Category: Poll

Face Punching and Car Crushing

by Kyle McGovern | Newsweek | May 31, 2020

Episode Five: Contract

To celebrate the show’s compelling brand of absurdity, we’re keeping track of the most Billions-y things that happen on Billions this season. For highlights from the latest episode, brace yourselves and head below.

Bryan Connerty Returns to Sock Chuck in the Face

Remember when Toby Leonard Moore’s Bryan Connerty—Chuck’s former-protégé-turned-bitter-rival—got busted breaking into Chuck Senior’s safe at the end of last season? As part of an extremely elaborate scheme set up by Chuck, who knew that Connerty would break the law to try and bust Chuck on anything he could? Well, that’s landed Connerty in prison, which is why we haven’t seen him this season—that is, until this most recent episode.

Continue reading The Most Billions-y Things That Happened on Billions Season 5, Episode 5 – May 31, 2020

Buff Artist Frank Grillo Steals the Show

by Miles Surrey | The Ringer | May 25, 2020

First, an apology: We didn’t do any superlatives for last week’s episode of Billions. Too many other things got in the way—like reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the Game of Thrones series finale, a show that is way worse than Billions, and celebrating the 15-year anniversary of Revenge of the Sith, the greatest movie ever made. But I understand if you’re upset enough to want to string me up in Chuck Rhoades’s BDSM dungeon or force me to chug Ice Juice. Totally normal recourse for skipping out on some sweet, sweet content. I get it.

But let’s focus on the positives. Billions is settling into another ridiculous groove, introducing Buff Artist Frank Grillo—the character’s name is Nico Tanner, but going forward he will be known here only as Buff Artist Frank Grillo—in the third episode doing some paintings for Axe on commission. I truly cannot believe this show added Frank Grillo—a gruff character actor from the Purge franchise and a couple Captain America movies whose whole vibe screams “law enforcement/mercenary” and decided to make him paint. My brain would never arrive at this conclusion, which is precisely why I’m not a staff writer for Billions (yet!).

Continue reading Billions Superlatives “Opportunity Zone” – May 25, 2020

Snowflakes and Secret Alliances

by Kyle McGovern | Newsweek | May 24, 2020

Episode Four: Opportunity Zone

To celebrate the show’s compelling brand of absurdity, we’re keeping track of the most Billions-y things that happen on Billions this season. For highlights from the latest episode, brace yourselves and head below.

A Lot of “Snowflake” Talk This Week!

Well, this is a bummer: Season 5’s fourth episode features more than a few swipes at so-called “snowflakes.” The first comes early, during a sit-down between Axe and Asia Kate Dillon’s Taylor Mason, the latter of whom has been feeling off their game all season long and is currently at odds with Axe over the way he pounced at a recent oil deal. (Gonna be real: The specifics of the oil subplot are a little beyond us.) Maggie Siff’s Wendy calls Axe into her office to speak with Taylor and clear the air. He opens with a charmer: “I’m sorry, Taylor, that you’re in snowflake-mode.” That’s one!

Continue reading The Most Billions-y Things That Happened on Billions Season 5, Episode 4 – May 24, 2020

Everything’s Transactional On Billions. Even Family.

by Kyle McGovern | Newsweek | May 17, 2020

Showtime’s Billions takes place in a reality all its own. Technically that’s true of pretty much every work of fiction, but it feels especially so for the show created by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin.

The whole series is a high-stakes pissing contest that’s dressed up like a prestige TV drama set in the world of New York finance. Really, though, Billions takes place in a different, even more heightened world—one where stock bros and members of the federal law enforcement are hyper-articulate and as fluent in sports and film references as they are in obscene insults.

Imagine a world where splashy cameos, extravagant dining and skullduggery are par for the course. Think of a place where people are constantly seduced by power, prone to operatic levels of pettiness and vulnerable to what the NBA’s Pat Riley has called “the Disease of More,” to throw in a Billions-esque shoutout. Picture a reality where Paul Giamatti is not only the Attorney General of New York, but also an out (and somewhat proud) member of the BDSM community. Consider the existence of a realm where John Malkovich is a Russian billionaire and speaks in the same thicker-than-whiteout-conditions accent that he had as Teddy KGB in the 1998 film Rounders—not a coincidence, since Koppelman and Levien wrote Rounders. Try to believe that Damian Lewis could somehow be from Yonkers. Once you’ve done all that, then you’ll have an idea of what goes on in the world of Billions.

And to celebrate the show’s compelling brand of absurdity, we’re keeping track of the most Billions-y things that happen on Billions this season. For highlights from the latest episode, brace yourselves and head below.

Continue reading The Most Billions-y Things That Happened on Billions Season 5, Episode 3 – May 17, 2020

“No, it’s torture!”

by Miles Surrey | The Ringer | May 11, 2020

Ever since HBO’s Succession came into our lives, it’s seemed to exist in a symbiotic relationship with Showtime’s Billions. I can’t recommend one without the other. Both series aim to derive a lot of drama, comedy, and pathos from the misery inherent to succeeding the world of finance, power brokers, and the justice system. Billions might glamorize the 1-percent lifestyle a bit more than its HBO counterpart, but they both underscore that being rich is a soul-draining enterprise. And sometimes these shows do the same things on screen—like watching characters indulge in some ortolan.

In the second episode of Billions’ fifth season, we have another sort-of shared event. Just as Succession Season 2 did a riff on real-life conferences/pseudo-retreats for the wealthy, like Davos, “The Chris Rock Test” provided its own equivalent, an event hosted by Bobby Axelrod’s newest foe, the performatively woke billionaire Mike Prince. (The conference appears to be named after Mike, because humility is overrated.) Somehow, that wasn’t the most absurd thing that happened in the episode—you’ll find out why soon enough. Let’s not waste another minute and dive into this week’s Billions superlatives.

Continue reading Billions Superlatives “The Chris Rock Test” – May 11, 2020

A Wedding, a Divorce, and an Ayahuasca Trip

by Miles Surrey | The Ringer | May 4, 2020

Television always has been an essential respite from the stress and daily grind of our lives. After a long day, sometimes you just want to kick back and watch some dumb robots fight each other while Aaron Paul looks very confused, or see two normal people have an on-and-off relationship for a few years. Me? I want nothing more than to unwind while watching brilliant thespian Paul Giamatti telling a bunch of reporters that his character engages in consensual BDSM with his adoring wife who whips him into submission. That is but a taste of what transpires on Showtime’s Billions: a rich, simile-loving text, and perhaps my biggest guilty pleasure on the small screen.

Under normal circumstances, I’d prepare for a new season of Billions like an upper middle class kid waiting to open presents on Christmas morning knowing Papa has provided everything on the wish list. But the COVID-19 pandemic putting a halt to things like interacting with other human beings has made the return of Chuck Rhoades, Bobby Axelrod, and their perpetual dick-swinging contest into something more than just a show that I want. It will be a spiritual journey. I plan to inhale the fifth season of Billions with the type of intensity and detail usually reserved for a smash hit like Game of Thrones (before it turned to utter shit), and there’s nothing that can stop me.

Let’s celebrate the return of Billions with some superlatives from Sunday night’s premiere, “The New Decas.”

Continue reading Billions Superlatives “The New Decas” – May 4, 2020