Category: Billions

Categories Billions Review

What the Rest of TV Can Learn from Billions – July 14, 2018

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The Showtime Drama is Built for Speed – and All the Better For It

by Alan Speinwall | RollingStone | June 14, 2018

Source: Showtime

The midpoint of Billions Season 3 featured a huge moment for the series to date: the Showtime drama’s arch-rivals, U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and hedge fund mogul Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis), facing each other across a dining room table and, with the help of Chuck’s wife/Axe’s therapist Wendy (Maggie Siff), acknowledging that they needed to join forces against a common enemy.

In today’s ultra-serialized drama landscape, it’s the kind of scene that almost any other show would have saved for the very end of its season finale, or the penultimate episode at the latest. Billions actually repeated this dynamic in its own finale, which we’ll get back to, but that it happened as early as Episode 6 was striking. Too many other shows that consider each season “a 13-hour movie” would have built the whole thing around that meeting, throwing complication after complication at Chuck, Wendy and Axe so that it would happen as close to the end of the year as possible, and that sense of wheel-spinning would have been palpable.

Continue reading What the Rest of TV Can Learn from Billions – July 14, 2018

Categories Billions Recap

Billions on Showtime 3.12: Elmsley Count – June 14, 2018

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“Young lungs, so yeah.”

by JaniaJania | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | June 14, 2018

Source: Showtime

It’s cap raise time for Axe Cap and everyone gets more than they bargained for in Billons Season 3, Episode 12, “Elmsley Count”. The season finale promises to be a doozy with so many threads to tie up.

Taylor is arriving late to the event. Before the uber gets there, they have a sit-down with Andolov, who in all his gross creepy generosity concedes that he would, then asks them to prognosticate on what newly minted Taylor Mason Cap can do for him.

At the cap raise, Axe fluffs up the allocators, then has Taylor deliver the money shot. They promise to take care of the money transparently.

All the mysteries revealed.

Axe takes his people to see The Hold Steady at the Hammerstein Ballroom and delivers chaste kisses of celebration to Wags and Wendy.

Continue reading Billions on Showtime 3.12: Elmsley Count – June 14, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media

The Best TV Shows of 2018 (So Far) – June 13, 2018

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Top 30 TV Shows: Billions Ranks Number 10

by Staff | Complex | June 13, 2018

#10
Network: Showtime
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Maggie Siff

After a widely-loved second season, it felt like the one show everyone thought was underrated was Showtime’s Billions. With season two delivering a masterclass in fucking people over for its finale, this latest season had big shoes to fill; the finale might not have had much of an oomph, but that doesn’t negate an excellent third season. One of the beautiful things about Billions this year is that it decided to highlight what happens when these power-hungry hedge fund investors affect the world around them. With the way of the world today, it’s a piece that can, at times, feel all too real that wasn’t necessarily examined in prior seasons and ends up making this series a vital must-watch. —khal

Read the rest of the top 30 at Complex

Categories Billions Review

How Showtime’s Billions Went From Dull to Dazzling – June 12, 2018

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Improbably, a series seemingly about rich white guys measuring their dicks is an essential show of our era. (Okay, maybe not that improbable)

by Todd VanDerWerff | Vox |June 12, 2018

If you’ve been following the world of TV Twitter this spring, you probably know that a certain subset of this nation’s great, professionally paid TV viewers has gone a little goofy for Showtime’s Billions. Observe!

Continue reading How Showtime’s Billions Went From Dull to Dazzling – June 12, 2018

Categories Billions Review

How Billions Became One of TV’s Sharpest Critiques of Power – June 11, 2018

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“As a Saga of Glittering Financial Warfare, Billions is Seemingly Lab-Engineered to Appeal to the Very People it Claims to be About”

by Helen Rosner | The New Yorker | June 11, 2018

Source: Showtime

For nearly three seasons, the Showtime drama “Billions” has been structured as a classic cat-and-mouse tale, a story of attack and defense between the impossibly powerful U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and his nemesis, the impossibly powerful hedge-fund billionaire Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis). Chuck pursues an exhaustive federal case against Axelrod and his fund, Axe Capital, driven less by any direct evidence of wrongdoing than by a dogged jealousy—Chuck’s wife, Wendy (played, with beautifully deadpan intelligence, by Maggie Siff), is an employee of Axe Capital and one of Axelrod’s most intimate confidantes. There is, of course, plenty of wrongdoing for Chuck to uncover (“Billions” takes as axiomatic Honoré de Balzac’s observation that behind every great fortune is a great crime), and Axelrod uses his considerable financial resources twisting the world in knots to avoid being grazed by the sword of the righteous. On Chuck’s side, the game involves shady evidence-gathering tactics, flagrant witness manipulation, and copious back-room dealmaking. On Axe’s side, bottomless pockets are used to reward friends, eliminate problems, and settle old scores. Flying private to hang out with Metallica? You got it. Planting a camera in a government employee’s bedroom in order to blackmail her with a sex tape so that she’ll hand over inside information on Chuck’s case? Consider it done. (Spoilers abound from here on in. If you haven’t started watching the show yet but plan to start: yes, the first scene of the first episode is off-puttingly corny. It gets a whole lot better from there.)

Continue reading How Billions Became One of TV’s Sharpest Critiques of Power – June 11, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Superlatives: Best, Worst, Most from S3E12 Finale – June 11, 2018

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Town Scooters, Spanx, and Face Slaps

by Miles Surrey | The Ringer | June 11, 2018

Source: Showtime

Here is the best, worst, and most from the final episode of Season 3

The penultimate Billions episode of this great third season ended with a meteoric mic drop: Taylor was setting up their own firm and leaving Axe Capital. That’s the kind of emphatic moment that could’ve ended the season then and there, but Billions had plenty more strings to pull in the Season 3 finale, “Elmsley Count.” The episode title refers to a sleight-of-hand trick that magicians can use with a stack of cards, so the show wasn’t exactly being subtle: You knew some deceptive shit was about to go down.

