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by Brian Koppelman and David Levien | The Ringer | May 3, 2020
Following the season premiere, Koppelman and Levien discuss the show returning for its fifth season, what a showrunner really does, the importance of season openers, and Episode 1 of Season 5 of Billions, “The New Decas” (0:20), before talking to “The Man” Becky Lynch about her cameo in Episode 1 (32:20).
Source: The Ringer
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 4, 2020
Take a look at what’s to come this season on Billions. Starring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Watch new episodes of Billions on Sundays at 9/8c on SHOWTIME.
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by Staff and Cynthia Littleton | Variety | May 3, 2020
Can the group of hardcore characters who fuel the “Billions” universe overcome their baser instincts to find success and happiness? These are the broad themes of the fifth season of “Billions,” Showtime’s twisty-turny drama series set against the backdrop of New York’s investment and high-finance community.
Brian Koppelman and David Levien, series co-creators and showrunners, join the Variety After Show, presented by National Geographic, to break down the season premiere and offer some insights about the rest of the season ahead. The opener, “The New Decas,” was penned by Koppelman and Levien and directed by Matthew McLoota.
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 3, 2020
Axe chases a play at Mike Prince’s conference. Chuck wrestles with his demons and chooses a new path. Wendy takes the lead as Axe Cap faces a threat. Taylor confronts a figure from their past. Episode airs on Sunday, May 10, 2020 on Showtime.
To view more sneak peek photos, please visit our Gallery here
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by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | May 3, 2020
Season 5, Episode 1: ‘The New Decas’
Move over, Bobby Axelrod: You’re not the only pugnacious redhead in Axe Cap’s hallowed halls anymore.
For a brief time during the wildly entertaining Season 5 premiere of “Billions,” the truculent employees of both Bobby’s company and its quasi-independent subsidiary Taylor Mason Capital unite to admire a surprise guest, the flame-haired Irish professional wrestler Becky Lynch, playing herself. (Well, technically it’s Rebecca Quin, playing the same character she plays as a professional wrestler. Wrestling is complicated like that.)
At the end of last season, Taylor Mason’s breakaway firm was brought back into the fold as part of an elaborate scheme — as if there were any other kind of scheme on this show — and tensions have been running high. After a staged fight with Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff, who one hopes will get more opportunities to beat people up on this show), Lynch tells the assembled traders about the importance of “doing the job,” of allowing oneself to be humbled in the interest of the greater good. In professional wrestling, someone needs to lose in order to maintain the illusion that what’s going is unscripted — without a loser, no one could ever win.
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by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | May 3, 2020
As everything changes, everything stays the same. The Rhoades family has been through a lot lately. Wendy and Chuck are still separated, and it’s looking like there’s no path to reconciliation. Chuck Sr. is on to another marriage, this time tying the knot with Roxane, the young woman we learned about late last season. Chuck Sr. is also a father again. That’s a lot of change, but at the same time things are staying the same: Chuck is still feuding with Axe, and Axe is still tremendously unhappy, even as his wealth continues to build.
Let’s start with Axe. He begins Billions season 5 premiere in the middle of the woods, somewhere in Alaska or perhaps Northern Canada. He’s on a trip with Wags; it’s a literal trip, as they’re puking and seeing beyond their reality while taking part in a sweat lodge ceremony. Wags talks about all the goodness in the world and Axe talks about being a king and owning everything in the world, one piece at a time. “That’s a lot of war to wage,” says Wags. It’s both terrifying and thrilling to them, and it sets the stage for this season, where once again Axe and Chuck will go head to head.
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by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | May 3, 2020
It feels like any new episodes of scripted television nowadays should come with a disclaimer. In the case of the Showtime drama Billions, I imagine it would read something like this: “What you’re about to see was written and shot before the American outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, the behavior of Billions’ main characters may come off as even more solipsistic than usual.” So if you’re gonna watch a show about the morally reprehensible activities of the uber-wealthy in what now looks like an alternate-dimension New York City, my advice is to leave reality at the door. Think of it as a reflection of recent, but not current, history. And the start of a debate over whether or not rage rooms will still be a thing post-pandemic.
Seven episodes of season five were filmed before the coronavirus forced a production shutdown. But if “The New Decas,” written by co-showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien is any indication, it’s still business as usual for the ruthless moneymakers and dubious justice warriors populating the Billions world.
