IdleRich
IdleRich
Yesterday we finished watching the second series of this programme. For those who don't know it's about the power struggle to take over a media empire run by tyrannical philistine Logan Roy who appears close to death. Of course he is based on Rupert Murdoch (although his Australian origins are swapped for a Dundee childhood) and (although I don't know that much about the Murdoch family) his poisonous brood and wives presumably owe something to those of Murdoch himself. Certainly the mainish character Kendall has this smooth business school privilege mixed with just the right amount of spoiled weakness to suggest what I remember of James Murdoch. Some scenes recall real life events - Logan Roy apologising for his company's actions to congress mirrors Rupe's appearance in the UK parliament after the phone hacking scandal for instance - and others - the destruction of incriminating evidence a la Conrad Black - are maybe borrowings from the crimes of other media tycoons. Another character is clearly Bernie Sanders and so on. It's written/created by Jesse Armstrong who was behind Peep Show I think and there are a number of other Brits involved which gives the show a slightly different flavour from, say, Mad Men or other obvious comparisons, even though ninety percent of it is based in New York. Also, possibly because of his comedy background, there is a lot of humour in the show - in fact, it's very funny, although sometimes I wonder afterwards if they maybe went for something funny for the immediate hit possibly at the expense of the credibility of the show as a whole - in fact the weaknesses are the way that certain things strain credulity and, arguably the fact that some story lines around the periphery are not explored as much as one would like, but still, if you are interested in back stabbing, cynicism and a blatant attack on Rupert Murdoch and his insidious, evil and sustained attack on public discourse over the last thousand or so years then you should give it a go I reckon.