Netflix's Murdoch Dynasty Documentary Exposes Family Feuds and Media Scandals
Life imitates art in Netflix's compelling four-part documentary, Dynasty: The Murdochs, which places Rupert Murdoch and figures like Piers Morgan under a searching spotlight. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Liz Garbus, known for Harry & Meghan, this series chronicles the rise and dramatic unraveling of one of the world's most powerful media dynasties.
A Real-Life Succession Saga Unfolds
It's widely acknowledged that HBO's hit series Succession drew inspiration from the Murdoch family. In a meta twist, the clan inadvertently mirrored the fictional drama. In 2023, Elisabeth Murdoch's representative, Mark Devereux, watched Logan Roy's death on screen and feared a similar implosion among the Murdoch heirs. His memo aimed at preventing such chaos instead sparked a real-life court battle, resulting in a $3.3 billion settlement for siblings excluded when Lachlan Murdoch took control of Fox and News Corp.
Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession, couldn't have scripted it better. The documentary traces Rupert Murdoch's empire-building from its origins to this final reckoning, underscored by Succession's dissonant theme tune—a persistent motif that highlights the eerie parallels.
Insider Accounts and Chilling Revelations
Central to the documentary's impact is the wealth of insider perspectives. Though the Murdoch family declined interviews, Garbus assembles a formidable lineup of journalists and veterans, including:
- The New York Times's Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler, chroniclers of the Nevada trust battle.
- The Atlantic's McKay Coppins, who secured rare access to James Murdoch.
- Fleet Street and Australian media veterans.
Thousands of previously unseen documents, emails, and text messages paint a portrait of Rupert Murdoch—turning 95 this week—as a ruthless patriarch who raised his four eldest children as gladiators, pitting them against each other for his affection and empire.
Sleaze and Phone-Hacking Exposed
Garbus masterfully lets the sleaze breathe, delving into the salaciousness of Murdoch's tabloid operations. The phone-hacking passages are particularly chilling, with former reporters recalling methods with palpable relish. Paul McMullan, a News of the World reporter, describes stealing topless photographs of celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Carla Bruni, claiming then-editor Piers Morgan was thrilled. "On the basis of that, I got my staff job for stealing, basically," McMullan admits.
Hugh Grant makes a cameo, recalling how a reporter followed him in Los Angeles after his 1995 arrest with sex worker Divine Brown. "Life at that time was extremely difficult," Grant remembers, highlighting the invasive tactics employed.
Commercial Pressures and Family Destruction
Woven into the series is the commercial pressure that made succession urgent. By 2017, the streaming wars had redrawn the media landscape. "Fox did not have the heft to go up against Netflix, Amazon, Apple," says reporter Matthew Belloni. The subsequent Disney sale opened a schism in the family that never healed, marking Rupert's tacit admission that the world had moved faster than he had.
Just as Succession played out like a Jacobean tragedy, so does Dynasty, unfurling to a pyrrhic climax. Journalist Gabriel Sherman notes, "Rupert said his dream was to build a family business. What he built was a business that destroyed his family." This documentary offers resolution where earlier accounts, like the BBC's 2020 series, fell short, capturing the empire's intact scandals before its dramatic fall.
