New seasons of Succession, Love Life, Mayans M.C.; first seasons of Hacks, I Hate Suzie & The Pursuit of Love
SUCCESSION S3 | Binge episodes 1-3 now, with new episodes every Monday, first on Showmax
Succession, winner of Best Drama at both the Emmys and Golden Globes in 2020, follows four very rich siblings behaving very badly while trying to win their father’s approval – and control of his company, a global media and entertainment empire.
Jeremy Strong won the 2020 Best Actor Emmy as Kendall Roy, while Brian Cox won the 2020 Best Actor Golden Globe as his father, Logan. Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, as Kendall’s siblings, and Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun and James Cromwell, as his extended family, also earned Emmy nominations.
In Season 3, that already impressive cast is adding Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Pianist) and Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies, True Blood), not to mention Black Reel winner Sanaa Lathan (The Affair, Love & Basketball), Emmy nominee Hope Davis (Your Honor, Captain America: Civil War) and singer Jihae (Mortal Engines).
HBO has just renewed Succession for a fourth season, after the Season 3 premiere drew over 1.4 million viewers across all platforms, marking a series high and the best premiere night of any HBO Original series since the launch of HBO Max. Season 3 has a 95% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with IndieWire calling the series “television’s best show, a singular TV experience.”
HACKS S1 | Binge now
The #2 show on Rotten Tomatoes’ Best TV of 2021 (So Far), comedy-drama series Hacks centres on legendary Las Vegas comedian Deborah Vance, who takes on an entitled, down-on-her-luck Gen Z comedy writer in a bid to find fresh material and remain relevant as her performance dates start to dwindle.
Hacks was up for 15 Emmys this year, including Outstanding Comedy Series, with Jean Smart (Watchmen, Mare of Easttown) taking home her fourth Emmy as Deborah and co-creator Luca Aniello winning Outstanding Director and sharing the Writing Emmy with Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky. This was just the fifth time a woman had won the Comedy: Directing category at the Emmys. Newcomer Hannah Einbinder and Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Candyman) were both nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress/Actor categories, while Golden Globe nominee Jane Adams (Hung, Happiness, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress.
Already renewed for a second season, Hacks has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “A prickling debut that pulls few punches, Hacks deftly balances its sharp critiques of the comedy world with more intimate moments, all the while giving the incomparable Jean Smart a role worthy of her talents – and an excellent partner in Hannah Einbinder.”
LOVE LIFE S2 | Binge from 15 November, first on Showmax
The journey from first love to lasting love is back in the spotlight with the hit romantic comedy anthology series Love Life.
The new cast is led by three-time Emmy nominee William Jackson Harper (The Good Place, Midsommar, The Underground Railroad) as Marcus Watkins, who enters his 30s freshly divorced and as lost as ever. Forced to rediscover his identity as a single Black man in New York, Marcus must learn to find love again.
Season 2 has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Variety hailing it as “a smart showcase for a talented actor who seizes it with both hands, giving the rom-com genre a jolt as welcome as it is overdue.”
Black Reel winner Kimberly Elise (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Mosquito Coast) and Emmy winner Blair Underwood (L.A. Law, Dear White People, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) co-star, with three-time Emmy winner Keith David (Greenleaf, Community and the voice of The Princess and the Frog’s iconic Dr. Facilier) as the narrator this season.
Season 1 star Anna Kendrick is back as a guest star and also co-executive produces Season 2 with four-time Emmy nominee Paul Feig (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Bridesmaids).
MAYANS M.C. S3 | Binge now, first on Showmax
Sons of Anarchy spinoff Mayans M.C. follows the life of Ezekiel ‘EZ’ Reyes (Emmy nominee JD Pardo from Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II and Drive), a newly patched member of the Mayans M.C. biker gang on the California/Mexico border.
Once the golden boy with the American Dream in his grasp, EZ and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas from American Crime) are closer than ever after uncovering the truth behind their mother’s murder while their father Felipe (Oscar nominee Edward James Olmos from Battlestar: Galactica) struggles to reconcile the choices he and his sons have made.
The cast also includes Critics Choice nominees Sarah Bolger (The Tudors, Into the Badlands) and Raoul Max Trujillo (Jamestown, Riddick), Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Michael Irby (The Expanse, Barry), and Emmy nominee Richard Cabral (American Crime, End of Watch), who was nominated for a 2019 Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor for Mayans M.C, as well as Emilio Rivera reprising his Sons of Anarchy role as Marcus Álvarez.
Mayans M.C. has an 86% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for Best TV Action Series at the 2018 IGN Summer Movie Awards.
