By Christos Zampounis

Rupert Murdoch is alive. He is 92 years old and his fifth wedding was cancelled two weeks before the ceremony in April this year. The previous year he had sent an e-mail to his fourth wife Jerry Hall, formerly Mrs Mick Jagger, touching on the dissolution of their union. However, the Australian billionaire is not only known for his conquests in the female sex, but mainly for the empire he has built over time, which bears the title News Corporation. It includes, among others, Fox Television, 20th Century Fox, the “Wall Street Journal”, the “New York Post” in the United States, Sky News, The Times of London, The Sun in the United Kingdom, Sky Italia in its neighbouring country, and dozens of media outlets in its home country. Rupert Murdoch is, according to the creator of the TV series “Succession”, Jesse Armstrong, the central source of his inspiration. In fact, the original idea was to name it after him, but legal reasons prevented this.

In these days that the fourth cycle of Nova’s fourth season is over, as a simple viewer I can share with the readers of “Mancode” my admiration for a television product that changed the standards of this entertainment genre. Like “The Sopranos” in the past or “Breaking Bad” more recently, “Succession” marks a new era in television fiction. What do I mean? Who else would dare, and succeed, in combining crime thrillers with satirical comedy, and soap operas with family dramas? It’s impossible to identify with any of the protagonists, as crusty and spoiled as they are. With the exception of bodyguard Colin, everyone, but everyone, repeats the word f…k in every sentence, even when making references to Cicero or Shakespeare. “Your death is my life,” is the motto of every would-be heir to the patriarch of the family, in life and after his demise. For Roy Logan dies while Rupert Murdoch lives.