THE PRETENDERS (SUCCESSION, SEASON ONE)

As soon as one must see TV drama ends its run, we tend to look for a replacement.

HBO's Mafia epic The Sopranos' fired the opening salvo in the battle to be regarded as the greatest TV drama of all time.

But when it ended its run, 'Six Feet Under,' The Wire,' 'Mad Men,' 'Breaking Bad,' 'The Killing,' 'The Bridge,' 'Line of Duty,' 'Game of Thrones,' 'Narcos' and 'Better Call Saul' all took their turns at vying for the title. 

Some have come close but David Chase's Mafia continues to reign supreme.

Some of those shows preceded the rise of streaming.

Since then, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple+, HBO Max, NowTV, Hulu, Britbox and Disney+ have given viewers an abundance of shows to choose from, forcing us to work even harder to pan for TV gold.

The current pretender to the crown of the greatest TV drama of all time, though, is 'Succession' on HBO.

Created by British writer Jesse Armstrong, who was behind the Channel 4 cult sitcom 'Peep Show,' it charts the backstabbing adventures of the obscenely wealthy and very powerful Roy clan.

A little bit modelled on the Murdochs with more than a hint of the Trumps, the Roys' empire is built on Waystar Royco - an entertainment conglomerate that includes a Fox News style channel, several newspapers and TV stations, a movie studio, theme parks and a cruise liner businesses.

At the helm is Brian Cox's Dundee-born patriarch Logan Roy - a ruthless businessman who enjoys toying with the affections of his children as much as his senior business executives.

The start of the series finds him, however, at his most vulnerable as he enters his advancing years.

As the family gathers to celebrate Logan's 80th birthday, the belief is that he is about to slide into retirement.

Jeremy Strong's cocaine addicted son Kendall Roy is the favourite to inherit his father's throne.

The second son of Logan, he is separated from his estranged wife Natalie Gold's Rava, son Iverson and daughter Sophie.

However he fancies himself as a corporate shark with his fin on the pulse of digital media.

Sarah Snook's Siobhan "Shiv" Roy cannot be discounted either, even though she sits outside the family business.

Shiv works for Eric Bogosian's left leaning Bernie Sanders-style politician, the Pennsylvania Senator Gil Eavis who is seeking the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination.

She appears to have her father's respect despite working for a politician who would be an ananthema to him. 

Shiv still retains a connection to the family business though - going out with Matthew Macfadyean's desperate Waystar Royco executive, Tom Wambsgans.

Kieran Culkin's Roman Roy - a child from Logan's second marriage is a smart arse who is regarded by his dad as too immature to hold a serious senior role in the company.

The oldest sibling, Alan Ruck's Connor appears not to be all that interested in the family business, preferring to leave it to the others to squabble over the spoils while he spends his time with his ex call girl, actress girlfriend Justine Lupe's Willa Ferreyra on his ranch in New Mexico.

Along with Logan's third wife, Hiam Abbass's Marcia and Nicholas Braun's grand nephew Greg Hirsch, the family gathers to pay homage to their figurehead at his Manhattan luxury apartment.

However they are stunned when he announces he will not be retiring, with Marcia set to inherit the bulk of his fortune.

Not only that but Logan also fires his longtime ally, Peter Friedman's Chief Operating Officer Frank Vernon and gives Greg an apprentice executive role under Tom.

Still digesting all this information, the family flies out to play their traditional birthday baseball game upstate, prompting a toe curling scene where Roman humiliates a young boy by offering him a million dollars if he can hit a home run after he replaces Kendall on the team.

Kendall, meanwhile, is trying to put together a deal which would see Waystar Royco expand its empire by acquiring a media startup Vaulter, owned by Rob Yang's Lawrence Yee.

On his return to New York, Logan suffers a stroke just after Kendall has struck the deal and with the stock market anxiously watching developments, this sets in motion a tussle over who should take over Waystar Royco while its CEO lies in intensive care.

The children have concerns about anything that would result in Marcia assuming control.

They eventually agree Kendall will take it on, with Roman assuming the COO role.

Kendall is soon informed that Logan has built up debts of $3 billion following his acquisition of the theme parks and one group of creditors are keen to reclaim the full payment of the debt now that Waystar Royco's stock has fallen below 130 points.

As the company takes a pounding in the markets, Kendall unsuccessfully tries to negotiate a bank loan and then turns to Arian Moayed's Stewy Hosseini, a former friend of his college days, who is a private equity investor.

He agrees to pump $4 billion into Waystar Royco's coffers in return for a seat on the board.

However Logan has started to recover from his stroke and rather than commend Kendall for saving the company, he disapproves of the investment he has secured.

