No amount of Emmy wins or bizarre out-of-context screenshots can prepare you for how good Succession is. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for not understanding why so many Twitter users are excited about a shareholder’s meeting, or creating fancams of their favourite fictional awful multi-millionaire. But believe the hype; Succession is a dark, delicious dramedy worthy of its reputation as a prestige TV behemoth.

The highlight is Succession’s incredible ensemble cast. It’s impossible to single out or highlight one performance, because every episode feels like an acting masterclass. They bring bizarre, entirely unrelatable characters to life and make them effortlessly watchable. Somehow, the complex processes of running the world’s biggest media conglomerate feel nail-bitingly tense and exhilarating. It’s a family affair; but for the Roy family empire, there’s no such thing as a healthy work-life balance, or personal versus professional boundaries. Birthday dinners are indistinguishable from business meetings. As the power struggle to become Waystar’s next CEO rages, there are betrayals, breakdowns, bribes and blackmailers, with a healthy dose of cringe comedy, cutting insults and colourful language.

“Succession is a Shakespearean tragedy that’s sometimes a workplace sitcom”

These uber-rich characters are alienated, desperate and all grappling with some extreme emotional baggage that renders them near incapable of sincerity. They rarely say what they actually mean, but this only makes those rare, brutal moments of honesty even more staggering. Succession’s razor-sharp writing is paired with electric semi-improvised scenes and kinetic camera work. This expertly immerses the viewer in a “fly on the wall” point of view, positioning (and sometimes, trapping) you in the room where it happens.

Nicholas Britell’s score masterfully accentuates and accelerates the drama on-screen; the striking main theme and its accompanying unskippable title sequence reflects the Roy family’s delusions of grandeur perfectly as their legacy and fortune are constantly jeopardised. Succession is a show full of contradictions. You’re given every reason to hate these characters, but when they’re left vulnerable and desperate to prove their worth to a patriarch who only cares about power, you can’t help but root for them.

Succession is a Shakespearean tragedy that’s sometimes a workplace sitcom. It walks a strange, extremely compelling dichotomy of hilarious and devastating. Each season has been a staggering crescendo of drama that has truly proven itself as unmissable event television. With the final season currently premiering, now is the time to get on the prestige drama rollercoaster before it begins its final and inevitably intense spiral of descent.