musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life
In the time since Billions finished filming and we know Damian has been on break, it’s been interesting following the various projects he’s tackling back home across the pond. You hear of actors spending their series hiatuses well out of the public eye, on a beach somewhere, lounging away the days until filming starts again. Not Damian Lewis. The break from NYC and from Bobby Axelrod saw a Londoner doing London things, loving on his home town. Seems the only person to get the time off was Damian’s barber!
Continue reading “Damian in Between: Reserve Rope, Frankenstein, and WWE”
The season finale of Billions starts with a wonderful shot of Axe rising to be part of the NY landscape. He waits to give Wendy a prize for fixing him. From there the episode progresses into a series of cathartic scenes fit for a stage.
Master of reading the charts and anticipating risk, master of seeing the long shot and taking the short road to get there, Difference Maker Bobby Axelrod has had a slip in judgement. He hasn’t seen what every other manager and analyst, “to a man”, has seen, and by refusing to budge in the face of the majority opinion, he proceeds to lose. And lose big. Axe Capital is on the brink of losing upwards of $800 million simply due to Bobby’s stubborn and ill-conceived refusal to see the numbers he’s always been able to see. But was it a refusal to see the big picture or an incapacity? Is Axe losing his wizard skills or did he subconsciously sabotage himself? These are the questions up for exploration in this penultimate episode of the series.
No secret that I was pretty disgusted with Axe in the last episode. In this episode some of his humanity is back, beautifully on display, and, thankfully, there’s a visible thaw in the ice-cold of last week’s fire house scene.
When he gets news of Donnie’s death, Damian lends Bobby that cast over the eyes that looks like someone has clubbed him in the knees. He’s hobbled. The episode proceeds to careen back and forth in time in an expert way that fills in all the holes that need filling in Donnie’s story.
