If You Liked Succession, Watch These Next

If you want the same viciously funny dialogue

Veep. Same sensibility, arguably even meaner, and just as quotable. Where Succession filtered its cruelty through wealth and legacy, Veep aims it at political ambition and incompetence, and the insults land with the same rapid fire, quotable precision. If the thing you loved most about Succession was the specific art of a perfectly constructed insult, start here.

If you want the family dysfunction and inheritance drama specifically

Downton Abbey, and I know this sounds like a strange pairing given how different the tone is, but the underlying structure, an aging patriarch, children jockeying for position, questions of who actually deserves to inherit what's been built, is genuinely similar. It's a gentler show by a wide margin, but the bones of the drama are recognizably in the same family.

The Righteous Gemstones. Closer in spirit than Downton Abbey, honestly, just transplanted into a televangelist family instead of a media empire. It's broader and more overtly comedic than Succession ever was, but the core dynamic of adult siblings competing for their father's approval and an eventual inheritance is nearly identical in shape.

If you want the cutthroat corporate power plays

Billions. Wall Street instead of media, but the same genuine fascination with how people who already have enormous amounts of money and power fight over marginal additional amounts of it. The chess match between Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod scratches a very similar itch to watching Kendall and Logan circle each other.

Industry. Younger, messier, and set in investment banking rather than media, but it shares Succession's willingness to let genuinely unlikeable, ambitious people be the actual protagonists without softening them for audience sympathy.

If you specifically miss Jesse Armstrong's writing

Peep Show, if you haven't seen it, is Armstrong's earlier, much smaller scale work, and while it's a completely different register, a lo-fi flatshare comedy rather than a corporate drama, the specific cringe inducing honesty about how people actually think versus what they say out loud carries over in a way that's genuinely recognizable once you know to look for it.

If you want the prestige drama scale without the comedy

The Crown. Different subject matter entirely, but similar in ambition and scale, a family managing an institution larger than themselves, generational succession questions, and real consequences to decisions made behind closed doors. It trades Succession's cynicism for a more measured, restrained tone, but the institutional weight is comparable.

My honest take on managing expectations here

I think the mistake people make chasing a "next Succession" is assuming another show needs to replicate the exact tonal cocktail, cruelty plus comedy plus genuine tragedy, all at once. None of these fully do that simultaneously the way Succession did. What they each do is take one specific ingredient from that mix and run further with it. Knowing which specific thing you actually miss about the show, the jokes, the family drama, the corporate scheming, the writing style, will get you to a much better next watch than just searching "shows like Succession" and hoping for a direct match.

Frequently asked questions

What's the closest show to Succession in tone? The Righteous Gemstones shares the closest family inheritance dynamic, while Veep matches the sharp, cruel comedic dialogue most closely.

Is there a show with the same corporate power struggle as Succession? Billions and Industry both dig into cutthroat corporate and financial ambition in a similar register.

Did the same writer make anything else worth watching? Jesse Armstrong's earlier work, Peep Show, is a much smaller scale comedy but carries some of the same brutally honest character writing.

Is The Crown similar to Succession? In scale and institutional weight, yes, though it trades Succession's cynicism and comedy for a more restrained, dramatic tone.

Want a personalized next pick instead?

If none of these feel like quite the right fit for what you're actually missing, our series recommendation quiz can help match something more specifically to your mood.