This Succession Season 2 Trailer Actually Conveys the Tone of the Show

Very often, trailers don't accurately portray what a movie or show is actually like. They're not cut by the people who make the show, they're made by marketing departments who are trying to sell audiences on why they should watch the show, and they do that by pumping the action or drama or sex appeal or whatever they think will put butts in seats. Marketing departments tend to not be great with nuance, so things that have multiple tones at once or require settling in to really appreciate often get flattened out in trailers. Complexity is hard to sell in 75 seconds to an audience who's not even paying attention.

Succession Season 1 was exactly that kind of thing. The HBO show is a comedy and a drama at the same time, and it took four episodes to really gel. Season 1 trailers focused on the family drama part. But now that people know what Succession is and are sold on how it's a Shakespearean drama with blisteringly funny dialogue, the trailer is allowed to lean into the show's both-ness. It has a dramatic Game of Thrones-style score that drops out as Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) tells Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) "Don't be an asshole, you don't have principles."

This show is so good.

Succession Season 2 is coming to HBO in August.

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