Categories Billions Print Media Recap

Billions on Showtime, 3.02: The Wrong Maria Gonzalez – April 4, 2018

You Can’t Always Get What You Want, You Get What You Need

by JaniaJania | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | April 4, 2018

Bobby and Chuck are a set of twinsies this episode of Billions, Season 3, Episode 2, “The Wrong Maria Gonzalez.” Where we saw Chuck mildly relishing in his win in the first episode and Bobby not-so-mildly wondering what to do about his loss, in this episode the two foes are on more equal footing.

Bobby can’t act on his investing instincts about the earthquake on the coast of Africa, which he knows will lead to a tsunami on the coast of South America, leading to losses for Axe Cap investments in Brazil, specifically flooded sugar crops and interruptions in shipping.

On the other side, the wheel of fortune doesn’t roll in Chuck’s favor to be awarded the judge sympathetic to his cause in Eastern v. Axelrod.

Both Bobby and Chuck have obstacles set before them, both master their obstacle du jour, in essentially similar ways.

Continue reading Billions on Showtime, 3.02: The Wrong Maria Gonzalez – April 4, 2018

Categories Billions Gallery Trailer Video

Photos & Videos: Next Time on Billions Episode 3 – April 2, 2018

Season 3, Episode 3: A Generation Too Late

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | April 2, 2018

On the next episode of Billions ‘A Generation Too Late,’ Chuck faces a dilemma when he’s given a perverse directive. Axe expands upon a secret venture. Taylor and Wags interview a different type of Axe Capital employee. Connerty and Dake close in on key witnesses in the Ice Juice sabotage. Axe and Lara consider an unexpected agreement.”

To view more sneak peek photos, please visit our Gallery

Here are three teaser trailers to whet your appetite:

‘Your Best Friend Sold You Down The River’ Ep. 3 Official Clip

Axe meets with Ira (Ben Shenkman) to discuss a proposal.

“Yeah, I Sort of Figured” Ep. 3 Official Clip

Continue reading Photos & Videos: Next Time on Billions Episode 3 – April 2, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media

Superlatives: The Best, Most, and Worst From the ‘Billions’ Season 3 Premiere – March 26, 2018

Axe is shredding people’s sense of self-worth, Dollar Bill’s rocking a sick vest, guys are eating at stupidly fancy restaurants—it’s ‘Billions’ Season, baby!

by Miles Surrey | The Ringer | march 26, 2018

Source: Showtime

Billions, Showtime’s superhero show cosplaying as a financial drama, finally, graciously, returned to our screens on Sunday night, promising a brand-new season of long cons, extravagant meals, and Paul Giamatti getting spanked in a BDSM sex dungeon by his wife and their “therapist.” The new season brought back the warring Chuck and Axe and Wendy’s precarious position in the middle of them, and added nods to Trump administration employees with as much subtlety as Wags’s ass tattoo. Because this show is a beautiful concoction of not just plot details, but half-zip pullovers, Malin Akerman trying to act, and oddly perfect dialogue, it only made sense to review each episode of this budding season by recognizing the best, the most, and the absolute worst.

Here are your Billions superlatives for the Season 3 premiere, “Tie Goes to the Runner.”

Continue reading Superlatives: The Best, Most, and Worst From the ‘Billions’ Season 3 Premiere – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media

Billions Creators Discuss Their Charmingly Devious Characters Who Have Everyone on Wall Street Saying, ‘You know that was based on me right?’ – March 26, 2018

Why Axe Would Cut Off His Arm to Make an Extra Billion

by Nathan McAlone | Business Insider | March 26, 2018

Source: Showtime

  • The third season of “Billions,” the Showtime series that looks at the high-stakes world of hedge funds, is currently airing Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
  • The creators talked to Business Insider about how the show has been received by the finance world.
  • They also discussed why giving up trading feels like such an existential threat to Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), and how their characters would metaphorically amputate their arm to make that next billion dollars.

