The Chris Moltisanti-fication of Roman Roy: Abusive Surrogate Fathers in Prestige TV

Last week, while mourning the loss of one of the greatest TV shows of the streaming era, I scrolled through countless Succession fan-edits on my TikTok feed. Somehow those 40-second video montages to Mitski songs created by accounts named things like “shiv roy apologist” and “tom wamsgans slam piece ☭” had me more emotional than the actual show ever did. One particular comment on a video of the heart-wrenching “hug” (would we call that a hug?) between Kendall and Roman — where Kendall literally and figuratively opens Roman’s wound — caught my eye: “that hug is so tony and christopher coded.”

The surrogate father relationship dynamic is all over the place in Succession, from more lighthearted allusions to Connor taking Roman on a fishing trip in place of Logan (one of Roman’s few normal father/son memories shared with his eldest brother) to Kendall mimicking Logan’s paternalistic abuse of Roman. But we see this in most, if not all, of television’s Prestige series. Aside from the common themes of mid-life crisis and disillusionment of the American Dream (yada yada yada...) that link the Sopranos to Mad Men to Breaking Bad to Succession, there are unmistakable similarities between Tony & Chris, Walt & Jesse, and Kendall & Roman. (Part of me wants to include Don Draper & Pete Campbell or better yet Peggy Olsen, or Chuck & Jimmy in Better Call Saul, but I’ll just let those examples ruminate for now…) Simply put, “the son I never had.”

All of this got me considering how, in these relationships, the paternal character acts in tandem as brother, father, friend, coworker and abuser. He often stands in for a father who is either dead, absent or estranged in some way. There’s a certain biblical or classical, let's call it, quality here that has echoes of Cain and Abel, Isaac and Abraham and Romulus and Remus (surely intentional, right Jesse Armstrong?), wherein the oppressor is compelled — either literally or figuratively — to sacrifice his subordinate to preserve his empire, for better or worse.

Spoilers ahead…

This relationship positions the “son” as a tragic character alongside his anti-hero. Famously, Tony Soprano kills his nephew Christopher Moltisanti after six seasons of grooming him to rise the ranks of their crime family. After Chris’ battle with addiction, Tony no longer views him as a trustworthy colleague and offs him when a convenient opportunity arises. We even see a similar pattern between Tony and his uncle Junior, from plotting a hit against Tony to humiliating him, (after all, he never had the makings of a varsity athlete!) to ultimately shooting and nearly killing his nephew in a senile daze.

In this video essay that everyone watched after finishing Breaking Bad, Jesse Pinkman is established as a Jesus figure physically suffering for Walt’s sins. As Walt’s ego grows, he continues to betray and sacrifice Jesse at every opportunity. Yet still, in spite of the physical abuse, there’s a wholesome, paternal warmth that transcends all of these relationships. Tony, Walt and Kendall act as fathers more for Chris, Jesse and Roman than for their own sons. There are also similarities in their biological sons, Anthony Jr., Walt Jr., and Iverson, who are all developmentally challenged either physically or mentally and play a relatively insignificant role in their lives, at least compared to their surrogate sons.

But back to the Succession hug, which I think really epitomizes this dynamic. The only difference here is that Succession actually does have the omnipotent and quite literal father figure of Logan Roy. Kendall as a surrogate father for his younger brother Roman is a theme that, unlike Breaking Bad and Sopranos, is slowly developed throughout the series until Logan dies. Then, and only then, can Kendall replace Logan and inflict upon Roman the paternal abuse he’s grown accustomed to. Kendall, too, has experienced significant abuse at the hands of his father so, as Kendall said himself, “maybe the poison drips through.”

In many ways, Chris Moltisanti is the blueprint for this tragic surrogate son character. He’s goofy, smart-mouthed, and all too accustomed to pain. Not unlike Chris, Roman is as much the comedic relief as he is the punching bag. This season, Kieran Culkin really blew it out of the water and took what was already a brilliant comedic performance as Roman Roy to the next level. Do we think he’ll win an Emmy up against Jeremy Strong now that he’s nominated for lead actor? Wouldn’t it be funny if Matthew Macfadyen was nominated too and won against the Roy siblings once again?