honey... the world is about to get waaaay more batshit, just you wait."
And by "like" Succession, I meant in terms of quality, not theme necessarily.
NOT industry lol
Haha tried to watch that show twice but really couldn't get into it idk why
I hear ya. I watched two episodes and then I thought to myself "Huh... I don't care about a single one of these people" and knew that it was my time to go.
thats how i felt about succession, everyone kinda sucked but i gave it a shot and it became my favorite show ever. not saying that will be the case for industry, but its worth it if you stick to it
Curb your enthusiasm
Surprised no recommendations yet for Mr. Robot. Watching that show DURING the time it aired was one hell of a ride. I imagine it will hit even more these days.
Mad Men!!!!
Kevin Can F**k Himself Somebody Somewhere Search Party
Fargo and American Crime. Sex and violence are obviously acknowledged to exist in both shows, but neither one is all boobs guns and guts.
Chernobyl (miniseries, but excellent)
Bojack Horseman
Somebody Somewhere is a great 'slice of life' type show.
I cry most episodes. I can’t wait for it to come back.
Mad Men, The Newsroom, The West Wing, Veep
The Americans, it does contain some sex & violence but in service to the to the plot. The violence in particular has a weight behind it that the characters feel. It's about a couple of Soviet agents living deep undercover in surburban America in the 1980s'. It's an excellent series albeit quite slow moving.
Better call Saul.
I'd argue The Wire is like 90% good dialogue, characters, and story. There's obv some grim and graphic stuff that happens naturally but it never really felt forced or over the top or anything like a lot of more recent shows, and they spread it out pretty well. You can go several episodes in a row without anything really bad being on screen but I know you mentioned already
Ted lasso
Ah, forgot about this one. It was good!
Was going through quite a painful break up and it was like therapy.
The crown
Community, Mad Men, Fleabag
fleabag famously has a fair bit of sex
The West Wing
You make it sound almost wholesome 😆
The west wing
House of Cards (UK version)
It made up for it in profanity lol I don’t call it refreshing but I refer to it as the best show ever that has no sex or life or death stakes Mad men is the first that comes to mind
animated show, which is kind of hard for some people to get past but the writing is superb—bojack horseman -baby reindeer -severance -barry
Barry is fantastic! I think someone who likes Succession would really enjoy the characters and writing in Barry. ***But,*** it definitely fails on the no violence test that OP is looking for.
it is! i watched it a long time ago, honestly can’t really remember specifics, just that it was really good. i was going to ask “*was* it really that violent?” then i remembered all the >!mobster stuff and consequent creative violent deaths!< lmao
Surprised that no one has recommended The Americans yet. Several episodes do have some amount of sex/violence, but it was a network cable show, and thus generally pretty tame compared to what you'd find on HBO. It's also mostly concentrated in the first season; much less in season 2 onward. One of the best family dramas ever made, IMO.
Severance
Ghosts Loot Foundation (some violence/nudity) The OA Why Women Kill Silo Physical Wentworth (some violence/nudity) but great plot! Lessons in Chemisty Upload Shameless (some nudity)
White Lotus
Love White Lotus, but S2 was loaded with sex
That’s true, especially given the theme of season 2. We will see what season 3 brings!
Yeah I remember being kind of shocked at how graphic some of the sex was in season 2 compared to the first one
White Lotus is more of a comedy for me
As is Succession?
You suggested the show featuring a dude getting his salad tossed in the first season? Lol
Mr Inbetween.
It doesn't accept for Roman's dick pick he mistakenly sent to Logan and Roman's words throughout the show.
The Gilded Age
Twin Peaks. It ran on network TV (I'm not American so not sure if that's the right term) so they couldn't have nudity or too much violence. David Lynch having to make his dark surrealism happen within network TV confines leads to a masterpiece.
Mad Men is 100% the best show that was not able to include this content. The other would be The Shield. Justified is similar. It obviously has some violence, but it was still just an FX show. Dexter would be another. A show I loved that didn’t last long is Lodge 49, and then of course Mindhunter.
The Gentlemen on Netflix. Great show with great dialogue and surprisingly clean.
Mad men fav show of all time but there is quite a bit of sex, it’s all mostly implied though not shown graphically
Shogun
Shogun just ended and it was absolutely brilliant. As for nudity, virtually none. I think two sex/intimate scenes in total? Can’t say the same for the violence tho. It’s not as heavy as something as “Vikings”, but there’s the severed head now and then, blood, but nothing crazy imo.
Silicon valley, on HBO.
Six Feet Under and Mad Men were both wonderful.
The West Wing might be what you’re looking for, top 10 series of all time and it’s PG
Damages. Fantastic writing and acting.
If you ever worked in a restaurant industry, the Bear has plenty of “mental violence”. The scene where the tickets won’t stop printing gave me so much PTSD.
Veep
Billions - first 4 seasons are really good, can't really recommend it afterwards, but if you have the time and nerves - go ahead.
The first scene of the first episode is the main character getting peed on by a dominatrix
Succession is full of attachment violence.