Tag: David Strathairn

Jesus Christ, Chuck

by Nicole Cliffe | Vulture | May 6, 2018

Source: Showtime

Not You, Mr. Dake

The title of today’s recap refers to the number of times I screamed those words at my TV during this week’s episode. With a dash or two of “Chuck, the hell are you doing?” and “WENDY, ARE YOU SERIOUS?” I yelled no such thing at Axe, because if Axe can still surprise you with chicanery, you have not been paying attention to the last three seasons of this show.

For an episode that really screws up some innocent lives, it has a delightfully gonzo-heist vibe, which could have felt dismissive but actually adds a queasy note that elevates the whole thing. Not since the Maria Gonzalez’s deportation have we seen so clearly the skull beneath the skin. And, most importantly, we get a lot of Wendy. More Wendy, always.

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Vulture – May 6, 2018

The Moral Rot Finally Reaches Wendy

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | May 6, 2018

Source: Showtime

Not You, Mr. Dake

When, at the end of last week’s episode, Wendy, Axe, and Chuck sat down to be fully transparent with one another, they did so with a purpose. Each of them had been implicated in the Ice Juice sabotage in one way or another, and each of them was facing jail time. Axe and Chuck had always been in trouble, but Wendy was only recently a target after Ari started working above his pay grade, finding out that she executed a short on Ice Juice shortly before the sabotage.

At the top of “Not You, Mr. Dake,” Chuck and Axe still sit at the table, discussing how keeping Wendy safe is their first priority. When she leaves to get a glass of water, the two converse in hushed tones, pondering whether their damsel in distress will be willing to throw someone under the bus to save herself. Both men don’t think so, knowing Wendy to be no-nonsense, but also honorable. Then, she comes back to the table with a firm answer for them: “So, who’s going to be our patsy?”

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Entertainment Weekly – May 6, 2018

How Will Wendy Solve Her Own Personal Kobayashi Maru?

by Lady Trader | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | May 4, 2018

Source: Showtime

Greetings from the Trader’s Desk! After a brief hiatus, Lady Trader is back to answer some questions about “A Flaw in the Death Star” and my take on “The Third Ortolan”.

I received some questions regarding “A Flaw in the Death Star”: Dollar Bill’s trade, why Axe Capital would hire someone like Ari Spyros, Taylor’s meaning of “ETFs have sucked all the dumb money out of the market that hedgies used to prey on”, and last but not least, the biggest question of the season so far: Why did Axe Capital move to NY?

In “A Flaw in the Death Star” we see Dollar Bill plan to short a pharmaceutical company, Mendham. He has paid off one of the employees to blow the whistle on the animal cruelty that is going on there. A simple short for Dollar Bill and a crap load of money for Axe Capital. But, Dollar Bill has come up against something he can’t throw a duffel bag of cash at – Head of Compliance, Porsche driving, cappuccino making (and I’m guessing its cappuccino since I don’t drink coffee), and all around boorish , Ari Spyros.

Bill has gotten the go ahead for the short from Taylor and Wags, but he must get the OK from Compliance.

Continue reading From the Trader’s Desk: Answering Viewers Questions & Billions S3 Ep6 – May 4, 2018

“Nexus”

by JaniaJania | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | May 2, 2018

Source: Showtime

Like three delicately delicious birds, Wendy, Bobby, and Chuck are poised above the deep fryer in Billions Season 3, Episode 6, ‘The Third Ortolan.”

If Wendy had only waited to make the call to short Ice Juice once she was at a safe distance away from pinging the same cell tower pinged by Chuck’s office. Like maybe wait till you’ll on the sidewalk trying to get a cab, or, better yet, hop on the wifi at a Starbucks across town, and then make the call. One barely needs a friend at the NSA to trace such things.

Back when we were talking about which character will prove to be the flaw in the Death Star, who could’ve imagined it’d be Spyros? Not due to any sinister motive, mind you, but simply a misguided attempt to win one for the boss. And, lest there be doubt, Spyros did bring a win for Axe. All evidence points to Wendy having her cake (grabbing a seat for herself on the Axe Cap short) and eating it too (shorting a stock that her husband manipulated Axe into shorting, thereby leaving their joint marital account none the worse for wear). Forgetting that Wendy did it all blindly in a bold move of self and family preservation, the story could easily be framed as her working the play to the Rhoades’ advantage.

Continue reading Billions on Showtime, 3.06: The Third Ortolan – May 2, 2018

Connerty Gains The Upper Hand 

by Dana Feldman | Forbes | April 30, 2018

Source: Showtime

Showtime’s drama Billions officially hit the halfway point of its third season with the sixth episode entitled “The Third Ortolan” and honestly, the show just keeps getting better. Show creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien were not exaggerating when they said they were taking things to a whole new level this season! And, this week, Showtime announced a fourth season for the cable network’s No. 2 drama series, which averages between 4.5-to-5 million weekly viewers across platforms.

