Why do we love to look at rich morons?

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Children of the late 1980s and 1990s grew up on series, where young people with ordinary work could somehow afford a large apartment in the center of New York ( “Friends” ), and the columnist spent thousands of dollars on shoes ( “Sex and the City” ).

These representations, together with stories about really wealthy people (as, for example, in the “gossip” ), painted a picture of the desired wealth, which is very close: it is enough to be in the right place at the right time and make friends with “right” people (and possibly write a bestseller about their secrets - Lifehaka look in the “gossip” ).

The series of the last five years have been offering a different picture. Such a show as “Heirs”, “White Lotus” and “You” show that great wealth goes hand in hand with kumin, exploitation and oppression.

We figure out why the story of the brothers and sisters of the swarm of the “heirs” causes us not only disgust (inheritance_s by the plot commit several crimes ) and envy, but also ... satisfaction!

Author
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Dew

"Heirs" are based on the stories of real wealthy families

The attractiveness of the series is that it does not show idealized or abstract super -rich, but draws material from real stories. The creator of “Heirs” Jesse Armstrong shared that, prescribing the character_k of the series, the team was inspired by the biographies of real magnates: the family of Murdokov, Robert and Rebecca Mercer, John Malun and others.

The most parallels of the audience and the journalist_ki held between the swarms and the meridoks - the American media Magnates associated with the News Corp holding. Its founder billionaire Rupert Murdok, like the head of the fictional Waystar Royco Logan Roy, dreamed of transferring the company to the management of one of his children: Lahlan, James or Elizabeth. And just like the senior swarm, he could not decide on the hereditary and therefore pushed the children among themselves, hoping that the "strongest" would win.

Like Waystar Royco, News Corp, owned a conservative news platform (Fox News), which was accused of election manipulations: in 2023, Rupert Murdok spent $ 787.5 million in order to jurorize the lawsuit against Fox News about slander. Dominion Voting Systems The company selling software and voting devices accused the channel of spreading false information on falsification of the 2020 elections in the United States. In the eighth series of the last season of ATN sympathy The name of the Waystar Royco news agency , like Fox News, on the side of the ultra -right candidate: manipulating information, the news agency helps him win the elections.

Like the swarms, the deadly found themselves in the center of the loud scandals. Kendall and Logan in the series appeared before Congress to comment on the concealment of the harassment in the company, and Rupert and James testified to the British Parliament in connection with the News International case. Then it turned out that the staff of the News of the World, which is part of the News Corp, was illegally listened to telephone conversations to obtain “exclusive” information.

Parallels between two hearings

Another source of inspiration for the creator of “heirs” is a meeting of Disney shareholders , held in 2004. Then the nephew of Walt Disney and the shareholder of the company Roy, together with the outside, deprived the title of CEO General Executive Director Michael Eisner, who held this position for twenty years. In the "Heirs" this plot appears in the sixth series of the first season, when the eldest son of Logan Roy Kendall tried to endure his father with a vote of no confidence, having previously secured the support of several shareholders_k.

Loud scandals and attempts to cover them, political manipulations, family raspings and the struggle for power - biographies of media Magnato_k are full of inspiration sources for the series, which is a satire on rich and influential. At the same time, the executive producer of the “heirs” Adam McKay admitted that some real stories “too flying away” even for the plot of the series. Commenting the scandal in the Kushner family American dynasty who got rich in real estate. The grandson of the founder of the family business Jared was adviser to Donald Trump and married his daughter Ivanka. He said: “He [Charlie Kushner] hired an exporter to sleep with his sister’s husband, photograph their sex on the camera and send a recording to his sister! If Jesse [Armstrong] wrote something like that, I would say to him: “ You are crazy what you are doing? It goes beyond the reason that I can’t even think of it .”

"Heirs" show that super -rich rarely receive a fortune for achievements

Many super -rich people present their achievements as a fruit of many years of painstaking work: “If I could earn a state of my labor, then you will succeed.” In fact, behind the stories of the success of many of them, connections and impressive capital at the start, which was obtained from relatives_z. Thus, the blogger and owner of her own cosmetics brand Kylie Jenner criticized the fact that she did not resist the Self-MADE billion, which was "hung" in the media on it. In an interview with The New York Times, she admitted that she could not say that she “made herself”, as she received a lot of help from loved ones and had a large platform in social networks.

