Tag: Bobby Axelrod

Billions ep 7 : The Punch

Bobby has the Replacements plugged into his ears as he swims. He comes up for air not a happy camper. Seems neither meditation nor exercise are quieting the demons these days.imageedit_49_4024834524
Meanwhile the Axelrod kids are spending $100 bills of their chaperone’s money on squirt guns at an alcohol-serving arcade. The chaperone, as somewhat less wealthy than the Axelrods, seems to make much of the inequity, drowns his sorrows in beer after beer, then proceeds to screechingly and veeringly drive his charges home.
His slurry “I got your precious fucking babies home” totally deserves the quite credibly delivered “I will kill you, you mother fu..” and the tight middle-weight cross to the nose delivered by Axe. And there we have the title of the episode: The Punch. A totally morally justified punch as one book end to this roller coaster-y, yet still somehow thought-provoking, episode. Morally justified punch, but not quite legal. As is the premise of this entire series.imageedit_46_8339140284
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Billions on Showtime, Episode 7: The Punch

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

The Punch opens with a bang and throws a number of punches, literal and metaphorical, at us all.

We find Axe doing laps in his Hamptons pool and listening to Replacements’ The Ledge that goes “I’m the boy they couldn’t ignore, for the first time in my life, I’m sure” on his waterproof headphones. We cannot ignore the boy does not look okay today. We have never seen him like this before. The pressure is taking its toll on Axe. He is at the end of his rope. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Episode 7: The Punch”

Billions: Half-Time Valuation Report

While Billions took a day off this Sunday, we stayed busy thinking about the highlights of the season so far. And here’s a Half-Time visit to all the things about this series that have made it a highlight of the cable TV this year so far.

JaniaJania:

When the Billions pilot first aired, I bemoaned the literalness of it all. The literal dick-wagging and pissing contests. Men literally horrified and driven to impulsive action by dogs getting fixed. But, even then when I called out the literal, the in-your-face straighforwardness of it all, I did not mean to imply that the show is simplistic or the writing patently obvious. Now, half-way through the season, I need to hammer home that fact: NOTHING about this show is obvious or easy. We’ve gotten more layers with every episode, more alternative readings of character motivations. We’ve had plot twists, but more interesting are the riveting psychological twists giving us new glimpses into what is driving these people to do what they do.

PicMonkey Collage

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Formulation

Fiction Friday is here again and what better subject than Bobby Axelrod?

**Disclaimer: Billions and its characters belong to Showtime. Not us. There is no profit or copy right infringement intended and absolutely no intention of saying that anyone from Billions stole our ideas in the unlikely event we accidently write something that comes to fruition.  

A look inside the mind of a younger Bobby Axelrod stepping on to his road.

The buzzing of chatter in his ear is threatening to make him explode. His mother’s attempts to placate him and his father’s scornful derision. Neither are proving any easier to stand than the lackadaisical attitude of his friends whom he had abandoned a couple of hours ago in disgust.

He stands up abruptly, pushing his chair back and interrupting the all too familiar argument brewing between his parents about why he needed to go to further education anyway. His father’s attitude is worse than his friends. Continue reading “Formulation”

Billions ep 6 – The Deal

This episode halfway thru the season opens with a scene I didn’t expect to see until series end. That’s where we start and that’s where we’re taken, into an episode that feels like a season finale. I’ll get to that starting scene in a bit. First, we must draw all hands to deck, look up and witness the King. Axe climbs up on office furniture, his head nearly grazing the dropped ceiling, and he gives his troops a war speech worthy of Patton.

Yesterday we came under attack from an unscrupulous adversary…

Unblinking, unflinching, determined righteous passion. Despite the zeal, Damian somehow keeps the speech from being over the top. It’s a rapid spitfire rallying speech, then, just as rapidly, Damian draws the energy he just exerted right back in. It’s this masterful balance between release and stillness, between exertion and absorption. Wendy watches from the sidelines and she feels the rawness too. Witness her halted breathing, and the decidedly dilated pupils watching Axe on stage, then the averted gaze as he descends and walks past her, spent. I’m making this all sound vaguely sexual aren’t I. Well, probably because it IS.

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