Category: Billions

Billions: Half-Time Valuation Report

While Billions took a day off this Sunday, we stayed busy thinking about the highlights of the season so far. And here’s a Half-Time visit to all the things about this series that have made it a highlight of the cable TV this year so far.

JaniaJania:

When the Billions pilot first aired, I bemoaned the literalness of it all. The literal dick-wagging and pissing contests. Men literally horrified and driven to impulsive action by dogs getting fixed. But, even then when I called out the literal, the in-your-face straighforwardness of it all, I did not mean to imply that the show is simplistic or the writing patently obvious. Now, half-way through the season, I need to hammer home that fact: NOTHING about this show is obvious or easy. We’ve gotten more layers with every episode, more alternative readings of character motivations. We’ve had plot twists, but more interesting are the riveting psychological twists giving us new glimpses into what is driving these people to do what they do.

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Billions ep 6 – The Deal

This episode halfway thru the season opens with a scene I didn’t expect to see until series end. That’s where we start and that’s where we’re taken, into an episode that feels like a season finale. I’ll get to that starting scene in a bit. First, we must draw all hands to deck, look up and witness the King. Axe climbs up on office furniture, his head nearly grazing the dropped ceiling, and he gives his troops a war speech worthy of Patton.

Yesterday we came under attack from an unscrupulous adversary…

Unblinking, unflinching, determined righteous passion. Despite the zeal, Damian somehow keeps the speech from being over the top. It’s a rapid spitfire rallying speech, then, just as rapidly, Damian draws the energy he just exerted right back in. It’s this masterful balance between release and stillness, between exertion and absorption. Wendy watches from the sidelines and she feels the rawness too. Witness her halted breathing, and the decidedly dilated pupils watching Axe on stage, then the averted gaze as he descends and walks past her, spent. I’m making this all sound vaguely sexual aren’t I. Well, probably because it IS.

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How Keane gave us Brody and How Brody gave us Axe *UPDATED*

keanebrodybobby

I am sure that, by now, you have got to know me quite well. Yes, I’m a little bit (ok, ok more than a little bit) obsessed with Brody… All roads do not lead to Rome, they all lead to… yes, Bravo, to Brody!

Now, I love William Keane, too. I LOVE him.

Because…

Did you know that if there had been no William Keane, there would have been no Nicholas Brody? I mean there would have been some Brody in Homeland, but not our Brody! Can you imagine? Continue reading “How Keane gave us Brody and How Brody gave us Axe *UPDATED*”

Billions on Showtime, Episode 6: The Deal

The King is back. He loves what he does. He, in fact, lives and breathes what he does. Real or not, he tries his hand a bit in having the good life  — collecting fresh eggs in the morning, quality time with wife and kids, prospect of getting on his new boat and sailing to Galapagos… And maybe, just maybe, there is really a moment where he thinks there could be another life he could be living.

But the fact is Axe Capital is where the good life is for Axe.

Source: Showtime
Source: Showtime

Maybe not the perfect life as the smug on his face is gone the moment he comes eye to eye with the Windbreakers raiding Axe Capital to get to “Dollar” Bill…  But it must be something about the game that he just cannot give up… Axe advises Danzig after his “deer shooting” spree: “What drives you does not understand enough.” It’s obvious what drives Axe does not understand enough, either. Is it the adrenaline? Is it the sweet feeling of winning? What drives Axe? Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Episode 6: The Deal”

Billions ep 5 – The Good Life: Tete a Tete Sur L’Herbe

imageedit_4_8000993631Five episodes into Billions, and I’m thinking that instead of repeating a recap of the episode, already so expertly done by Damianista mere hours after the episode airs, I’ll keep these Wednesday posts to the facets I enjoy the most in any drama: the psychology and emotional reality behind the story.

We’re getting to know all characters more deeply, none more so than Robert Axelrod. Gotta say he was a bit of an ass in this episode, keeping all his most loyal confidantes out of the loop on the facts behind his supposed closing of the shop. Remember how he showed Lara his phone screen when Birch got bit at the fundraiser? And how Wags was always in on every single move Axe ever pulled?  Well, there’s no sharing of the screen here and Wags gets the brush off too, even as he’s imploring Axe with a deeply felt “Come on, you can tell me” in their one on one in the media room in Axe’s Xanadu.

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