musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life
A painting. A drawing. A kidney. A patent. Oh, and an IQ test!
This fast-paced and clever Billions episode gives us an extremely fun hour in which Axe, Chuck, Taylor and Wendy all have to play fast chess to deal with both personal and professional matters. Anything is fair game to get what they want. Some win, some lose and some get, well, outright creepy! Continue reading “Billions on Showtime Season 5 Episode 6: The Nordic Model”
So where to begin about this episode – entertaining, surprising, and heartbreaking – absolutely the best so far in Season 5? The best point of departure may be the definition of “contract” as Axe gives during his game of billiards with Savion since we see a number of contracts – explicit and implicit – drawn, signed, or not, in one of the best hours Billions has given us in its history.
“A contract is an understanding between men that they’ll see things the same way, that they’ll keep code. That they’ll honor the spirit of their relationship even in unforeseen circumstances.”
Axe, Wags and Bach are sitting in Leah Calder’s – the head of the office approving state charter applications – office clueless that Chuck was there earlier with Kate to convince Ms. Calder not to approve Axe’s application and thereby preventing a crime before happening! Continue reading “Billions on Showtime Season 5 Episode 5: Contract”
First things first. Thank you Xfinity Watchaton Billions Watch Party for an amazing evening at Classic Car Club of Manhattan! Lady Trader and I felt like billionaires as we sipped Champagne on Axe’s plane, ate quail-masquerading-as-ortolan with napkins on our heads, played Black Jack like there is no tomorrow, enjoyed a Q&A with show creators and cast members followed by an early screening of the crazy good Episode 4, and, hey, we got to hang out with these two! Kelly and Toby, you guys rock!
Credible threats? Check. Ultimate sabotage? Check. Unparalleled favors? Check. Shocking twists and turns? Check. Taking care of business at all costs? Check. We are in a “World Gone Wrong” exactly like in Dylan’s song opening and closing the episode and Billions is on fire this week!
Primary Day / 5 hours until the opening bell
It is 4:30 am in the morning and the Burke brothers are “bright fucking yellow like you’re in Kill Bill” and busy at a school bus parking lot making sure the buses will be out of commission this morning. Huh? Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 4: Overton Window”
A migraine. An algorithm. A blossoming friendship. And lots of chickens! Billions gives us a fun episode in which Axe and Chuck fight at multiple fronts and end up in Chuck’s office drinking to their friendship of a sort 😀
Chuck’s day starts with a migraine and gets downhill from there.
Chuck Senior calls from Kingsford to tell his son it is time for Pericles, ahem, Chuck, to stroll the Parthenon, ahem, the casino built on Senior’s land. They are having the grand opening with fanfare and two important union leaders with 400K potential votes for Chuck in attendance. Chuck has to show up with Wendy, smile, shake hands and seal the deal. And when Chuck resists:
Senior: “Do you think JFK complained when Ol’ Papa Joe sat him down with steel workers?”
Junior: “You’re delivering Schenectady, dad. Not Ohio.”
Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 3: Chickentown”
Billions creator and show runner Brian Koppelman tweeted earlier today that the first two episodes in Season 4 are the warm up. Well, if this is the warm up, I cannot imagine how crazy the best stuff will get!
Here’s the truth: these first two eps of season 4 are the warm up. Eps 3 and 4 are among the best in the whole series. And they are coming right up. https://t.co/OawdgnXuaR
— Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) March 24, 2019
Now that he has decided to put out the fire not by pouring water on it but by sucking oxygen out of the room, Axe is busy cutting off the credit lines to Taylor Mason Capital (TMC). We find him with Wags at an ambitious robotics raise by Patriot-Trust Bank where they claim the product has the brains of Will Hunting and strength of Artis Gilmore during his American Basketball Association days. The robot company is looking for five investors to put in $100M in this round that includes anti-dilution rights.
Enters Rebecca Cantu, a venture capitalist. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 2: Arousal Template”