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by Dana Feldman | Forbes | May 3, 2020
As many hit the wall in quarantine, wondering just how much more social isolation they can handle, a saving grace returns! Showtime’s mega-hit drama Billions is back for its highly-anticipated fifth season, which is definitely on par with the first four as far as twisting plots and ever-evolving allegiances go.
Season five opens with the episode “The New Decas” as Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) reignite their rivalry. Axe, however, may have to pick his battles carefully as a new enemy surfaces in social impact pioneer Mike Prince, played by Corey Stoll (House of Cards), who proves himself to be a surprisingly formidable opponent.
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by Damianista | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | May 3, 2020
Advance Warning: This will be a long review. I just wanted to touch upon everything that happened in the season premiere because it sets the tone for what is to come! And you know, I just love talking about this show. Hope you bear with me – ENJOY!
Massive thanks goes to Showtime for kindly releasing the BillionsSeason 5 Premiere at midnight Saturday which gave me ample time to watch the episode two times, sit down and write.
And now…
They are back! And I now know why Brian Koppelman has called this season the most Billions-y Billions! One episode in and my mind is spinning.
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by Al Shipley | Complex | May 3, 2020
At a time when TV prestige dramas often have 90-second opening credits with an epic theme song and lavish visuals, Billions on Showtime has an unusually short and simple title sequence: an ominous aerial view of Manhattan, soundtracked by a queasy low electronic pulse, in and out in about 15 seconds. The show’s score and theme music is by Eskmo, an electronic producer associated with labels like Ninja Tune and Warp Records, who puts moody, unobtrusive beds of sound under the dialogue-heavy show about powerful hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod, his company Axe Capital, and the public officials trying to catch them breaking the law. But Billions, which returns with the Season 5 premiere on May 3, has gotten increasingly flashy with its nods to music since the Season 2 scene that featured a lengthy discussion of Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett’s creative chemistry in Wilco.
Increasingly, Billions has been rife with moments where music didn’t just provide an emotional backdrop but memorable dialogue. “Dollar” Bill Stern (Kelly AuCoin) belted out the opening verse of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” when Axe Capital hatched a plan involving “the chicken man” who sets prices in the poultry industry. Politician Chuck Rhodes (Paul Giamatti) air drummed to Al Green and offered a critical breakdown of 1977’s The Belle Album. And when Attorney General Waylon Jeffcoat (Clancy Brown) tried to intimidate Rhodes’s corrupt father into a confession, he said that he has a witness “singin’ like Hank Williams the elder, tellin’ us all about your cheatin’ heart.”
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by Sam Schube | GQ | May 3, 2020
If it seems like the verbal acrobatics on Billions could only have come from a kind of writerly mind-meld, that’s because they do. Co-creators and showrunners David Levien and Brian Koppelman met at 15, and have spent the intervening years precision-honing their blend of gee-whiz plotting (Ocean’s 13) and subculture deep-diving (Rounders). Billions, their turbocharged take on the Wall Street machers running the world and the law-and-order types trying to reel them in, represents the apotheosis of both. (The journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin is also credited as a creator.)
On the one side, Damian Lewis’s Bobby Axelrod, a made-it-from-nothing master of the universe with a taste for Metallica and cashmere hoodies. On the other: Paul Giamatti’s New York AG Chuck Rhoades, the rule-bending lawman with a taste—as made public last season—for BDSM. Orbiting them is a scenery-chewing bunch of character actors, joined this year by Julianna Margulies (a professor with a bestseller about the female orgasm), Frank Grillo (a he-man painter), and Corey Stoll (Mike Prince, a billionaire investor whose conscious capitalism rankles Axe). In other words: it’s all still extremely Billions.
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by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 2, 2020
Introducing ‘Behind the Billions!’ Co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien give a behind-the-scenes look into Billions season five. After each episode’s airing on Showtime, the podcast will unpack the writing of the script, exclusive stories from production, the ideas behind the music cues, and much more on the Spotify app. The 12-episode podcast season will also include interviews with cast and crew members as well as bonus podcast episodes devoted to inside stories from Billions hosts: Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Spotify link here.
Introducing 'Behind the Billions,' a behind-the-scenes look at 'Billions' Season 5, cohosted by @DavidLevien and @briankoppelman! After each episode's airing on Showtime, the podcast will unpack the writing of the scripts, production stories, and more.https://t.co/tDD6dPK0HV
— The Ringer (@ringer) May 2, 2020