Billions FanFic: Rubble

 

What to do until Billions is back on our screens? Why, imagine a couple of the lovely characters in a fan story, of course! Any time I mention fanfic to anyone who knows I like to write, I’m always greeted with a certain look and a sly “You mean like the versions of Twilight for Adults that became the Fifty Shades series?” No, I say, nothing smutty. Not only can I not write smut to save my life, I also cannot bring myself to imagine the characters I love, even when they’re nearly bearing it all on premium cable, in any of the smuttier situations common to smut. It’s too….common and a tad disrespectful, IMH puritanical O. Goes to follow then that nothing I’ve ever written in the fanfic world has ever been as popular or as potentially lucrative as the Fifty Shades stuff.

All those standard disclaimers on fanfic apply here. I love these characters a lot, but I own them not one bit. And, if it needs to be said, I earn absolutely nothing from this blog for anything I write. Nothing but readers, which to any writer really, are the real gold (albeit actual real gold is quite useful too, don’t get me wrong :)).

So, here’s an expanded version of the Billions fanfic I wrote before Season 2 began. Setting is a flashback to the time around 9/11, possibly a couple days, or maybe a week, after it happened. It’s an imagined bookend to the end of Season 2. Also, I should add, I’ve written this only because, I think, it is decidedly NOT something that’s going to happen on the show. I wrote it because someone had to go there. I figured, why not me? Enjoy!

Continue reading “Billions FanFic: Rubble”

Remembrance 2022

Band of Brothers is a masterful series that taps into every possible emotion that you can feel and it pulls absolutely no punches when trying to display and emphasise the horrors the men and woman fighting in World War II faced.

Band of Brothers sets out to remember those who served in World War II and show us what they had to endure. There is so much for each of us to take from the series, but my own impressions are that the intention was not to glorify war or to paint these men as superhuman.

There is a touching moment (among many) in the extras when Major Dick Winters quotes a passage from a letter he received from Sergeant Mike Ranney, “I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said ‘No…but I served in a company of heroes’.” Continue reading “Remembrance 2022”

9/11: The Rise and The Fall of Bobby Axelrod?

source: Showtime

Billions is first and foremost a New York show. And there is nothing more natural than the darkest day of the city, September 11, still shadowing the lives and relationships of our characters. Besides, we all know 9/11 was particularly a very dark day for financial services firms many of which had offices in the World Trade Center. Cantor Fitzgerald lost two thirds of its workforce on 9/11.

source: spoilertv.com
source: spoilertv.com

One of the first things we learn about Axe in The Pilot that he is a 9/11 survivor. He is, in fact, the only partner that survived the terrorist attacks because he was out of office in meetings while most of his colleagues and friends died. And seeing that Axe Capital is located in Westport, Connecticut, we also find out Axe Capital is among the financial houses that chose to move from Wall Street to neighboring Connecticut or New Jersey after the destruction of downtown NYC on 9/11.

We then find Axe in a conference room at Axe Capital with the widows and children of his friends that died on 9/11. Axe has been giving college scholarships to these kids for years. He has been keeping it private that there has never been a press release or an interview with him about it.

Continue reading “9/11: The Rise and The Fall of Bobby Axelrod?”

Band of Brothers at 17: Before and After 9/11

onecollageSeventeen years ago on September 9, 2001, a documentary-like mini-series tribute to D-Day and to WWII, Band of Brothers, aired its two first episodes. Two days later that same year the world turned upside down. It was very difficult for any entertainment to be very entertaining in the days after September 11, 2001. If there were people who looked at ratings, advertising revenue, critical reviews and other such metrics to gauge the success of a series, chances are that they, like the rest of us, were distracted by other headlines. On this anniversary, I wanted to examine how Band of Brothers was perceived by critics, before and after September 11, 2001.

Continue reading “Band of Brothers at 17: Before and After 9/11”

Remembrance 2017

Band of Brothers is a masterful series that taps into every possible emotion that you can feel and it pulls absolutely no punches when trying to display and emphasise the horrors the men and woman fighting in World War II faced.

Band of Brothers sets out to remember those who served in World War II and show us what they had to endure. There is so much for each of us to take from the series, but my own impressions are that the intention was not to glorify war or to paint these men as superhuman.

There is a touching moment (among many) in the extras when Major Dick Winters quotes a passage from a letter he received from Sergeant Mike Ranney, “I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said ‘No…but I served in a company of heroes’.” Continue reading “Remembrance 2017”