Word-of-mouth from a very loyal legion of fans has helped grow the show’s viewership season-over-season. The series grew throughout the second season on Sunday nights by more than 35% from premiere-to-finale and the third season premiere was the show’s highest-rated ever with the March 25 debut up 23% from last year.

First things first: What is an Ortolan? An Ortolan is a small Eurasian songbird that was formerly eaten as a delicacy, a practice now illegal the world over. Axe (Damian Lewis) and Wags (David Costabile) dine on these tiny birds while covering their heads with white napkins. This is done for two reasons, explains Wags: “To keep the aromas from escaping and to hide this shameful and depraved act from God.”

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 6 Recap: Forbes – April 30, 2018

Break the Stick

by Nicole Cliffe | Vulture | April 29, 2018

Source: Showtime

The Third Ortolan

Are we all partially recovered from last week’s episode? I’m not, but they’re paying me to do this so I have to soldier on. I had thought we’d get a chance to draw a breath, but that turned out to be a bit of a pipe dream. Right up until the last shot of this episode, things had the ability to fork in two – at least two! – very different directions.

I regret to inform you that Dollar Bill and Spyros have had whatever kind of debriefing from Porschegate they’re gonna have, off-screen. Weirdly, it seems to have cleared the air a touch? Spyros, you see, is a COMPANY MAN now – it’s extraordinary how seriously he took the idea of being Family – so he’s not going to let a tiny thing like having his sports car turned into a brick right in front of his eyes zap his enthusiasm for Axe Capital.

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 6 Recap: Vulture – April 29, 2018

“The kind of complex, taut high-wire act that Billions pulls off with regularity”

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | April 29, 2018

Source: Showtime

The Third Ortolan

At the very beginning of “The Third Ortolan,” Axe and Wags are seated at a fancy dinner table, their heads covered by cloth napkins, wine flanking their empty place settings. We don’t know it yet, but they’re seated for a French delicacy that’s, well, not looked all that kindly upon in France or the world over. The practice of catching and preparing an Ortolan, a small bird, is no longer allowed. It’s a cruel process indeed. The bird is caught, kept in a cage in a state of “artificial night,” which tricks the bird into gorging themselves on grain. Once they’ve doubled their bulk, they’re drowned in brandy, roasted, plucked, and then consumed whole, bones and all.

It’s a fitting start to the episode, and a fitting ritual for the people of Billions. Axe, Wags, Ari, Dollar Bill, Chuck…they’re all gorging themselves until they’re drowned by their masters. They thrive during rituals of cruelty. They think they control their world, and to an extent they do, but there’s always a cage just waiting to be filled. The cage is no metaphor; it becomes literal in “The Third Ortolan.” Chuck, Axe, and Wendy find themselves threatened with very real jail time. “What happened?” sighs Axe to Wags after they’ve eaten three Ortolans, proving again that they don’t know when to stop. “You fought the law, and the law won. I’ll miss you,” says Wags, as sincere as he’s ever been.

Continue reading Billions Season 3, Episode 6 Recap: Entertainment Weekly – April 29, 2018

“Fate, Up Against Your Will”

by JaniaJania | Fan Fun with Damian Lewis | April 25, 2018

Source: Showtime

In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to watch stuff with the eyes of one who looks for dark and light and all the gradations in between. Light for the fun and entertaining, dark for the real and true. This episode, “Flaw in the Death Star”, balanced the two quite nicely, never spending too much time in either extreme and provided a fair and balanced view of this world we’ve come to know as Billions.

We find Bobby’s flight plans cut short by The Halls telling him they can’t find anything on the doctor who supplied the juice to spike Ice Juice. Like folks pre-Pasteur who believed in spontaneous generation and not in invisible beings like bacteria and such, Bobby has made a fatal error in not collecting the slide that provided the bugs with which he manipulated the murder of Ice Juice. He’s left some key evidence out in the wild, and in this episode, he finds out if he’s to pay for the oversight of slighting those invisible germs.

Over at Chez Rhoades, the difficulty of knowledge management issues is not to be underestimated. Chuck is up in the middle of the night and wakes up Wendy to say: I know, but, since that knowledge was obtained behind your back, you’re under no obligation to acknowledge that you know that I know. I have to do something with my knowledge, even if you tell me not to, because I can’t not.

Continue reading Billions on Showtime, 3.05: Flaw in the Death Star – April 25, 2018