Hate-watching the rich is all the rage on TV, from Succession to Schitt's Creek

Vanity Fair

"Blame income inequality, health care premiums, Trump fatigue, or Bernie Sanders-style democratic socialism," says Sonia Saraiya. "For whatever reason, laughing at rich people is one of the sweetest joys of the 2018–2019 television season. Sometimes comedy is heartfelt or sweet, and often that’s great. But right now, it seems there’s no love left for the excesses of wealth; when it comes to money, the (comedic) knives are out." Saraiya points to not only Succession and Schitt's Creek, but also to Veep, Corporate and The Other Two. "Buried in each of these comedies of ambition is a barbed aphorism, one that challenges television’s appetite for shiny, pretty things: Money is the problem," says Saraiya. "Excessive wealth diminishes these characters, making them selfish, stupid, or deserving of mockery. Their greatest (purchasing) power is also their greatest weakness. Succession is the most explicit about this. Wealth is a billowy taupe cloud that envelops and protects the characters—but it’s also poison, one that pits them against each other and pushes their buttons...The show revels in the Roys’ agony—and delivers it neatly to the viewer, encouraging us to revel too. The characters are occasionally empathetic; mostly, they are pathetic. When they turn on each other, claws out for blood, they are merely getting what they deserve."

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