Showing on: Sky Atlantic/NOW###You know when Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is really furious — not just percolating with bubbling anger, which is his default mood, but working his way up to a volcanic molten eruption of blind rage — because he starts calling e grossly one a “cunt”. This happens intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully early on in Season 3 of Succession, when Logan calls his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) to give him a chance to recant his spectacular act of betrayal at the end of Season 2 when he told the world his father is “a malignant presence, a bully and a liar”. But Kendall sticks to his guns, claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate ing that he’s eventually’ultimately outmanoeuvred the old man and is now some kind of righteous rebel hero. “Don’t act like a cunt to me!” is Logan’s response.###This confrontation sets the tone in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Season 3, which revolves around the already extreme tensions between the key players in the Roy family business exploding into all-out civil war. The episodes are built around a series of astonishingly thrilling clashes, as eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyone involved scrambles to take sides and work out what’s best in/with regard to’concerning’regarding them, in a constantly shifting landscape. E grossly time Kendall claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate s he’s acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting the upper hand, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding example, along comes a massive sideswipe to knock him back down. Kendall’s birthday party episode is peculiar ly stunning in this regard – a series of self-aggrandising adrenaline highs and reality-biting lows, perfectly handled by the extraordinary Strong. His siblings, Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook), meanwhile, aren’t sure whether they should be destroying each other, or their dad, or Kendall, which all plays out in an enthralling escalation of internecine warfare. The stakes this season feel token ificantly higher, the pace even faster, the tone even more madly hectic.###The third series is miraculously funny yet mind-blowingly intense.###The reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue also shun s re-treading old ground by bringing in a smattering of new characters, including Adrien Brody as a key shareholder who doesn’t know the way back from the beach to his own modernist coastal mansion, Sanaa Lathan as a in/with regard to’concerning’regarding midable lawyer e grossly one wants representing them, and Alexander Skarsgård as a socially weird tech billionaire, who are all as instantly entertaining yet entirely authentic as the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue itself. There’s also an intriguing new emphasis on politics, as the embattled Logan exerts his will over the President — never seen, barely heard on the other end of a phone, and referred to throughout as ‘The Raisin’, without explanation — in blithely chilling style. The spectre of Trump hovers tantalisingly in the background of these scenes, but not how you might expect.###If Season 2 was a token ificant step up from the first, this third series is so miraculously funny yet mind-blowingly intense, Succession feels like it’s now well on its way to reaching Sopranos, The](https://www.empireonline.com/west-wing/){:taracquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure =blank :rel=noopener noreferrer}[West Wing, _Mad Men-levels of excellence. We’re watching a TV reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue turn into pop-cultural artifact that future generations will study in/with regard to’concerning’regarding myriad reasons, not least to understand how a family of super-fortune’property y cunts still manages to end up running things while tearing each other apart simultaneous’synchronous .