I haven’t heard about this show...where can I find it???
It's indicative of how this season has connected with me that it was over lunch a few minutes ago---three days after it aired---that I said to myself oh, yeah, I should check out the NYT piece on episode 2---unlike True Detective this season where I was frantically refreshing within hours to get some insights and maybe engage fellow viewers.
If that's too convoluted, let me clearer---it's boring, repetitive and predictable and still about distasteful people. Bobby is ruthless! Taylor is a genius! Chuck is hapless/brilliant/hapless/brilliant and on and on.
Look, when the big character development is that Mafee is as big a jerk as everyone else, a strong case could be made that the show is running out of ideas. But as someone else noted, the show usually picks up several episodes in so I'll likely stick around, but it's DVR-fodder now for when I get to it, not must-see HBO.
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@Steve Judd "Showtime", of course, not "HBO".
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Enjoyable episode. As always, the show preens, saunters and struts like a peacock with brilliant word play and turn-of-dime plot machinations, but in the end, is there anything really going on here that we haven't already seen in the first three seasons? Indulge me here: Some years ago I explained to a friend the difference between the soap opera shows Dynasty and Thirtysomething. Dynasty, seemed to me, was a show about people who, almost robotically, keep making the same mistakes over and over and never learn; Thirtysomething, on the other hand, was about characters who are painfully aware of their mistakes and desperately trying not to make the same ones over again. Billions, being a bit schizoid, will act like Dynasty for the first several episodes of the seasons, then when everything hits the fan and the chips fall, will turn into Thirtysomething, for the last two or three episodes with much soul searching and contrition. The show needs a new arc.
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Used to love this show. Now it seems to be written and/or broadcast in a foreign language. It's not entertainment when a viewer needs to read a NYT column the next day to try to understand what was going on.
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This show, and this episode in particular, horribly stereotypes Asian and Asian American men as emasculated.
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Is it just me or is there a striking similarity between Rebecca Cantu and Axe's ex-wife? Both are beautiful, blonde, smart, self assured and can hold their own against anything Axe throws their way.
7
Yes, blonde, attractive, tough and street smart. I think it would be a real turn in for Axe to be involved with a woman in his field who he respects as a peer, or as close to it as Axe would think anyone could be.
4
Thank you Sean for making sense of some of the plot which goes over my head when its too business technical, (though generally I don't need a recap to school plots...I hope they dumb it down a bit.) For the first time in 4 years I was texting and playing Words with Friends...personally, I'm bored. Loved Nina Arianda in Goliath and am enjoying her going toe to toe, literally, with Bobby. A delight! John Malkovich's Russian accent is as bad and distracting as Mickey Rooney's Asian landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Awful! Wasn't Chuck kicked out of his job for egregious handling of his public duties? Is an AG run even feasible? And lastly, if I never heard a peep about Wendy and Chuck's sex life again, I'd be thrilled.
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@DD Chuck was bounced from his job because he took a shot at the Attorney General and missed. His people sold him out, following his tutelage.
3
Thank you! I forgot 😊.
3
@DD When I hear his Russian accent all I can think of is his role 20 years ago in Rounders, Teddy KGB. And amusingly the police chief was his enforcer in that movie.
Once again, I delight in the well-written banter that is so excellently delivered by these actors. So glad that the wonderful stage actress Nina Arianda is part of this mix going toe to toe with Bobby (as scene partners etc). Also love the fact that we are getting more and more Bobby-Chuck scenes which I would argue DOES continue to develop each of their characters.
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@JD The banter is rich. Where else would I be exposed to concepts like zugzwang?
At the same time, the allusions I don't understand cause my attention to drift. Sports metaphor? Don't get it. Heavy metal reference? Aversive shudder while I wait for the next high-falutin' game metaphor. Money management details: I'm curious, fascinated and may even go so far as to research.
But then gems like zugzwang entice and delight.
There's a player-cool quality constantly playing out which is always either engaging and/or annoying me; this dynamic, for me, forms the crux of the experience of watching Billions.
4
Kudos for the continuing arcane cultural references; the season premiere - "Chucky Rhoades's Greatest Game" a tip of the hat to William Kennedy's "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" (Billy Phelan's name used by Chucks father to make a point) and last night Wendy's referencing the characters Neil McCauley and Waingro from the movie "Heat" to make her own point.
At least one in each episode since the series began; I can't get enough.
6
"And both men are addicted to power, plain and simple — it’s their arousal template."
Beautiful.
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@nancyA But not for Chuck in the bedroom...
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@@NancyC
Your screen name seems strangely familiar.
About the Arousal Template (just noticed that's the episode name): Do you think that therefore the observation is neither plain nor simple?
An example of this complex nature seems embodied in the character of Wendy. NY Money world is about posturing to acquire various types of power. The characters are constantly talking about how they interpret the other character's attempts to manipulate them.
We've seen a fundamental tension morph into something else; the Bobby-Wendy-Chuck triangle no longer rests on a Wendy fulcrum. Bobby and Chuck deal directly with each other.
Does this somehow pertain to Wendy's prurient interest in trader Bonnie's sexual power dynamics? Bonnie seems to thinks so. The episode ends with Wendy taking Bonnie's advice as she vents her sexual frustration in a run.
Arousal is tricky to master, satisfy, manage in this world where everyone seems to want so many, many, many things.
3
Note that in this episode someone tells Taylor that the Kozlovs not only order murders, they sometimes do the murders themselves.
That will likely prove to be important late in this season.
Taylor is digging herself deeper and deeper.
15
@fast/furious
Spot on observation!
I don't recall - was anyone ever murdered on "Billions"? Just wondering what will happen to Taylor for I fear that character will not survive. She is getting in over her head more and more.
3
@fast/furious I concur. And, btw, Taylor is digging themself deeper and deeper (not herself).
5
@Lee G Except that Taylor basically told Grigor to take out the Koslovs. They are not such good friends, it turns out.
3
In the first three seasons, there was a good balance between characters and plot. We wanted to know in equal measure who they are and what will happen to them. Now, for whatever reason, plot is king and, at least so far this season, we aren’t really learning anything new about the principal characters. The show can’t exist on pure plot. I wonder if this is the final season?
17
@Mark Siegel It’s LIFETIME! It’ll run 7, 8, maybe nine years. Until Bobby flees to the great Northwest and becomes a lumberjack
2
@Philip Panasci I think it's on Showtime.
7
He’s a lumberjack and he’s ok? I think of The Sopranos, maybe the most brilliant show ever on TV, and recall learning new things about Tony, Carmella and the rest in each episode. Character and plot were balanced. Not on Billions, which is a very good but not a great show.
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