“Billions” is back for its third season on Showtime (Sundays at 10 p.m.), and its power-hungry cast of characters is more morally compromised than ever.

This season — don’t worry, no spoilers — takes the battle between hedge fund titan Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) in new directions, and sees an expanded role for fan favorite Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon).

The series has developed quite a cult following in the finance world, and creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien told Business Insider that Wall Street certainly isn’t shying away from the way it’s depicted.

Continue reading Billions Creators Discuss Their Charmingly Devious Characters Who Have Everyone on Wall Street Saying, ‘You know that was based on me right?’ – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Review

Billions Premiere Recap: ‘Tie Goes to the Runner’ – March 26, 2018

“Billions is still very much intact, but what’s exciting is how things are changing.”

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | March 26, 2018

Source: Showtime

Every time a TV show returns for a new season there’s the question of whether it can sustain the momentum of its previous years. Billions crafted something special in its second season, really clarifying its vision in a way that felt exciting. Naturally, that leads to questions for season 3. Was the second season just a fluke? Can the show continue to craft something that’s unlike anything else on TV? Will the dialogue, characters, and ludicrous power plays start to lose their luster? The season 3 premiere, “Tie Goes to the Runner,” is a welcome affirmation that Billions isn’t slowing down any time soon.

The opening scene is, on its own, enough to quell any doubts about a slump for this show. Chuck, riding high on his takedown of Axe Capital and his run for governor, walks into a meeting with the Attorney General in Washington, DC. Billions doesn’t bother easing into the season, instead immediately giving us a scene of pumped-up macho dialogue. The AG, who’s interested in having Chuck lay off of his prosecution of various Wall Street types, presumably because he’s getting paid somewhere along the line, goes on a lengthy tangent about being from “horse country” and “baseball country” in West Texas. The man is a walking cliché, all Texas bluster and salt-of-the-earth metaphors that barely make any sense. He’s the type of guy who considers himself a cowboy or an outlaw despite his comfy seat at the head of the capitalist table.

Continue reading Billions Premiere Recap: ‘Tie Goes to the Runner’ – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Review

Billions Season 3 Premiere: The Next Big Thing – March 26, 2018

“Amusement-Park Ride of a Financial Drama”

by Sean T. Collins | The New York Times | March 26, 2018

Season 3, Episode 1: ‘Tie Goes to the Runner’

Source: Spoiler TV

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” drawls Attorney General Waylon Jeffcoat to an assemblage of United States attorneys now under his employ, “and you are my deputies. Gonna be one hell of a turkey shoot!”

Well, yes and no. After watching the Season 3 premiere of “Billions,” Showtime’s amusement-park ride of a financial drama, it is clear that the show’s creators and characters are indeed coming out guns blazing. But the new sheriff, known as Jock, hasn’t changed the series’s old winning ways. A boots-on-the-desk Texan played by the dulcet-toned character actor Clancy Brown, Jock Jeffcoat announces he’s pulling the Justice Department away from Wall Street’s white-collar crimes. Elsewhere, the revelation that the unctuous hedge-fund creep Todd Krakow (Danny Strong), previously the show’s comic-relief antagonist, has been named Treasury Secretary is perhaps the best gag of the episode, in that funny-because-it’s-true sort of way.

Continue reading Billions Season 3 Premiere: The Next Big Thing – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Review

Billions Season 3 Premiere Review: Looming Consequences Keep The Series Grounded – March 26, 2018

“Tie Goes to the Runner’ steps up and delivers an assured opening that upsets the balance of things in compelling way”

by Kevin Yeoman | Screen Rant | March 26, 2018

Source: Showwtime

The central conflict of Showtime’s Billions lies in the battle between Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod and Chuck Rhoades, but the series is admittedly limited in how far it can take that struggle without undoing the tension that essentially fuels the show’s drama. Thankfully, and much to the enjoyment of those who love the show for reasons that go well beyond the financial cat-and-mouse game played by its two leads, the series has proven adept at creating situations outside the Axe-Chuck conflict to keep things entertaining. Over the past two seasons, the show has demonstrated a willingness to become outrageous and, when coupled with some surprisingly hilarious dialogue — often delivered by David Costabile’s irascible Mike ‘Wags’ Wagner, but not exclusively so, as demonstrated by the brilliant “where we’re going, we need Rhoades” line Chuck offered up last season — those ingredients have effectively come to define Billions.

