As far as cliffhangers go, the way the second series of Succession ended was up there with the best.
Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) had just plunged the knife into his father, media mogul Logan (Brian Cox), by announcing during a live press conference that the scandal-ridden family firm was poisonous from the top down.
It was a jaw-dropper that no one saw coming, least of all Kendall’s equally conniving siblings Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook).
The final shot of the series was a close-up of Logan watching the devastating press conference as a smirk crossed his lips.
That was October 2019 and little did we know that it would take two years and a coronavirus pandemic before we’d learn what that enigmatic smile meant.
The third season of Succession – which starts on Monday – picks up minutes after that bombshell and we’re thrown headfirst into the aftermath as Logan and his boardroom cronies attempt to regain some semblance of control.
I really don’t think there’s a programme on TV that makes me smile as much as Succession.”
I really don’t think there’s a programme on TV that makes me smile as much as Succession.
The Roy family and their hangers-on are about as toxic an example of human behaviour as you’re likely to see on television, but creator Jesse Armstrong makes their back-stabbing antics so entertaining and funny that you forget you should probably, in all good conscience, despise them all.
As the insults and f-bombs start flowing and we see the Roy siblings shamelessly jockeying for position so they can ride out the storm, it is utterly delightful television and the hour passes in the blink of an eye.
I needn’t have worried that the two-year hiatus might have blunted Succession’s power.
Trump has gone and Covid made us care less about the haves and more about the have-nots, but there’s still great joy to be had revelling in their revoltingness and secretly loving every last one of them.
Scouting out new tasks
Ever since satellite channel Dave lost its crown jewel to Channel 4, it’s been trying desperately to fill the Taskmaster-sized hole.
The latest show to try is Outsiders with David Mitchell – a shamelessly similar concept that pits teams of comedians against each other in a series of Scout badge-based challenges.
It’s perfectly entertaining (although definitely not as good as Alex Horne and Greg Davies’ series) and it helps that the makers haven’t even attempted to paper over the distinctive Taskmaster vibes – of the six contestants, only one (Toussaint Douglass) isn’t a TM veteran.
Bet they wish they could have called it Scoutmaster though…
Guilt is a rare Scots treat
A must-watch show on the BBC Scotland channel sounds like an oxymoron but against the odds that’s what they’ve got with Guilt, which returned for a second series this week.
The four-part thiller grabbed viewers by the throats from the start with a tantalising step-up – what would you do if you knocked someone down by accident then tried to cover it up? – that piled on the obstacles and pressures in a way that (just about) stayed on the right side of believable.
As series two starts, Max (Mark Bonnar) is back in Edinburgh after a spell away (which I won’t reveal in case you want to watch the first series first) and is soon up to his neck in trouble.
A rare treat from BBC Scotland.
Covid threat for designs
Building a house on Grand Designs is hard enough, but coronavirus has added an extra layer of jeopardy to proceedings.
As the date of the projects edges towards March 2020, the age of Covid, it feels a little like a ticking timebomb.
So when things are going terribly, the concrete hasn’t turned up, budgets are disintegrating and it’s only September 2019, my heart goes out to them.
You ain’t seen nothing yet …
Film of the week: No Sudden Move (Sky Premiere)
Director Steven Soderbergh may have announced his retirement from film-making several years ago, but thankfully he seems to have softened on that position.
No Sudden Move is his latest film made during this ‘retirement’ and it’s his best for years.
In some ways it feels a lot like Fargo (or the spin-off series), in that it starts with a seemingly simple crime – in this case holding an accountant’s family hostage while documents are stolen from an office safe – that goes pear-shaped, thanks to a combination of criminal incompetence and treachery.
The all-star cast, including Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta and Kieran Culkin, have tremendous fun within the confines of the pulpy 1950s setting.
Soderbergh has made some great crime capers in his career and this is up there with the best.