Frank is rehired to mentor Roman in his new role as COO, while Tom is handed the uncomfortable news that there has been a cover-up in the company of sexual assault and possibly murder in its cruise liner business.

While his first instinct is to flush the scandal out immediately in public, J Smith-Cameron's general counsel to the company Gerri Kellman successfully warns him at the charity gala not to do it.

As the first season progresses, Kendall's relationship with his father becomes increasingly strained, with Logan defying his children's advice not to acquire more local TV news stations.

This forces Kendall's hand to plot a vote of no confidence against his father as CEO on the basis of Logan's increasingly erratic behaviour.

This includes peeing in his bedroom and striking his grandson at a family gathering. 

Meanwhile an increasingly uneasy Greg is ordered by Tom to shred documents about the cover-up in the cruise liner business but he secretly makes copies.

With Logan's estranged, disapproving brother, James Cromwell's Ewan also being engaged to take part in Kendall's boardroom coup, the stage is set for an epic showdown.

'Succession' is not an easy drama for those who like shows with heroes.

It is cynical, savage and unforgiving. Most of the characters are dislikeable.

Yet it is all oddly compelling.

For those who adore the show - and I fall into that camp - Armstrong and his fellow writers Tony Roche, Jonathan Glatzer, Anna Jordan, Georgia Pritchett, Susan Soon He Stanton, Lucy Prebble and Jon Brown pull off the trick of keeping you invested in spite of the characters' obnoxious behaviour.

Some are more monstrous than others - with Cox's Logan Roy very much the king of the bunch.

But part of 'Succession's' genius is, depending on their shade of savagery and corruption, you will find yourself rooting for one character over another.

Cox is as impressive as ever, playing Logan like the great Shakespearean actor that he is.

While it is tempting to initially see Logan at his weakest moments as King Lear, which Cox performed alongside Ian McKellen for the National Theatre, there is much more Shakespeare in there.

In fact, there's more than a hint of Macbeth, Richard III and Iago as Logan regains his strength and appetite for destruction.

Jeremy Strong, meanwhile, trades on Kendall's vulnerability as a cocaine addict and the uncertainty of a son who is desperately trying to prove himself to his business tycoon father.

Audiences are more likely to root for him but you cannot help wondering if a ruthlessness lurks underneath the boyish awkwardness that is very much on show when Kendall is in Logan's presence.

The show's directors Adam McKay, Mark Mylod, Adam Arkin, Andrij Parekh, Miguel Arteta and SJ Clarkson make good use of the contrast in acting styles between Cox's larger than life classically trained performer and Strong's intense Method focus.

Snook is also intriguing as Shiv - playing her as ambitious while pretending not to be ambitious but also unearthing a callousness in her lack of fidelity to Tom.

Not that he's a paragon of virtue, as an episode about his stag do illustrates.

As Tom, Macfadyean wonderfully sends up white privilege and his character's desperate ambition but there is also a naivete about him as he tries to ape the Roys by bullying Greg.

Delighted to get a chance to sit at the top table by virtue of his relationship with Shiv, he fawns over Logan and the rest of the Roy family - even though you know they have little respect for him.

Culkin is a revelation as Roman - a snarky observer who wears his disdain for everyone on his sleeves.

Ruck is a quirky presence as the sibling who makes a great play about forging his own path in life but is a lot more interested in the family business than he pretends to be.

Initially Braun feels like light relief, playing Greg as a naive fool but as the season wears on, it becomes clear he is anything but. 

Like all great shows, the wider cast - Cameron, Abbass, Friedman, Yang, Moayed, Lupe, Gold, Bogosian, Cromwell and David Rasche as Waystar Royco's Chief Financial Officer Karl Muller - all make significant contributions to its excellence.

Harriet Walter also turns up as Logan's second wife, Lady Caroline Collingwood in the final two episodes, set around Shiv and Tom's wedding in England.

McKay, Mylod, Arkin, Parekh, Arteta and Clarkson direct their episodes with panache, benefitting from the dark palettes of Parekh and Patrick Capone's stylish cinematography and Mark Yokishawa's deft editing.

Like all great television dramas, 'Succession' would also be nothing without its writers and the quality of the screenplays is consistently good.

Lines like Kendall's observation about Logan: "The dinosaur is having one last roar at the meteor before it wipes him out" just leap out.

Logan's withering riposte to his Kendall's claim that he owes him nothing also hacks right into the bone: "What have you had your entire life that I didn't give you?"

Season one of 'Succession' is savage, stylish and fiercely intelligent.

And with its devastating final episode, there is plenty of material to draw upon for future seasons.

(Season One of 'Succession' aired on HBO in the United States from June 3- August 5, 2018 and on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland on August 2-October 4, 2018)