Culture Crash: Two “Succession” Co-Stars, Two New Thrillers

Welcome to Culture Crash, where we examine American culture – what’s new and old in entertainment…

Fans of Succession are no strangers to brilliant acting from stars Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen, who starred as Shiv Roy and Tom Wambsgans, respectively, on the HBO award darling. Now, each of them star in separate streaming shows that do not quite live up to the quality of a masterpiece like Succession, but put our familiar stars in enough tense situations to make the whole things worth checking out.

Snook’s new show is a Peacock mystery series called All Her Fault. Snook stars as Marissa Irvine, a wealth manager whose life is thrown into disarray when her son goes missing. The 8-episode limited series is based on the novel of the same name by Andrea Mara, and it also stars Jake Lacy, Dakota Fanning, and Michael Pena. All Her Fault scratches the same soapy mystery itch as something like How to Get Away With Murder or The Blacklist, but it’s Snook’s work in particular that really makes the whole show click.

Macfadyen, meanwhile, stars in the Netflix historical drama limited series Death By Lightning, which depicts the election and assassination of US President James Garfield. Michael Shannon plays Garfield while Macfadyen plays his eventual assassin, Charles Guiteau. Based on the book Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, Death By Lightning is a 4-episode examination of US history that many of us never learned, and a thrilling excuse to watch Shannon and Macfadyen play interesting and contradictory men set against the late 1800s.

But Snook and Macfadyen enthralled me on Succession, and that alone was enough for me to seek out their latest shows, both of which may serve as a satisfying binge on a long holiday weekend.