'Succession' Season 3: Is Shiv's character based on News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks?
Spoilers for 'Succession' Season 3 Episode 3 'The Disruption'
'Succession' Season 3 delivered one humdinger of an episode with 'The Disruption'. Shiv (Sarah Snook) had her revenge as she slammed Jeremy Strong's Kendall Roy to the wall. In her bid to get even at her brother for ruining her town hall that also had her announcement as president, she issued an open letter labeling him a "drug addict." This was one of the key talking points in an episode that will surely have a massive impact on Kendall over the course of the series.
Fan reactions were all about Shiv, a character, who can be loved or hated but cannot be ignored. "I just can't get enough of Shiv. That is all. I'm terrified of her but may also be in love. #Succession" read a tweet by Juliette Kayyem, CNN's analyst tweeted. Replying to one of her tweets was Joe Gross, an ex-newspaper man who said her character was perhaps based on News UK CEO, Rebecca Brooks.
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I just can't get enough of Shiv. That is all. I'm terrified of her but may also be in love. #Succession
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) November 1, 2021
IIRC, she is based a bit on Rebecca Brooks, a woman of whom my grandmother said as she was watching the news, “that woman is absolute terrifying”
— joegross (@joegross) November 1, 2021
Is Sarah Snook's Shiv based a bit on Rebekah Brooks?
Rebecca Brooks (Corrected as Rebekah) is an English media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor. The 53-year-old made waves for the News International phone-hacking scandal. Brooks was the editor of the News of the World from 2000 to 2003 when one of the stories included illegal phone hacking and was published by the paper. A criminal trial followed in 2014 and she was cleared of all charges.
The New Yorker described Shiv's character as "A cynical political consultant engaged to a weirdo social climber who works for her dad." The site also calls her "a canny mashup of Ivanka Trump and the fiery-haired Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks." That's the second comparison to the British media honcho. In season 3, Shiv shows shades of her authority by making power moves that may hamper her relationships with her family, but this is exactly what she needs to assert her position in a family that's involved in a mud-slinging contest.
Now that she's president, Shiv got back at Kendall and perhaps she intends to use the power to teach her father a lesson as well. He had previously overlooked her when he wanted to transfer the power and this time it went to his General Counsel. The plan would be to kill two birds with one stone and by the looks of it, Shiv pulling off something sneaky shouldn't come as a surprise. The first action she had after news of Gerri as CEO being leaked was to see if she could link up with Kendall.
'Succession' Season 3 airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on HBO.
