“Hey Buddha, nice Tom Fords”. Google the best lines from Succession and you’re likely to see innumerable links with the wittiest lines from Season 4 of one of the most buzzed TV shows. If you tried searching recently for Succession or Game of Thrones on your Disney+ Hotstar App, you would have hit a dead end. All the HBO content on the platform has now moved to the new JioCinema Premium. Should you sign up for the annual subscription that costs Rs 999? Here’s what you can stream if you do.
Succession: In February 2023, Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession, told the New Yorker that he was clear that his show couldn’t go on forever. A case of a production team that knows to quit when they’re on a high or going too soon? Whatever your take is, this move has only added to the chatter around the concluding season of Succession that’s currently playing on Jio. This succession saga of a media empire is loaded with clever lines, brilliant screenwriting and award-winning performances from the likes of Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox.
House of the Dragon: This is the prequel to Game of Thrones (this series begins 200 years before the events of GoT) that ruled the roost till 2019. House of the Dragon is based on parts of George R.R. Martin’s 2018 book Fire and Blood. Season 1 opened to positive reviews and built on the huge viewership numbers of Game of Thrones. Season 2 is not due until 2024 but if you need your dragon fix, you can revisit Season 1 or watch Game of Thrones all over again.
Rabbit Hole: If you enjoyed 24, there’s a good chance you will dig Kiefer Sutherland’s newest thriller that debuted on Paramount+ in the US. Sutherland is John Weir, a corporate espionage expert who is drawn deep into a major conspiracy. The theme may be overdone — another plan to undermine American democracy — but it’s the treatment with interesting twists and turns that makes it a must watch. The first episode sets the tone and then you fall into a rabbit hole of conspiracies.
White House Plumbers: They were supposed to protect the presidency but end up toppling the President. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, President Richard Nixon’s operatives who were tasked with plugging press ‘leaks’ by any means deemed necessary. The last episode in this five-part satirical mini-series aired on May 29 and opened to mixed reviews. But the performances of Harrelson and Theroux have won over critics and viewers alike.
Mare of Easttown: If you missed this seven-episode mini-series on Hotstar, it’s never too late to catch it. Kate Winslet plays Marianne ‘Mare’ Sheehan, a detective investigating a murder in a small town near Philadelphia while coping with ghosts from her past. It’s probably Winslet’s career-best performance and it’s likely to become the template for a crime series fronted by a female detective. Kareena Kapoor has already revealed that her character in Hansal Mehta’s upcoming film Buckingham Murders is inspired by Mare of Easttown.
Perry Mason: Welsh actor Mathew Rhys, who plays the title role in this American period drama, sums up the noirish drama. The name might be borrowed from Erle Stanley Gardner’s famous criminal defence lawyer but the treatment is very 2023. It took almost three years for Season 2 to hit the screen in March 2023, but it was well worth the wait. You’ll love this show if you liked L.A. Confidential. Perry Mason alludes to real-life incidents that shaped LA’s pre-World War II crime landscape.
Tulsa King: Sylvester Stallone stars as Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi, a New York mafia Capo (or a ‘made member’) who’s back on the block after a 25-year prison sentence. Stallone is sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to establish a new empire there. It’s his performance in his first television series that is the highlight of Tulsa King, created by Taylor Sheridan (who also wrote the action thriller Sicario).
