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A Spy Among Friends
by Staff | Vulture | December 6, 2023
The small-screen British spy genre is packed with some of the most tonally diverse marvels under the sun — pick one show, and you’ll bear witness to a beautiful assassin stabbing a man to death with a needle. Pick another, and a guy is giggling his way through the silliest MI-5 training imaginable. Whatever your taste, there are spy gadgets, thrilling chases, secret identities, and twisty betrayals throughout this list of good ol’ fashioned espionage shows for your (incognito) browsing pleasure.
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A Spy Among Friends
by John Anderson | The Wall Street Journal | December 5, 2023
It wasn’t a regular year, this 2023. Writers were on strike; actors were on strike. “Succession” lurched into the grave. Martha the Medicare Lady was making people crazier than they already were. And you know what? Shingles doesn’t care.
That said, I had assumed that this retrospective examination and contemplation of TV in the year ’23 was destined to be about the new. The novel. The innovative. Which is counterintuitive, to be sure: Television is a medium—or an industry, or whatever it is—that seems passionately dedicated to the idea that viewers don’t want to feel too passionately about anything, or have their equilibrium disturbed or their worldview assaulted. Hence the flourishing business of game shows, “unscripted” celebrity-reality series and nonfiction programming about serial murderers, which are always comforting to those of us not being murdered.
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Take the Billions Tour Around New York City and Beyond
by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | December 4, 2023
As I mentioned a billion times before, Billions is a dream show for me not only because my favorite actor is in it, but also because New York, from its landmarks to its city parks and to its quirky shops, appears as a cast member in the show! As someone who feels the only home she has in the world is the city that never sleeps, I particularly love it that Billions is taking over New York, the BIG film studio that it is, and shooting all over the place, from Manhattan to Queens to Brooklyn to The Bronx to Long Island and to northern suburbs. So I have put together this Billions Season 7 Location Guide as a loving tribute to my most favorite place on earth (and also to my second favorite place on earth!) and a heartfelt thank you to the show creators for writing a love letter to the city.
Hope you pick and choose and take your own Billions tour in New York City and beyond and give us feedback – especially if you know about a location that is missing in this post! Oh, and in case you missed Fan Fun locations guide for the previous seasons, you can check them out here, here, here, here and here. And please note that many show staples like Axe Capital HQ, Chuck’s Southern District office, or Chuck Senior’s apartment were all listed in previous seasons when they first appeared. ENJOY!
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Nail-Biting Espionage
by Mike Hale | New York Times | November 29, 2023
TV in 2023 was like synchronized swimming. Below the surface, there was roiling and churn. The writers’ and actors’ strikes wiped out much of the production year. The hangover from the corporate binge on streaming platforms led to cancellations and cutbacks. A number of hall-of-fame series left the air, with no clear plan of, as it were, succession.
But above the waterline, the dance went on. As usual, it was challenging to whittle down my year-end list to 10. (So I picked 11.) As usual, I am listing it in alphabetical, not ranked order. As usual, I made it a rule not to repeat shows from the previous year, and as usual, I broke that rule. (I couldn’t not include “Reservation Dogs.”)
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Final Season DVD Release Date
by John Latchem | Media Play News | November 13, 2023
Paramount Home Entertainment will release the seventh and final season of the Showtime drama Billions on DVD January 16, 2024. A Blu-ray disc edition of Billions: The Final Season also will be available on a manufacture-on-demand basis. Billions: The FinalSeason will also offer the featurettes “Billions: Rewind” and “Billions: Notes on a Scene” as extras. “Billions: Notes on a Scene” will dive into certain scenes from the final season of the series. Get the final season from Best Buy, Amazon or Wal-mart.
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Best Box Set
by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | November 7, 2023
The Radio Times Screen Test Awards 2023 voting results are in and A Spy Among Friends won Best Box Set on Tuesday, November 7, 2023! The public was able to vote for shows in seven key categories that made them feel good and improved their wellbeing over the past year.
Congrats to all the cast and crew. We are proud of the mini-series and its accolades.
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Billions Season 7 Episode 12: ‘Admirals Fund’
by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | November 3, 2023
And bad mistakes
I’ve made a few
I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I’ve come through (and I mean to go on and on and on) We Are The Champions – Queen
All’s well that ends well. Was there any doubt that Axe, Wendy, Chuck, and the rest of the rebels would come out on top this episode? They have come through the fire and are all better for it. Even though I think we all kind of knew how the show would end, it was still satisfying. There has been many a series finale over the past few years that has had fans taking to social media and voicing their disappointment (think Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Lost) but Billions will not be one of those. This was a great ending and sendoff for a series and a cast of characters that had become near and dear to our hearts.
