Succession Creator Jessie Armstrong on Balancing Tone And Staying Authentic | On Writing

Creator of HBO"s Succession, Jessie Armstrong, discusses how he strikes the right balance between comedy and drama and how he came up with the idea for the BAFTA award-winning show.
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[@sams7068]

“If you leave out [comedy] you can end up taking these big figures at their own estimation.” So good. Most films about people like Steve Jobs leave out the fact that most people in similar positions are absolutely insane and utterly ridiculous. At some point American drama shows-even some on HBO-began thinking drama meant humorless. Hate to drop Shakespeare, since everything is compared to it and it’s a meme online to call your favorite show “Shakespearean,” but even his non-comedies were filled with hilariously irrational human behavior. Tony Soprano sees himself as a great army general, yet you hear his conversations about his new coffee helping him shit well, he repeats the last thing he heard all the time, and has irreparable internal contradictions.

[@lxuaes6915]

I don't keep up with the memes, so I was unaware of the Shakespearean comparison as a meme, but it really occurred to me when I remembered that as you pointed out, Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies were filled with genuine humor that is hard to appreciate today. Succession genuinely feels like a modern Shakespearean play in that sense, in that it's bitingly hilarious, but stills plays dramatically at the highest level, Brian Cox's gravitas doesn't hurt either.

[@robweissman5952]

This dude's in the same league as David Chase.

[@PleaseSayYesTV]

Yeah Matthew Weiner, True Detective S1. All that

[@Enoughsenoughnomas]

I compare him to Jonathon Swift, or Tolstoy of our day as well

[@rusamene]

This mam is a genius. He's like next Mamet in my book.

[@motioneccentrica]

Thank you for this 🤟🏽

[@NoraGermain]

Loved Margin Call 😎

[@Dawn-hg1pb]

Is the woman not allowed to talk? Why is she in this video?

[@bltr2507]

I think this is part of a longer interview where she does talk