Billions: Fly Away, Fly Away!

This blog has been a long time coming. Damianista and JaniaJania have been wishing to see it up for a long time . I wanted to wait until I had seen all 12 episodes before posting.

We had devoured all the early promos for the show and have been blogging about Billions for over  a year. We attempted to get a feel for the characters as early as we could and this helped immensely as we discussed what we thought about Bobby and Wendy. Even early on, it was clear those two had a connection. After Naming Rights, we were having one of our discussions and I mentioned that I thought there was some Peter Pan in Bobby and Wendy. I was encouraged to investigate this further as Jania Jania said “Peter Pan is an archetype now…the boy who doesn’t want to grow up.” Investigate I have and there is a fair bit of Peter in Bobby. I am not saying this was intentional on the writer’s part, but that I had fun digging through the book looking for it. .

Quotes from Peter Pan by J M Barrie are in italics. The other quotes not in italics are from Billions.

Bobby and Dr Mojo/Peter & Wendy with sprinkles of lost boys and Tink

Bobby even has his own Wendy, (hereinafter referred to as “Dr Mojo”) and he has built his house around her.

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

“She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael’s minds, while Wendy’s began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bold letter than any of the other words and as Mrs Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.”

Dr Mojo’s mind seems to be scrawled all over with Bobby Axelrod and Bobby Axelrod is quite as cocky as Peter Pan. Dr Mojo knows what Bobby is, but she stays by his side for a very long time. She forgives his transgressions and mistakes.

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Billions ep 12 : The Conversation

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.

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Catching up with Axe & Wags on
Billions Season 1 Finale Set

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

Time flies! Can you believe it’s our last rendezvous with Axe & Co, fortunately only for a while, in a couple of days? I just can’t.

Bad news: We will have serious withdrawals.

Good news: We can always go back to Billions Season 1 and watch it. Again. And again. And again.

Better news: They are starting to shoot Season 2 later this year.

Best news: We will have Billions Season 2 coming our way sometime next year.

So the season may be coming to an end, but we still have so much to say about it. For starters, we are currently working on a FUN Best of Billions post that we will publish as soon as the season is over. One of the categories we have to take our pick in is Best Chemistry. And I just can’t help reveal my vote here today: In my humble opinion, Axe and Wags have the most brilliant chemistry on screen and, believe me, off screen, too!

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Billions ep 11 : Magical Thinking

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.

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The Many Faces of Damian Lewis: Part 2

Sometimes an actor will find themselves type-cast, and the reasons for this can vary greatly. It can be the fault of a narrow-minded industry, a lazy agent, an iconic role that they find impossible to be divorced from, or simply from the actor’s own lack of range.

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We are all lucky to be fans of a man who has not experienced this. Damian has had the pleasure of embodying many different types of men. And while so many of these characters have some sort of overlap(just how many times has he put on a military uniform now??), he has used his incredible skill set to create a different, iconic character in each role. Specifically, I want to talk about how he uses his body language to create believable characters that resonate. Continue reading “The Many Faces of Damian Lewis: Part 2”