Author: Damianista

Academic, Traveler, Blogger, Runner, Theatre Lover, Wine Snob, Part-time New Yorker, and Walking Damian Lewis Encyclopedia :D Procrastinated about a fan's diary on Damian Lewis for a while and the rest is history!

Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 6: Maximum Recreational Depth

Billions picks up the characters exactly where we left them last Sunday, takes them to places they have never been before and leaves me with several billion dollar questions. HATS OFF!

Wendy meets Taylor at Morgenstern’s – synonym of YUM. She seems to be friends with Nicholas Morgenstern who makes a cameo and turns the ice cream shop into a speakeasy for his friend! 🙂 Well, Mr. Morgenstern is definitely a good friend. Did you know he named his peanut butter ice cream cake after his friend Brian Koppelman? Meet The Koppelman!

While neither trusts the other one, Wendy and Taylor talk. At least Wendy does: Many at Axe Capital tried to get into her mind, but only Taylor did. Because they listen and they deeply care. And that is why they were the only one who reached out when Chuck made their sex life public.

Wendy knows if she does not confide in someone who really knows her, she will end up in a bad place. Taylor does not have to talk at all, they only need to hear Wendy as she is trying to figure herself out. When Taylor rightly asks about what Axe would think about this meeting, Wendy is clear:

“This has nothing to do with him.”

Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 6: Maximum Recreational Depth”

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline

Hang there like a fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die!

Posthumus, Cymbeline

source: damianista
Cymbeline, Stage at Delacorte Theater, Central Park, NYC source: damianista

Having grown up in Turkey, I am not coming from a deep Shakespeare culture. We read translated excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in our literature classes but I really believe one has to read Shakespeare in his language to understand and love it… That’s why my relationship with the great man really started as we moved to NYC and started doing Shakespeare in the Park, a New York tradition combining two great things about the city: It’s Theater in Central Park… And, hey, it’s FREE, too! The only thing you have to do is go early in the morning and get in the line for free tickets distributed at noon. And, believe me,  waiting in line is half the FUN… You have people sleeping on their blankets, playing board games, reading the evening’s play together as a group… Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline”

Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 5: A Proper Sendoff

As winter has arrived tonight, the level of intrigue, negotiation and backstabbing in the world of finance and law in New York is on par, if not higher, than what happens in Westeros. Axe and Chuck, the real-life dragons in disguise as human beings, forge on and give proper sendoffs to those who mess with them, making this episode my favorite this season!

While Jack Foley gets into the oven for cremation, a delicious-looking pizza gets out of the oven at Una Pizza Napoletana. Axe, Rebecca, Chuck and Wendy are having a private double date with chef Anthony Mangieri personally serving their pizzaz.

Axe makes a toast to the new State AG. We find out this is Wendy’s first night out in a month. She thinks this opportunity of great pizza in total privacy was too good to skip. And when Chuck says if the only way he could eat this pizza naked on Times Square, he would, Wendy puts him in his place immediately. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 5: A Proper Sendoff”

Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 4: Overton Window

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”

Billions on Showtime, Season 4 Episode 3: Chickentown

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”