The Best Books, Movies, Video Games, and Podcasts to Check Out After Watching ‘Succession’

June 25, 2026 - 22:18

You have finished all four seasons of "Succession," and the Roys are gone from your screen. The power plays, the sharp dialogue, the brutal family dinners -- they are hard to replace. But you do not have to stay in a media vacuum. A whole world of stories captures the same ruthless ambition, corporate backstabbing, and dark humor.

For books, start with "Barbarians at the Gate" by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. It tells the true story of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, and it reads like a thriller full of greed and ego. If you want fiction, try "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe. It follows a bond trader whose life unravels after a hit-and-run in New York, exposing the city's class divides and financial rot.

On the movie side, "The Big Short" (2015) explains the 2008 financial crisis with the same acidic tone and sharp editing that made "Succession" so watchable. For a pure drama of family and power, watch "There Will Be Blood" (2007). Daniel Day-Lewis plays an oil tycoon whose hunger for control destroys everyone around him. It is bleak, beautiful, and unforgettable.

For video games, "Disco Elysium" is a detective RPG where you play a washed-up cop trying to solve a murder. The game is all about dialogue, choices, and the slow unraveling of a broken system. It has the same verbal sparring and moral gray areas you loved in the show. "The Last of Us Part II" also explores cycles of revenge and loyalty, though it trades boardrooms for a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Finally, podcasts. "The Dropout" covers the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, a story of billionaire ambition and deception. "Swindled" dives into corporate fraud and white-collar crime with a dry, deadpan narrator that feels like a cousin to "Succession's" tone. "How I Built This" often interviews founders who, like Logan Roy, built empires from nothing, though the outcomes are usually less tragic.

These picks will keep you in that world of high stakes and low morals. No need to say goodbye to the Roys just yet.