Dinner parties show executives tentatively scraping lamb cutlets around plates, the croissants in board meetings are only for decoration, and the only people stood by the snack table are losers. In most scenes, food is everywhere, but no one ever looks like they dare swallow it. As it satiates an animal impulse, eating renders one distracted, weakened and vulnerable to attack. Less a pleasure and more a weapon, in HBO’s Succession food is often used as a means for control. Only hours ago the group were on a hunting range shooting down boars, now they are acting like them. Men who fly in to their top floor offices in glass skyscrapers via helicopter scratch and pull at each other, their mouths ajar, squealing for meat. In an attempt to smoke out who has been leaking company secrets, Logan makes those he’s suspicious of kneel and fight for a sausage. This is a bizarre, humiliating game called “Boar on the Floor”, and it doesn’t look much fun – not least because there are no winners. “Oink for your sausages, piggies!” commands Logan Roy (Brian Cox) the ruthless chairman of media conglomerate Waystar in HBO’s Succession.
