Recap – Page 3 – Damian Lewis

Billions Season 7, Episode 3 Recap: Confidence Games

On August 25, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Mike Thinks He Sets a Trap for a Certain New U.S. Attorney

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | August 25, 2023

Season 7, Episode 3: ‘Winston Dick Energy’

Chuck Rhoades is a man of action — most of the time. His proprietary blend of intellect and emotion is what made him the man he is today; his best friend and newly hired deputy U.S. attorney, Ira (Ben Shenkman), tells him this in so many words.

But that combination has unmade Chuck several times over, and he’s not the only one who knows it. His protégé turned foe, Kate Sacker, tells her boss Mike Prince that Rhoades’s emotion is what stops him from harnessing his full intelligence, which is every bit the equal of hers or Mike’s. So when Kate and company proffer a filing for a political super PAC to back Prince’s presidential campaign — a deliberate provocation meant to keep Chuck’s operations in plain sight — Chuck does not bite.

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From The Trader’s Desk: Everyone’s Playing 3-D Chess!

On August 25, 2023September 28, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Billions Season 7 Episode 2 ‘Original Sin’

by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | August 25, 2023

Got no religion, don’t need no friends
Got all I want and I don’t need to pretend
Don’t try to reach me, ’cause I’ll tear up your mind
I’ve seen the future and I’ve left it behind
Supernaut – Black Sabbath

Happy Friday from “From the Trader’s Desk”.

Axe is living it up in an absolutely stunning castle in the north of England. If you need to be in exile, well that is the way to do it! Besides the chip off the old block Gordie, Axe has no friends with him; he’s got all he wants and he don’t need to pretend! But does he really?

Let’s get into “Original Sin”….

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Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Season 7 Episode 2 Original Sin Recap

On August 21, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Freedom, Plotting, and the Power of Cowboy Boots

by Kyle Fowle| Entertainment Weekly | August 20, 2023

Axe has a castle. I mean, of course Axe has a castle. As the second episode of the season kicks off, Wags (David Costabile), Wendy (Maggie Siff), and Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) are visiting Axe (Damian Lewis) in England in an attempt to persuade him to come back to the United States and prevent Prince (Corey Stoll) from becoming president. The four of them spend much of the episode walking around Axe’s massive estate, which he has managed to create during his time in exile, and having conversations in shadowy halls and rooms. The pitch? Axe surely can’t be happy about how Prince is running the company he used to own, the one he built from the ground up, and he must be itching to come back and defeat his nemesis. The thing is, Axe might not have the same motivations.

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Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 2: Original Sin

On August 19, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Redemption

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | August 19, 2023

Two episodes in and my head is still spinning. ‘Original Sin’ reminds me of Axe’s trading style that Mafee talks about in the season premiere: Fast. Aggressive. Sure-footed. And I applaud the writers’ room and everyone behind and in front of the camera for this brilliant episode they give us with redemption or lack thereof at its heart in all different shapes and forms. I also want to take a moment here to express my support for the on-going strike. I so hope it puts a full stop to the big studios’ greed. Best of luck.

Now on to the episode recap which I break down into four parts – each named after Wendy’s lost boys: Bobby, Chuck, Mike and Others 🙂

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Billions Season 7, Episode 2 Recap: The Hard Sell

On August 18, 2023August 21, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Castle Axelrod: Knights of the Round Table

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | August 18, 2023

Season 7, Episode 2: ‘Original Sin’

Who’s the most terrifying egomaniac in the series right now? It might not be Mike Prince.

A man’s home is his castle. It’s a comforting, if patriarchal and consumerist, cliché. In Bobby Axelrod’s case, it just happens to be true. His home is a castle. In this week’s episode of “Billions,” it serves as the reunion site for his Knights of the Round Table, on a mission to bring their Arthur back from Avalon and take up the sword once more.

The target of this trio of do-gooders — one of them a guy who may never have done good before in his life, mind you — is the would-be future leader of the free world, Mike Prince. Wendy, Taylor and Wags have all come to the conclusion that keeping Prince out of the Oval Office is even more important than, get this, making money. They all make this case to their old boss in turn, each employing a different strategy and skill set, each yielding the same result: He’ll pass.

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Billions Season 7, Episode 2 ‘Original Sin’ Recap

On August 18, 2023August 21, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

It Aint Me, Babe

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | August 18, 2023

We’re still a long way off from figuring out what Wendy Rhoades did to cause Mike Prince to break stuff last week.

