Axe Capital on Drugs, a Scandal and a Firing
by Paul Vigna | Wall Street Journal | June 14, 2020
A few weeks ago, we questioned whether Showtime’s “Billions” was lionizing Wall Street or satirizing it. We’ve come to a decision.
It’s satire. No other answer makes sense.
In the midseason finale (directed by David Costabile; written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Emily Hornsby), Bobby Axelrod gets his entire firm hooked on a purported productivity drug, which almost has Axe Capital staring down the barrel of a $3 billion loss, while Mason Carbon deals with a far less dramatic scandal, and Chuck Rhoades tricks the Treasury secretary into firing himself.
There isn’t much Wall Street stuff in this episode that needs deconstructing. It’s all about how the stories are presented.