Back in October of 2021 at the end of Season 5, I wrote a farewell to Bobby Axelrod and to Billions, as it looked like Damian and the character of Axe had left the Billions building for good. After re-reding that post, all the sentiments still ring true. I encourage you to check it out (since it will save me from retyping it) while I focus on what I liked from “Admirals Fund”.
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Cartier Bejewels The Final Season of Billions
by Beth Bernstein | Forbes | November 2, 2023
Cartier Juste un Clou earrings in 18k yellow gold and diamonds; Cartier Juste un Clou bracelet, small model in 18K yellow gold and diamonds
For those who are both Cartier Jewelry and the Showtime series Billions enthusiasts, you will be thrilled to learn that Cartier (who has many film credits dating back to Hollywood’s Heyday) provided the jewelry for the final season of the show and the last episode which aired on October 28, 2023, The pieces were worn by Maggie Siff in her role as Wendy Rhoades, who from season one proved to be as powerful if not more so then the male characters on the show. She was hired by Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) to combine her training as a psychiatrist with an instinct and heightened understanding of human nature to help Axe Capital build its hedge fund from the ground up and worked as the company’s in-house performance coach to compel the team to ‘make more money’ for the company and step up their confidence.
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The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs
by Staff | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | November 1, 2023
Billions has sadly come to an end and so has our MVP series! Here are the final season seven Most Valuable Players for Billions to complete our series compilation, the ‘Billions MVP Fanbook.’ For one last time we commemorate all those in honor of achievement for the utmost brazen, uber shameless, ultra scheming, unmatched bad asses from the episode – from sports references, music and tasty food to pop culture remarks, shocking twists and ultimate paybacks. In case you missed it, catch up with the MVPs of the season seven premiere Tower of London, episode two Original Sin, episode three Winston Dick Energy, episode four Hurricane Rosie, episode five The Gulag Archipelago, episode six The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt, episode seven DMV, episode eight The Owl, episode nine Game Theory Optimal, episode ten Enemies List and episode eleven Axe Global.
As you probably guessed there was a lot to unpack in the series finale, and the amount of awards bestowed reflects that. Now let’s dive in one last time. Here are the Billions MVP awards for Season 7, Episode 12, series finale “Admirals Fund.”
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Celebrating Billions
by Sho_Billions | YouTube | October 30, 2023
Director Neil Burger with Damian Lewis
Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, David Costabile, Maggie Siff and the cast say goodbye to Billions, discuss share their favorite memories from set and what they’ll miss the most about working on the series.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on ‘Billions’ Creators Break Down Dual Forces Driving the Series Finale: ‘Their Souls Are in Peril’
Motives, Music and Moral Uncertainty
by Ben Travers | IndieWire | October 30, 2023
Brian Koppelman and David Levien speak to IndieWire about the motives, music, and moral uncertainty built into “Billions” final season.
“Billions” ends not with one man reigning supreme, but two titans shaking hands. Chuck (Paul Giamatti) and Axe (Damian Lewis) joined forces early in Season 7 and — despite a history filled with trickery and betrayal — remain loyal to the very end. Along with their devout team of stock traders and political savants, the duo takes down Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) and his bid for the presidency, before parting ways as friends. Chuck will continue working for the state of New York, while Axe is back behind the soon-to-be sleek desk of his hedge fund.
For a series that began with promises by both men to utterly destroy the other, some fans may be miffed that neither star is crowned as champion. But for showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the “Billions” series finale isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s an embodiment of what the series has been all along: a massively entertaining reflection of the way the world works. For every cheery, satisfied smile, there’s deeper meaning tucked within the folds. So IndieWire dialed up the co-creators to break down the ending, the final season’s big swings, and how they managed to fill “Billions” with so much beautiful music.
IndieWire: For the final season, when and why did you decide it would be best for Chuck and Axe to team up, rather than go after each other?
David Levien: We felt like the real mano-a-mano thing between Chuck and Axe reached its fullness during the end of Season 5, where neither guy lost completely, but neither guy won completely. It was like pure victories and standoffs and grudging respect for the opponent who played you to your very end. Then over the course of the sixth season, as Mike Prince started to reveal the darker hues of his character and how he could be a danger, we realized we had a formidable enough foe that these others could team up against him. In a certain way, that’s the most fun because the barbing is still there, but they have a common cause.
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The Art of the Long Con
by Miles Surrey | The Ringers | October 30, 2023
Showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien sat down to discuss the series finale, the art of the long con, and the public’s changing perspective on billionaires.
Throughout the course of Billions, characters have conspired to take down their enemies with comically elaborate schemes. It’s only natural, then, that the series finale, “Admirals Fund,” hinges on one last con. With self-made billionaire Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) shaping up to be the next POTUS, longtime adversaries Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) work together to take away the one thing that legitimizes Prince’s candidacy: his wealth.