'Press' Episode 1 Recap: "Death Knock"

There is a phenomenon in Hollywood known as "twin films." This is when two movies (or TV series) with extraordinarily similar plots are released in the same year, by two different producers. It's not a new or surprising thing, as Hollywood is a small town. Either one person hears that a studio across the way is doing "X" project, or it's two writers inspired by the same recent events.

Press is one of these twin projects, which got underway at the BBC around the same time Succession did at HBO. Both shows were inspired by the same set of events, the Murdoch family's News International phone-hacking scandal. Both patriarch Rupert Murdoch and his son James wound up testifying in front of the Leveson Inquiry. It shone a spotlight on how U.K. papers function, as well as the internal war within the family as to who would inherit everything when Rupert retired.

Both shows premiered within weeks of each other, Succession arrived in the summer of 2018 on HBO. Press followed in the fall on BBC One.  Succession focused directly on the family drama, leaving the papers and media holdings of the "Roy" family as an "Iron Throne" to be fought over. It has become a slow-burning hit in its second season, the finale of which airs on Sunday, Oct. 13. Meanwhile, Press, which does not have a second season coming, has only finally reached American shores.