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TV FEATURE

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THE SUCCESSION OF LOGAN ROY Words Glenn Cochrane S uccession has taken the world by storm, earning

• Succession: Season 4 is out on Sep 13

this month’s DVD release, Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong speaks of the show coming to its conclusion. “It feels very perverse to end it, because it’s been incredibly meaningful,” he says. “I love this cast. I love working with the crew [and] my fellow writers. I’ve had some of my happiest times in my career being in the writers’ room and working with them. “I don’t feel like I’ll be able to write anything as good as this again, because I just feel like it’s an arena that I’m so interested in, and the group of people who’ve made it have been so talented.” If you’re late to the party and haven’t caught Succession yet, then now is the perfect time to dive in. With season four released this month, the entire series awaits you.

praise from viewers and critics alike. The Emmy Award-winning series tells the story of the Roy family, owners of a media empire, who fight for control as their patriarch’s health declines. Bringing the saga to a close, the fourth season is

widely regarded as the best of the lot, having beaten previous seasons in the critics’ scores. Averaging 8.7 million viewers across the entire season, the series finale drew almost three million viewers in its first airing on HBO Max. The show is a thinly veiled and fictionalised account of the Murdoch

employed three of his children at the company, each ambitious

stars as the fourth child, who has removed himself from company affairs. There are more twists and turns than ever before in this final season, with the show throwing some hard curveballs at viewers. In the Controlling the Narrative featurette included in

and hungry for control.

family, and stars Brian Cox as the head of the Waystar RoyCo media conglomerate. He has

They're played by Aussie talent Sarah Snook, Jeremy Strong, and Kieran Culkin. Alan Ruck also

• 1923: Season 1 is out on Sep 13

Words Glenn Cochrane

I f sci-fi TV series like Star Trek and Stargate , and crime shows like NCIS and Law & Order can enjoy the benefits of a franchise, then why not westerns? Fans of Tyler Sheridan’s juggernaut series Yellowstone have been gifted a whole chronology of spin-off shows beginning with 1883 , which tells the story of how the Dutton family made their way to Montana, and now 1923 , which captures the generation that survived the Great Depression, prohibition, and western expansion. The hallmark of a Sheridan production is gritty realism underpinning melodrama, and 1923 exemplifies the motif. The series reunites Hollywood stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, who previously played husband and wife in Peter Weir’s The

Mosquito Coast (1986), with support from an ensemble cast including Robert Patrick, Timothy Dalton, Jennifer Ehle, and Brian Geraghty, amongst others. Incredibly, unbeknownst to the bigwigs at Paramount, Sheridan had designed 1883 as a single stand-alone prequel series, with no intention of a second season. He got caught in a pickle, however, when the studio insisted on a continuation, and from this demand 1923 was born. It turned out fortuitously, because the new series is an incredible drama, which explores themes of America’s Indigenous stolen generation,

better time to climb aboard the Yellowstone bandwagon. With the original flagship series coming to an end this year, 1883

has several more spin offs in the barrel. Now is the time to catch up before the upcoming shows: Lawman: Bass Reeves , 6666 , 1944 , and a yet-to-be-named Yellowstone follow

done, and 1923 renewed for a second season, Sheridan also

up series starring Matthew McConaughey.

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren

capital punishment, and anti-miscegenation law. The series also became the biggest television debut in Paramount’s history. There’s never been a

10 SEPTEMBER 2023

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