Tag: Max Olson

You Can’t Make an Omelet…

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 19, 2021

Season 5, Episode 10: ‘Liberty’

Eggs will be broken. The question amid all this conniving, though, is whose?

Chuck Rhoades is cooking eggs.

That’s it. That’s the scene.

For three uninterrupted minutes — without dialogue, without music, without so much as a single cut — the attorney general for the great state of New York cracks, scrambles, fries, flips and serves an omelet to his daughter, Eva (Alexa Swinton), and their guest, the billionaire Mike Prince. In “Billions” time, those three minutes might as well be an eternity. Suddenly, we’re miles away from the mile-a-minute patter and breakneck plot twists that make “Billions” one of the fastest-moving shows on television. For these three minutes, it is slow cinema, a cousin to the endless floor-sweeping and glacial soup-sipping of its sister Showtime series, “Twin Peaks: The Return.”

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Business Takes a Back Seat as Axe and Wendy Get Personal

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | September 19, 2021

As the folk troubadour once said, the times they are certainly changing. The Axe Cap office looks different, as Billions makes the jump into COVID times. After an indeterminate amount of time spent working from home, all the Ax Cap employees are now back in the office wearing masks and social distancing. There are more changes on the horizon, too, as Axe completely overhauls Axe Cap’s structure so he can get his bank off the ground. That means some of the employees won’t make it through the transition, and some will have new titles.

It’s a crucial time for the bank, as Axe has had trouble getting money in because of COVID. So he’s got Wags looking for different ways to bring big money in as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Taylor is worried about Ax’s potential influence over Taylor Mason Carbon after the restructure. They want to keep things completely separate, but they’re obviously concerned that this new order of business could complicate things.

Continue reading Billions Season 5 Episode 10 Liberty: Entertainment Weekly Review

Eggs at Dawn

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | September 19, 2021

We’ve come to the point in the season where I think I know what the long game is, but given my history covering Billions, I could still be way off. It’s for this reason that I’m glad things aren’t entirely clear on the scheming end in “Liberty.” As if, gasp, the writers — showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien teamed up with Emily Hornsby for this particular episode — wanted us to remain somewhat in the dark.

The Billions universe now exists in a post-COVID world, and through no fault of its own, the show is stumbling a bit. Because it’s had to adapt its pre-pandemic scripts, we’re dealing with a few square-peg-in-round-hole situations. Namely, the timeline has become a little murky: We can assume that some months have passed between “Implosion” and “Liberty” because (a) COVID has hit, (b) the Axe Cap offices closed down, and (c) Senior has recovered from his kidney transplant. However, the distribution of vaccines and a full-on return to the office (featuring masks and strategically placed hand sanitizer) would suggest a full year has gone by between last week’s episode and this one — but if that’s the case, then, what? Did the plotlines somehow enter stasis during Billions’ unspecified lockdown period?

Continue reading Billions Season 5 Episode 10 Liberty: Vulture Review

A Prince Among Thieves

by Sean T. Collins | New York Times | September 12, 2021

Season 5, Episode 9: ‘Implosion’

Axe continues to let his emotions lead his decisions. And now the consequences are teaming up to take him down.

“He’s not dead till I say he’s dead,” says Bobby Axelrod of his decabillionaire rival, Mike Prince.

“Bobby Axelrod has to be wiped from the face of the earth,” says Mike Prince of his decabillionaire rival, Bobby Axelrod.

Heck yeah, says I.

Continue reading Billions Season 5 Episode 9 Implosion: New York Times Review

Who’s Your Son Now?

by Sarene Leeds | Vulture | September 12, 2021

When the single mention of your name sums up the extent of your destructive power, you know you’ve reached a new apex of evil.

Bobby Axelrod’s one-word moniker suffices as the explanation for no less than four plot points in this episode: (1) Mike Prince’s permanently tattered reputation. (2) Wendy and Tanner’s acrimonious split. (3) Taylor Mason Carbon’s decimation. (4) Senior’s kidney transplant.

(Even more impressive is the fact that Axe managed to wreak this much havoc primarily via Zoom and FaceTime calls. Owing to the fact Damian Lewis was likely in the U.K. at the time of filming, several of his “Implosion” scenes resemble those of Hitchcock’s in the new season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.)

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Axe’s Enemies Have Teamed Up and They Are Coming For His Head

by Kyle Fowle | Entertainment Weekly | September 12, 2021

This season of Billions, in all its divided-by-COVID glory, has been a lot about legacy. After four seasons of watching the likes of Chuck, Axe, Wendy, Taylor, and many others go through various power plays to make more money and gain more power, the fifth season has asked two questions: does any of it matter, and what kind of personal toll does this kind of intense hunger for power do to a person?

This season has pushed Axe and Chuck to confront themselves and their legacies more than ever before, and it’s no surprise that both men have reckoned with themselves in different ways. Each has had his catalyst for self-reflection. For Axe, it’s the threat of Mike Prince, a man who’s not only on his level financially but also embodies the spirit of the “good billionaire,” the guy who genuinely wants to use his wealth and power to create a better world. As Prince says in this episode, “wealth will always be there, and power with it,” but he wants to make sure he leaves the world a better place than he found it.

Continue reading Billions Season 5 Episode 9 Implosion: Entertainment Weekly Review