I HATE SUZIE S1 | Binge now
Suzie Pickles, a star on the wane, has her whole life upended when her phone is hacked and a photo of her in an extremely compromising position is released for the whole world to see. This excruciatingly honest show follows the various stages of Suzie’s trauma episode by episode, through shock, denial, fear, shame, bargaining, guilt, anger, and acceptance as Suzie and her best friend and manager Naomi try to hold her life, career, and marriage together in the face of being exposed for who she truly is. But who the hell even is that?
I Hate Suzie was nominated for three 2021 BAFTAs, including Best Drama, Lead Actress (Billie Piper from Doctor Who, Penny Dreadful), Supporting Actress (Leila Farzad) and Writer (Lucy Prebble from Succession), winning the Emerging Talent BAFTA for director Georgi Banks-Davies. I Hate Suzie was also nominated for Best Drama at both the 2021 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards, among other accolades.
I Hate Suzie has a 95% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In their five-star reviews, The Guardian praised Piper’s “truly astonishing performance” and called the show “exhilarating” and “scabrously funny”, while The Telegraph praised it as “rude, crude and very, very funny.”
THE PURSUIT OF LOVE | Binge now
Set in Europe between the two World Wars, BBC miniseries The Pursuit of Love follows the adventures and misadventures of the fearless Linda Radlett and her best friend and cousin, Fanny Logan, as they seek out the ideal husband.
An adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s celebrated 1945 novel, the romantic comedy-drama stars Screen Actors Guild Award winner and People’s Choice Award nominee Lily James (War & Peace, Downton Abbey, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) as Linda, while Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award winner Emily Beecham (Berlin, I Love You, Into the Badlands, Little Joe) plays Fanny. The cast also boasts the likes of Emmy nominee Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Oslo and Sherlock’s Moriarty) and BAFTA winner and Golden Globe nominee Dominic West (The Crown, The Affair).
The directorial debut of actress Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns, Lars and the Real Girl, Match Point), The Pursuit of Love has an 87% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with London Evening Standard calling it “the most enjoyable period drama we’ve had in years… a love letter to women who want more, and a celebration of the right to be different. Nancy Mitford would approve.”
In their five-star review, The Guardian called it “a classic in its own right” and “a treat for all,” while Rolling Stone said, “This had better be just the first entry in a long directorial career for Emily Mortimer. What a joy The Pursuit of Love is.”
FOR LIFE S2 | Binge from 12 November
Season 2 of the drama series For Life picks up the story of once wrongfully-accused prisoner Aaron Wallace, now a free man and hard-working lawyer trying to piece his life back together and find justice for those the system has failed.
Nominated for Outstanding Drama at the 2020 Black Reel Awards, where star Nicholas Pinnock was also nominated for Best Actor, For Life is executive produced by Grammy winner Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson (who also exec produces and stars as Kanan in Power).
With a cast including Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Rome), Black Reel nominee Joy Bryant (Antwone Fisher, Parenthood), and MTV Movie Award nominee Mary Stuart Masterson (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Blindspot), Season 1 of For Life drew an 86% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus says, “Guided by Nicholas Pinnock’s powerful performance, For Life eschews procedural pitfalls with a sturdy, empathetic script and an impressive ensemble to bring it to life.”
DOMINA S1 | Binge now
Domina chronicles the life and rise of Livia Drusilla (multi-award-winning Polish actress Kasia Smutniak from Devils), the powerful wife of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar.
Look out for Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos in Game of Thrones), Claire Forlani (CSI: New York), and Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk), among other familiar faces.
Domina has an 88% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As The Guardian says, “This Roman epic fills a gory, horny, Game of Thrones-shaped hole. The show has a great cast, a big budget and is full of carnage and backstabbing. Plus people say ‘My liege!’ a lot. What’s not to like?”
CHUCKY S1 | Binge episodes 1-3 now, with new episodes every Tuesday, first on Showmax
A vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, throwing an idyllic American town into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begins to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets in the brand-new series Chucky, which picks up after the events of the seventh film in the horror franchise, Cult of Chucky.
Created by Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominee Don Mancini (Bride of Chucky, Child’s Play), the series stars Oscar nominee Brad Dourif (The Lord of the Rings’ Wormtongue and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Billy Bibbit) as the voice of serial-killer-possessed Good Guy doll Chucky, with child actor Zackary Arthur (Transparent) as Jake Wheeler.
Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly (Bullets over Broadway, Bound) returns as Tiffany Valentine, and Saturn Award nominee Alex Vincent (Child’s Play) reprises his role as Chucky’s archnemesis, Andy Barclay, with Christine Elise (BH90210) returning as Andy’s foster sister, Kyle. Also look out for Dourif’s daughter and genre marvel Fiona Dourif (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Stand, The Blacklist, The Purge) returning as Nica Pierce.
Chucky has a 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus calls it “a bloody good time.”
