BIG THANKS go to the cast and creators of Billions for giving us an hour of intelligent conversation and laughter and to Paley Center for Media for providing beautiful, intimate setting for this dream event!
source: Paley Center
A little note to our readers: Hulu is the official media sponsor of Paley Center and a few clips from the event are now available here. We will add a link later if they provide the entire event online. UPDATE December 15, 2016: If you have Hulu, you can now watch an edited version of the panel here and, as a bonus, see me at around 45 minutes and Lady Trader at around 48 minutes asking questions! 🙂
BIG THANKS go to the cast and creators of Billions for giving us an hour of intelligent conversation and laughter and to Paley Center for Media for providing beautiful, intimate setting for this dream event!
source: Paley Center
A little note to our readers: Hulu is the official media sponsor of Paley Center and Hulu subscribers will be able to access some exclusive footage or maybe the entire panel discussion here in the coming days.
Ok, let’s start with some serious warm-up: JaniaJania has storified the tweets from Billions red carpet as well as from the panel here. Enjoy it and then come back to dive deep into my almost minute-by-minute account of the evening! Continue reading “Billions ROCKS PaleyLive in New York City!”
Give me a few minutes of Billions video and I sit down and write 2000 words about it. I am as obsessed, if not more, with Billions as Axe and Chuck are obsessed with each other, and having watched the new promos here and here a few times now my head is spinning and my imagination is going wild.
“Change is coming.” You bet it is! source: Showtime
First things first: I totally know promo videos are edited in a way to trick the viewer so there is no real spoiler but just a taste of what is coming — which I LOVE. And that is why “reading” a promo video is no different than reading the tea leaves, or in my native country Turkey, the coffee cup. Still, I cannot help dive deep into these short videos and try to put the pieces together! So here is my two cents on what I expect when I am expecting Billions Season 2!
“There’s a lot of humor in this — a lot of playfulness, which I was not expecting.” — Damian Lewis on Billions
source: Showtime
Humor derived from life and delivered at the right time and place can make a TV show! And, I believe, it is Seinfeld that perfected the delivery of small but precise details of daily life on small screen! George double-dips a chip in a bowl of dip at a wake and you laugh not just because of what he does but also because you remember the guy who double-dipped at the last party you attended. Elaine’s new boyfriend is a serious close talker and you laugh because you remember the close talkers in your life. Jerry believes you don’t need any extra incentive to kill your dry cleaner and you laugh because you remember the last argument you had with your dry cleaner about the remaining stain on your favorite pants. These are the scenes that stay with you for the longest time because they all come from real life!
Many dramas, as they try hard to stick to drama, forget about this kind of humor; which, given at the right time and place, may be one of the most delicious moments of an episode and can even send a serious message home. We applaud Billions for not shying away from giving us such moments.
As much as we are in love with the fake argument scene, an original, hilarious and genius Billions moment, we are even more impressed by the minutiae of life the writers provide with the right dose of humor. Knowing that most episodes in Seinfeld are based on its writers’ real-life experiences, re-written and re-interpreted for the show’s characters, we cannot help wonder if these bits and pieces of life in Billions are also based on real-life experiences. These moments work perfectly and the lines delivered in them become standard in our own conversations!
That is why Tbkwrm and I take a tour through Season 1 and talk about our most favorite bits and pieces of life in Billions. We would love to hear about your favorites, too!
We open with the FBI raiding Donnie’s house. Donnie tells his partner to go be with the kids and hides an awful lot of pills just as the FBI come charging through the door. Donnie has a lot of pills and we were discussing the possibility that Donnie is very ill and possibly dying.
Bryan instigated this raid as he isn’t happy and wanted Donnie to know how it would feel when they come to take him to prison because he thinks Donnie is stringing them along. Donnie explains about how he is giving them Axe using the data on Kemlot. Bryan shouts him down and tells him he has a week, by the end of which, either Axe is in Federal custody or Donnie is.
Chuck and Kevin arrive at the Big Apple Circus. Kevin spots his favourite baseball player and wants to go over and get an autograph. Chuck isn’t so keen when he sees Bobby talking to him and tries to steer Kevin away, but Bobby spots them and shouts Kevin over. Chuck is less than impressed but Bobby says “never women and the children”. Bobby can’t resist a dig though after Chuck says that Mark is Kevin’s favourite player “he obviously has his mother’s instinct for people”. Ouch! That is how you punch without getting a misdemeanor!
Source: Showtime
Wendy arrives clearly stunned to find her husband and Bobby standing next to one another. There is a quick exchange of words between them before Chuck ushers the family away.