By the end of “Original Sin,” the initial delight of seeing Wendy and the old Axe Cap gang practically skip off into the London night had faded into a portrait of gloom. Not surprisingly, an utterly dejected Rebel Alliance — Wendy, Wags, and Taylor — returned to the United States, as Axe refused their plea to help them bring down Mike Prince.

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From The Trader’s Desk: Guess Who’s Back, Back Again?

On August 18, 2023September 28, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Billions Season 7 Episode 1 ‘Tower of London’

by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | August 18, 2023

Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty without me

Without Me -Eminem

Hello and welcome back to the Trader’s Desk. I won’t lie – I didn’t think we would be back here again, sharing our Friday’s discussing Billions, but I am so glad we are!

I will most certainly get back to quoting heavy metal lyrics to begin my posts (as one does) but to start us off, the above lyrics from Eminem just seem so right.

A job needs to be done that only Axe can do, and things just did feel very empty with The Big Man!

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Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 1: Tower of London

On August 13, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Return of the King

by Damianista | Fan Fun With Damian Lewis | August 13, 2023

Advance Warning: This is a long review. I wanted to touch upon everything that happened in the season premiere because it sets the tone for the season…and I also wanted to re-visit a thing or two from Season 6 as a refresher. I just missed writing about this show so much! So please bear with me. One episode in and my mind is spinning. Season 7 may turn out to be the most Billions-y Billions we have ever seen! My one word review for the season premiere: WHOA. Longer version follows. ENJOY!

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Billions Premiere Recap

On August 13, 2023August 14, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Axe is Back, Baby!

by Kyle Fowle| Entertainment Weekly | August 13, 2023

The final season of Billions begins with a loud crash and a flurry of F-bombs. After a brief recap of the previous season, we pick up with Michael Prince (Corey Stoll) storming out of the elevator at Michael Prince Capital. His face is pure anger. He makes a beeline for the reception desk and asks his employee to find Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff). When he learns that she’s actually in the office and not hiding from him, he’s livid, as if her mere presence disgusts him. Prince strides with purpose and grabs a monitor off a table and throws it through the glass walls of Wendy’s office. Stepping in, he shouts, demanding to know why she thinks he’s so unfit to run for president.

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Billions Season-Premiere Recap

On August 12, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Rebel Alliance

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | August 12, 2023

It’s been roughly one year and four months since the season-six finale of Billions — a finale I dubbed “The Biggest Losers.” And if the seventh season premiere is any indication, my sentiments toward most of the Billions characters haven’t changed much. In many respects, with this being the final season of the Showtime financial-crime drama, it’s unavoidable that we want to know which one of these megalomaniacs will “win.” Will it be patrician “man of the people” Charles Rhoades, Jr., whose quest to put corrupt finance bros behind bars increasingly belies his own power-hungry objectives? Will it be boy-next-door billionaire Mike Prince, whose presidential bid echoes that of another frightening dark horse candidate? Will it be Billions’ prodigal son Bobby “Axe” Axelrod — newly returned to the series after evading federal charges in the season-five finale? Or will it be Dr. Wendy Rhoades, Axe’s onetime confidante and apparently the only person in the Billions universe capable of noticing Prince’s budding demagoguery?

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Billions Season 7 Premiere Recap: Axe is Back

On August 11, 2023August 12, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

A Certain Redheaded Maniac Returns

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | August 11, 2023

Season 7, Episode 1: ‘Tower of London’

He’s back.

Bobby Axelrod, the hard-charging, take-no-prisoners billionaire who served as the antagonist-cum-co-protagonist for the first five seasons of “Billions,” returns at the end of the show’s seventh and final season premiere. Like a demon out of an esoteric’s grimoire, Axe (Damian Lewis) has been summoned by three of his closest associates — Wendy (Maggie Siff), Wags (David Costabile) and Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) — to rise from legally mandated oblivion in order to defeat a devil far worse than the devil we know.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Billions’ Season 7 on Showtime

On August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

The Final Run For the Drama About Financial Elites and
Those That Operate Against Them

by Johnny Loftus | Decider | August 11, 2023

The trading floor is almost closed for Billions, which returns to Showtime for its seventh and final season. (The series will stream Fridays on Paramount+ and Showtime before dropping broadcast episodes on Sunday evenings.) Will Americans say “I Like Mike” in 2028? Can Michael Thomas Aquinas Prince even move up his timeline for the presidency by channeling his particular deca-billionaire mojo?

What kind of juice does Chuck Rhoades retain, and is it enough to stop Prince? Or does this evolving war require its dark horse? That’s right, the biggest get for Billions’ final bow is the return of Damian Lewis as Robert “Bobby” Axelrod, which as season 7 begins will involve some detective work from Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades.

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