Continue reading Billions Season 3 Premiere Review: Looming Consequences Keep The Series Grounded – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Print Media Review

Billions Review: Season 3 Is a Well-Oiled Machine Still Coasting on Last Year’s Twist – March 26, 2018

Billions may never top its big Season 2 shakeup, but it’s still seeing benefits in a smooth (perhaps too smooth?) Season 3

by Ben Travers |IndieWire | March 25, 2018

Source: Showtime

It all started — or ended — with the reveal of Paul Giamatti’s laughing mug. In the penultimate episode of Season 2, “Billions” pulls off one helluva hoodwink: “Golden Frog Time,” the series’ most deliciously effective hour yet, convincingly fools the audience through a series of flashbacks and setups, that the great Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) has pulled one over on his nemesis, Chuck Rhodes (Giamatti). Finally, after years at war with each other, the death blow has been dealt and the tip of the spear is skewering Chuck so painfully, he’s weeping. He’s a broken man, head in his hands, sobbing like someone who’s lost it all.

But he’s not crying; he’s laughing. And he didn’t lose everything; he took everything from Axe in a devilish long con that put the handcuffs on a trader he’s been trying to prove guilty for longer than the show has been airing episodes. It was a climactic moment not just for the season, but also the series, and it unfolded in intense time-jumping fashion that kept viewers guessing until the end.

Continue reading Billions Review: Season 3 Is a Well-Oiled Machine Still Coasting on Last Year’s Twist – March 26, 2018

Categories Billions Broadcast Media Trailer Video

Video: Sneak Peek into Season 3 of Billions – March 26, 2018

Get a glimpse into what’s to come this season on Billions for Axe, Chuck, Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon), and the rest of the cast. Starring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Catch new episodes of Billions Sundays at 10pm ET on SHOWTIME.

Source: Billions YouTube Channel

Categories Billions Print Media Review

Billions Season 3: TV Review – March 24, 2018

“TV’s Most Successful Penis-Free Depiction of Non-Stop Penis-Measuring”

by Daniel Feinberg | Hollywood Reporter | March 24, 2018

Source: Showtime – Photo by Jeff Neumann

Showtime’s wonderfully acted, frequently repetitive game of Manhattan cat-and-mouse doesn’t take another qualitative leap in its third season, but the drama remains high.

Skippable pre-credit filler on many shows, the “Previously on…” recap montage is mandatory viewing for Showtime’s Billions. While your typical series might use that clip package just to remind you of the previous episode’s cliffhanger, Billions typically jumps around for refreshers on a dozen minor characters, some unseen for 10 episodes or more. Yes, if you have a Marilu Henner memory, it’s a guaranteed spoiler for which long-buried plot points are returning, but if you’re a more normal viewer it’s practically the only way to resituate yourself in a narrative that remains deliciously twisted but weirdly forgettable.

That gets to the root of my general problem with Billions, returning for its third season on Sunday (March 25) night. Despite an ensemble cast that ranks among the best on TV playing characters who are usually colorful and quirky and fun, the ponderous repetitiveness of what the series does with them is all-too-frequently mechanical.

Continue reading Billions Season 3: TV Review – March 24, 2018

Categories Billions Gallery

Sneak Peek: Billions S3E2 Promotional Photos – March 21, 2018

Billions Episode 3.02 “The Wrong Maria Gonzalez” Promotional Photos

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | March 21, 2018

This just in! Take a sneak peak at some newly released promotional stills from Billions season three, episode two “The Wrong Maria Gonzalez.”

To view more photos, please visit our Gallery