People who have achieved success thanks to family ties are called NEPO Babies Letters. "Children of Kumi." They are Connor, Kendall, Roman and Shiv Roy. Throughout the series, we see that the swarms do not have sufficient competencies to manage the company's company or their own business. Connor puts forward the presidential candidate and spends millions on the election campaign, having no experience in politics, Kendall makes loss -making transactions and launches unrealistic projects , the novel dismisses cooperation to the right and left, without thinking about the consequences of his actions for the company. Each of them dreams of using the same respect in the industry as their father, but some of Logan Roy also call into question. Once he was able to build a successful media imperial, but at the end of his career he stopped understanding the modern industry.

"Heirs" do not show great wealth attractive

A demonstration of wealth on television often arouses a feeling of envy or desire to possess what the heroes have. Watching the shopping Blair Waldorf in Paris or luxurious techniques in the “Downton Abbey”, the audience involuntarily thinks about what it would be to have such a state and live as a boring life.

While the wealth of the heroes of the “heirs” can be envied, it is not shown as something bright and desirable. The first reason is the conscious choice of stylist and decoratorly_k the series to bet on " quiet luxury ". The character of the series almost never wear clearly branded clothes (with the exception of episodes, when Kendall loses control of themselves and shows it through screaming things and large jewelry), and their expensive trips abroad almost always serve as a background for unpleasant events that unfold on the screen.

Secondly, wealth does not bring to the swarm of happiness. “The rich also cry” - a cliche, which is often used in order to convince less privileged people that money does not matter and the lives of wealthy people are no better. “In the USA there is not even paid maternity leave. 85.8% of men and 66.5% of women work more than 40 hours a week. Do you think you can’t buy happiness for money? If they allow me to spend more time with my family and children, only a few precious hours ... <...> The rich have such an opportunity, ” explains the journalist Elizabeth Bronbent.

For money, you can buy happiness if a person has a concrete vision that this happiness means for him: the opportunity to enter the desired faculty, live abroad, cure a painful relative, help with activist and charitable organizations, and leave abusive relations. The only sincere desire of Roev is to please his father and at the same time “replay” him. To do this for money that he got only thanks to him seems to be an impossible task.

"Heirs" illuminate the hypocrisy of super -rich

Corporations and billionaire_ki are increasingly under the close attention of activist and media: it becomes known about the use of actually slave labor , violation of labor rights , and environmental pollution . To “clear” their reputation, the accused not only deny crimes and mistakes, but also use the activist agenda to seem “progressive”. So, H&M said they care about sustainable development, launched a “ecological” line of clothing and a resaking system. In this case, the brand's statements diverge from the actions. The Quartz investigation showed that the information on the “environmentally friend” labels of Conscious is not true. One of the labels indicated that the dress was spent 20% less water than usual. In fact, water was required 20% more .

Succession Clip Kendall Roy Yelling “Fuck the Patriarchy” Pic.twitter.com/bwnmt3S4HVV
- Succession Clips and Reaction Videos (@suciationreact) November 2, 2021

The heroes of the “heirs” are also not embarrassed to use a “progressive” agenda in their interests. At one point, Kendall Roy shouts to the journalist_k: “To hell with the Patriarchate!”, And in the other, he defends the company against fair accusations of Harassment on a hearing in Congress. Shiv Roy, periodically accusing the brothers and father of mizoginia and cooperation with the ultra -right, as a result, he manipulates the victim of the harassment in order to clear the reputation of Waystar Royco.

"Heirs" - vivid criticism of capitalism

The plot about the four incompetent Siblings and their losing grip of a father, who commit crimes over and over again and cover them, accept failure business, but somehow retain the influence and status-a realistic representation of real corporations and their owned. But the creator of the “heirs” is not limited to references to American reality and the biographies of real media Magnato_k - they directly criticize the system that allows the super -rich to stay afloat.

In the sixth episode of the fourth season, Kendall, who has become one of the CEO Waystar Royco, represents the investor, the new project of Living+ and deliberately inflates its significance to increase the cost of Waystar and disrupt its acquisition of Gojo technical companies. To fulfill this purpose, Kendall asks the responsible for finances to artificially overestimate the predicted profit of the project and ... promises the investor and user_nitsa Living+ eternal life (or at least an additional 50 years).

Talking about this crazy plan to his brother Roman, concerned about false numbers in the presentation of the project, Kendall smiles:

“This is enough to lose faith in capitalism. You can say anything "

Kendall explains: the value of products and corporations is not real , but artificially created using deceptive advertising and manipulations.