musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life
Well, if Episode 4 The Oath brought Axe together with his old buddy Freddie in the director chair, Episode 6 Indian Four is bringing Charlie Crews with his best buddy Ted Earley in the director chair!
Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2 Episode 6: Indian Four”
Wags arrives at Axe Capital, parking his car right outside the front door and walking with purpose towards Bobby’s office. He ignores the greetings of others and heads in to face Bobby’s “clean” test. Wags starts to speak seriously, but is cut off by Bobby before he can be heard. Bobby is unimpressed with whatever is going on with Wags and where he has been for the last 48 hours because Bobby has been fighting yet another battle.
48 hours earlier…there is a celebration outside of Sansomic. It does not last long though as the genius behind it goes home, walks through his front door and then right out of his window. This sounds brutal and it is, because that is exactly how they shot it. It was a horrible moment. In and out.
Mafee is seen hurtling towards Axe’s office declaring “Axe, we are f****d” but Axe is not there to hear about Sansomic’s catastrophe.
Axe is meeting with Nicky and second son, Gordy is introduced to him. First impressions of Gordy in the Pilot were that it was he, not the eldest child, Dean, who was an Axelrod mini me. Those first impressions appear to be right. He certainly knows only suckers bet when they don’t know how it will end. Perhaps the writers are going with the idea that the second child (of two) is the most daring.
Axe is talking to Nicky about whispers he has heard about a Casino. Gordy reappears with Axe’s phone because “it is blowing up”. Boyd is calling about the Sansomic stock and Sam Brandt from Street Scoop want Bobby on her show which is bad news. He has three days to fix this.
Continue reading “Previously on Billions: Season 2, Episode 5 “Currency””
And with that, I welcome you to “From the Trader’s Desk” and my take on Episode 5, “Currency”.
There was a lot going on in this episode: currency plays, rising interest rates, 15 bips on the 10 yr. Things that I don’t think twice about, but may need a bit of explaining to some of our readers. I’ll do my best. As always, if there is something I don’t cover, just ask! Currency trading is not something I do at all. I stick with domestic equities. However, I do have to know a little about it, since currency, and interest rates can (and do) effect the overall markets.
This was a unfamiliar Axe in “Currency“. He was taking risks he wouldn’t normally take, all because he didn’t want to have a down quarter. It clouded his vision, and his outlook in my opinion. He was willing to risk so much, just to not have one misstep. It reminded me of a classic mistake gamblers on a losing streak make: doubling down. I have it seen firsthand: down $500 on the 1:00 PM NFL bets, you try to recoup that and more by placing bigger bets on the 4:00 PM games. If you win, you can get even or maybe pull ahead; but if you lose, now you’re down $1,100 (when you bet with a bookie, you have to pay a “vig” of $5 on every $50 you lose). It’s a risk, and that is what gambling is, but it’s not a smart risk. As Axe says “Who makes a bet if they don’t know the outcome? Suckers!” Continue reading “From the Trader’s Desk: S2E5 “Currency””
Damian Lewis is making a wonderful return to stage in Edward Albee’s late masterpiece The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? tomorrow and here is the last installment in our countdown. It is obviously a bittersweet end to our countdown with London in our minds and our hearts today. Please stay safe, everyone!
Damian takes quite a long break from stage – 6 years – after he does The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley and Tara Fitzgerald at Comedy Theatre. And after three seasons of Homeland, a season of Wolf Hall, three movies, an Emmy and a Golden Globe later, in 2015, he makes a wonderful comeback to stage as Walter “Teach Cole” in David Mamet’s American Buffalo… which also goes into history as the first time I see my favorite actor on stage. Continue reading “Damian Lewis on Stage: American Buffalo”
Billions season 2 episode 5 is titled “Currency”, after the main play of the episode which happens to be a highly delicate currency play. Currency, the word, when spoken by Damian Lewis manifest as Bobby Axelrod, is also one among the many rhythmic words you’ll hear from him this episode, pronounced in impeccable New York-ese. We probably shouldn’t keep harping on his believability in this role. After all, that’s why they call it acting, right? Where most acting is a well-developed form of impersonation and most non-native accents are a form of ventriloquism, what Damian does with Bobby, in terms of body and language, is something else entirely. Something that is neither simply impersonation nor just ventriloquism.
