In appreciation of Kieran Culkin’s Roman Roy, the most despicable character on TV right now

HBO’s Succession has let Kieran Culkin become one of the most delightfully loathsome characters on TV right now.

It’s easy to be leery about going into a show like Succession, which is halfway through its first season on HBO. Sure, it’s a prestige production, with loads of talent both in front of and behind the camera, but there’s something about watching an ultra-rich family backstab one-another that comes off as fundamentally…unfulfilling.

Granted, the entire cast, led by Brian Cox as gruff Roy family patriarch Logan, tackle their individual roles brilliantly, with concise writing and direction that lay out the family dynamics. But there’s something about this assumed quiet dignity that these characters themselves try to exude that doesn’t exactly make their heinous treatment of one-another (or the world at large) any more appealing. That’s where Kieran Culkin comes in.

Playing the youngest sibling Roman, Culkin absolutely steals the show as the entitled brat who not only knows he was born into wealth, but flaunts it at every chance he gets. He portrays Roman as a Shkreli-esque rich kid who’s gleefully self-aware of the kind of power he wields. Not since Jack Gleeson sneered his way into living rooms as Prince Joffrey on Game of Thrones has their been such a petulant, sniveling character to actively root against.

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While his despicability evident immediately, and consistently, the first time we see one of his truly egregious displays is when he offers his nephew a million dollars if he hits a home run at a casual family softball game. When the kid only manages to make a triple, Roman goes way out of his way to further humiliate him, tearing up the check while repeatedly explaining how close he was.

As the plot begins to advance, there’s a plot between Logan’s oldest son, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) to take over the family company, and ousting their old man through a no-confidence vote. It’s a delicately laid plan spread out over several episodes, as Kendall recruits key members of the board to sway their decision in his favor.

Roman’s vote, of course, is key to all this happening. In the most recent episode “Whose Side Are You On,” that vote finally comes to pass, but while Kendall ends up stuck in traffic. As his best-laid plans start to unravel, he desperately tries to run his motion via phone call as he runs through the streets of the Financial District. As the room looks to Roman to cast the tie-breaking vote, he’s stared down by his father, and without his brother’s presence in the room, he votes to keep his father in charge.

Really, deep down, it was pretty clear that something like this was going to happen. Even if Kendall had been in the room, it’s certainly arguable that Roman would’ve folded regardless. Throughout the planning stages of their corporate coup, Roman would openly scoff at any idea that didn’t put him in a position of power exactly to his liking. For no other reason than he could.

But when it’s his turn to vote, he not only breaks with his brother’s plan, but he absolutely crumbles into pieces while doing it. His voice quivers. He’s barely able to utter a word when his father really puts the screws to him. Granted, the icy, unblinking stare of Brian Cox would bring more than a few people to their knees, but it’s telling of Roman’s true nature.

Sure, he’s a big-talking rich kid with loads of stature and no discernable skills (be they business or social), but the one person that sends his trail straight between his legs is his father. The man who brought him into the boardroom of his company in the first place. While he may fantasize with his brother of taking over the company, putting themselves at the top of the food chain, when it comes down to it, Roman’s a coward.

Knowing that Roman’s perverse antagonistic swagger masks an even more pathetic human being doesn’t exactly go a long way in the empathy department, but it does make despising him that much more fun. And knowing there is going to be Earth-shattering fallout in the wake of last week’s episode

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Simply put, Roman’s one of the best ‘love to hate’ characters to come around in quite some time. He’s the personification of the worst part of late-stage capitalism, and Culkin plays him to teeth-grinding perfection. His sleazebag pomposity, worn like a cloak to hide his cowering lack of integrity, sure doesn’t make you want to root for him. But it is incredibly fun to root against him.

Succession airs Sunday nights on HBO.