In perhaps a sign of things to come, the highly anticipated third series of Jesse Armstrong’s Murdoch satire Succession will premiere its first two episodes at this year’s edition of the London Film Festival, due to take place from the 6th-17th October.
While this may seem odd on paper, it is an increasingly common trend with the ongoing Venice Film Festival premiering the first four episodes of the Ingmar Bergman remake Scenes From A Marriage (starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain) to wide acclaim. Last year’s edition of LFF also saw host to Steve Mcqueen’s Small Axe series before their BBC airing in the Autumn—although these were harder to discern as some have argued they are a series of films while others argue it is a series.
Previous shows to premiere at Film Festivals include Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake, starring Elizabeth Moss. The move towards more and more series premiering at festivals is perhaps a sign of the increasingly murky line between TV and Cinema with Twin Peaks: The Return being listed among many of the best films of the year upon its debut in 2017, in spite of it seemingly being a TV series.
Succession is focused on the Roy family, spearheaded by patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) with his three children Kendal, Shiv and Roman vying for control of his media enterprise. The series has won widespread acclaim for its pitch-black humour and the sharpness of its writing, though perhaps this will come as no surprise to those familiar with Armstrong’s work on The Thick Of It and Peep Show. With a two-year gap from the end of series two, audience members await the public confrontation between Logan and Kendall following its cliff-hanger ending.
Words by Chris Connor
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