S1-4, 39 episodes.
I was given the impression that I had been living under a rock for not having heard of a miniseries called ‘Succession’. I was also made to believe that ‘it was so good’, as if missing it meant I had lost my purpose in life. My compulsion to watch this built up, and sitting through all forty episdoes (because one has to finish what he starts and never take a back foot), my conclusion is this. One can still have a full life, giving this one a miss.
Something that could be summarised in a season is dragged out over four, to keep viewers intrigued by the lives of the rich and famous, especially when it comes to someone as cutthroat and controversial as Rupert Murdoch. The media mogul who made his mark in the late 20th century had always been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
His company was at the centre of a massive phone-tapping controversy in 2011, which led to major payouts and the closure of one of his UK papers. He is also believed to have wielded strong political influence in the UK, the US, and Australia, swaying public opinion and magnifying or burying news.
Towards the later stages of his life, the Murdochs had to deal with a taunting succession issue. While Murdoch Sr did not want to relinquish control of the business to any of his kids, whom he thought were not worthy of the top chair, the children were competing to outdo one another to capture their father's attention.
The miniseries is a dramatisation of what could have happened behind closed doors during the later years of the media empire. Logan Ray, the toxic, foul-mouthed patriarchal figure who mirrors Murdoch's character, is a very sick man. Despite his ailing condition, he is adamant about clinging to the helm. He is connivingly undermining his children and making them fight among themselves to undermine their confidence.
Even though Rupert Murdoch is alive in real life at 94, the filmmakers decided to kill him and make the adult children fight for control of the empire.
If viewers do not mind being bombarded with 35 hours or more of profanity-laced script, cussing and character-hurling abuses at each other, giving graphic descriptions of bizarre acts of loving and self-gratification, coitus and what a perverted mind would perform on his reproductive anatomy, be my guest and watch this miniseries.