“Elmsley Count” lived up to its name—there were several moments when I made involuntary, somewhat inhuman squeals over truly shocking narrative twists, and also because Russian oligarch John Malkovich slapped a dude in the face. I love this show so much. Let’s celebrate it one more time this year and break down the finale superlatives.

Fanciest Car

Continue reading Billions Superlatives: Best, Worst, Most from S3E12 Finale – June 11, 2018

Categories Billions Recap

Billions Wraps Season with High-Stakes Double Crosses – June 10, 2018

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The Dog-Eat-Purebred-Dog World of Billions

by Brian Lowry | CNN | June 10, 2018

Source: Showtime

In the dog-eat-purebred-dog world of “Billions,” the fastest way to flip the script is to engineer a shift in existing alliances. The producers did precisely that in the niftily choreographed third-season finale, setting the stage for a pair of juicy plot lines in the season ahead.
Granted, the surprises couldn’t quite match the operatic highs of last season’s finishing twist, which saw U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) sell out various people around him — including his own father — in his headlong pursuit of bringing down hedge-fund wizard Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis).

Continue reading Billions Wraps Season with High-Stakes Double Crosses – June 10, 2018

Categories Billions Review

Billions Season 3 Awards – June 10, 2018

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MVP, LVP, ROTY, CPOY, and Finale MVP, LVP

by Alec Hare | The Breakshot | June 10, 2018

Season 3

Wow. What a season! In Billions Season 3, the plot went left when we thought it would go straight and it went up when we thought it was going to go down. The showrunners pivoting the plot at every turn made this season unpredictable and fun. The season was basically two different seasons as the show resets in the middle. Not to mention in Season 4 we will be getting the return of the big three Chuck, Wendy, and Axe. Enough of that, it’s time to hand out Billions Season 3 Awards!!

Continue reading Billions Season 3 Awards – June 10, 2018

Categories Behind the Scenes Billions Dining Guide Food/Dining

Billions Dining Guide, Season 3 – June 10, 2018

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What the Fork?

by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | June 10, 2018

Source: Showtime

It is no secret that one of my favorite things about my favorite show is how it showcases the New York dining scene from hole-in-the-walls and neighborhood gems, to Michelin-starred restaurants. In case you missed previous season Dining Guides, here is the information about restaurants appearing on the show for Season 1 and Season 2. Continue reading Billions Dining Guide, Season 3 – June 10, 2018

Categories Audio Billions Broadcast Media Podcast

Recappables Podcast: Billions S3E12 Finale – June 10, 2018

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The Ringer Staff Discusses the Third Season Finale Over Red Wine and a Foosball Table

by Mallory Rubin, Sean Fennessey and Alison Herman | The Ringer | June 10, 2018

Source: Showtime

The Ringer’s Mallory Rubin, Sean Fennessey, and Alison Herman get together over a foosball table and some red wine to celebrate the Season 3 finale of ‘Billions.’ They talk about Chuck’s downfall (6:54), the way Connerty and Taylor are becoming their former mentors (19:16), and their predictions for Season 4 (42:59).

Elmsley Count

Source: The Ringer

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Season 3, Episode 12 Finale Recap: Vulture – June 10, 2018

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Pest Control

by Nicole Cliffe | Vulture | June 10, 2018

Source: Showtime

Elmsley Count

I’ll be honest: This was a real mixed bag for me! It’s a good episode (they’re all good episodes!) but as big Billions reveals go, “Elmsley Count” lacked the enjoyable punch of the Ice Juice double cross, or Donnie’s dying play, or even Axe and Chuck teaming up to save Wendy from insider trading charges. I kept waiting for a little something more to drop, and was … mildly disappointed? … when nothing did.

Even though I didn’t get the little something I particularly wanted, there were still lots of fun and shiny balls in the air, and it’s a mark of the show’s quality that I expected a few more of them to drop on someone’s foot when we least expected it. There’s been a firewall between The Axe Capital Situation and The Southern District Situation these last few episodes, in that their respective problems are not elaborately interconnected for once, and it can feel a little creaky moving from one to the other with only Wendy as a commonality.

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 12 Finale Recap: Vulture – June 10, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions Season 3, Episode 12 Finale Recap: Forbes – June 10, 2018

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Billions’ Creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien Talk Season 3 Finale

by Dana Feldman | Forbes | June 10, 2018

Elmsley Count

The season finale of Billions entitled “Elmsley Count” was a stunner! Where to begin? Two major things have happened that will make the wait for season four very difficult for diehard fans. First, Axe now knows Taylor started their own shop. To say they are enemies is an understatement. Second, Chuck has been stabbed in the back by virtually everyone he works with. As we know, though he may be down, it will not be for long.

As Showtime’s No. 2 drama series, Billions averages 4.5-to-5 million weekly viewers across platforms and the show’s viewership has grown season-over-season. Throughout season two, the series grew on Sunday nights by more than 35% from premiere-to-finale. And, the season three premiere was the show’s highest-rated ever with the March 25 debut up 23% from last year. A fourth season is in the works and seeds have been planted leading up to the finale that prove how exciting season four is going to be! The writers are already working and filming will resume in the fall. Show creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien spoke with me about the third season and why they think it was such a hit with fans. More on this below.

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 12 Finale Recap: Forbes – June 10, 2018