LOS ANGELES – Hailed by critics as one of the best television shows of the last decade, the pitch-black satirical comedy-drama Succession (2018 to present) is back for its fourth and final season.

Premiering on Monday on HBO (StarHub TV Channel 601 and Singtel TV Channel 420) and HBO Go, it sees the billionaire Roy family – ruthless patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) and his feckless children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Connor (Alan Ruck) – continue their internal power struggle as the sale of their media empire looms.

And it is a race to the bottom to see which member of the clan can be the most backstabbing and power-hungry.

Speaking to The Straits Times and other media in separate interviews over Zoom, the cast says the show’s success – Succession has won 13 Emmys, including for Outstanding Drama Series in 2020 and 2022 – stems in part from how it speaks to many broader cultural concerns, in addition to being a compelling portrait of family dysfunction.

But two of the actors disagree over whether the Roy siblings’ varying degrees of incompetence and sense of entitlement are their own fault or their parents’.

Cox, the Scottish actor who plays Logan, says the series is “a total reflection of the time we live in – the avarice of our time”.

“And it’s about certain strata of society who have been given more and more power because of their wealth – that is what the show is about, the dangers of entitlement and values that are detrimental to the human experience,” says the 76-year-old, who was Emmy-nominated for this role.

Australian actress Snook – who is expecting her first child with her husband, Australian comedian Dave Lawson – agrees.

“The fact that the show has become very popular and successful probably says a lot about where at the moment we are in society, and how much we aspirationally look towards wealth and power as things that we’d like to attain ourselves.”

“But also, secretly, we are quite pleased that it doesn’t make you happy, it doesn’t make anybody a better person, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely,” says the 35-year-old, who has received two Emmy nominations.

But, she adds, it is “still a family show” at heart.

“It’s still about the interaction of the family members and how they don’t really love one another in the way that they probably should. And everybody has a family of some sort, so there’s something familiar there as well.”

Succession also invites a debate about nature versus nurture when it comes to just how much parents are to blame for how their children turn out.

Asked if the younger Roys are disappointments of Logan’s own making, Cox says: “No, I don’t buy that. I think that’s a common myth.

“All bets are off after a certain age. Of course, you can blame your parents for a lot of things, but if you keep blaming them, you’re not actually taking responsibility for your own life.

“And that’s what’s wrong with these kids. They have to take responsibility for who they are – and they don’t do that,” says the star, who is married to German-born actress Nicole Ansari, 54, and has four children aged 18 to 52 from this and a previous marriage.

But Culkin, who plays Logan’s unapologetically callous son Roman, takes a different view.

“I’m a new parent, so I lack the perspective (Brian) has,” says the 40-year-old American actor, who has two children aged three and one with former model Jazz Charton, 34.

“But if I were to just talk about the show and the way these Roy kids are, I would put a lot of weight on the parenting.

“Look at their mother, who doesn’t know how to communicate at all, and who essentially left her kids,” says Culkin, who was Emmy-nominated twice for his performance.

“Then they had a dad who was always at work, and they were left to their own devices and weren’t really properly raised.

“So them not doing that well in the world, even with all their money and privileges, I’d put quite a lot of weight for that being on the parents, who could have guided them better,” he says.

Succession 4 premieres on Monday on HBO (StarHub TV Channel 601 and Singtel TV Channel 420) and HBO Go.