Tom Wambsgans And The Eventual Rise Of The “F*cking Empty Suit”

Succession and how it got so much right.

I am gonna write most of this article as if you, a potential reader, knows a little bit about the now-concluded HBO show Succession. If you don’t know much, it’s basically a fictionalized version of the Murdoch family, even though no one will openly admit it. There’s a dad, Logan, who ultimately dies in the final season, about three episodes in. The entire run-up to that death is a jockeying for position among three kids (and maybe four if you count a politician son by the dad and a different woman). Eventually, none of those three offspring become the CEO. Instead, Tom — who was often called “the most pathetic character on the show” — becomes the U.S. CEO of the company after it’s acquired by a tech bro from Sweden played by Skarsgard, who is a long way from Big Little Lies in this show.

After Game of Thrones had a rough final season and gave the title to Bram, I think a lot of people thought maybe HBO executives like their shows to do zany stuff, so the Tom thing was a possibility. Greg, who is an even dumber understudy to Tom, was also a far-fetched possibility. In the end, Tom got the reins, but in reality he didn’t. He was still going to just be a suck-up to Skargard’s character, Lukas. Tom is married to one of the three siblings (the only…