https://variety.com/2019/tv/features/rich-on-tv-big-little-lies-dynasty-succession-1203271159/
One thing that doesn’t take a 1 percenter to understand is the elemental charge of watching one’s social betters get punished. “We’re at a time with a big gap between the rich and the poor,” says Reims, “and the big difference between then and now is that then was a fantasy, but now is a fantasy where they do get their comeuppance.”
That seems a fundamental part of the rush that the current spate of shows about the very well-off provides. “Succession” presents people with infinite means and no way of enjoying them, so concerned are they all with preserving their turf within the hellish endless competition they were born into. “The Loudest Voice” — should it continue to hew to history — does not end well for Ailes. And “Gemstones” creator and star McBride, whose series “Eastbound & Down” and “Vice Principals” assayed the lives of thwarted members of the underclass, finds new comic potential in showing the way that wealth breeds its own delusions. His other characters, he says via email, “walk around with a chip on their shoulders because life didn’t shake out as expected.” By contrast, the Gemstones “are living life on a big stage. Success defines them. It gives us a chance to show how corrosive and destructive getting what you want can be.”