Yeah I'm with you on thatThis looks so nondescript. I'm not jumping in without a copious amount of coaxing from critics.
Pushing Siff and Wendy to the center would be the differentiating touch that Billions is currently struggling to find. Thus far, it's just a high stakes game of cat and mouse (though pilot director Neil Burger brought much more flash and fun to a similar milieu in the feature Limitless). Billions is handsome and well-produced, but its treatment of excess is almost matter-of-fact, lacking the zest one might want from a show about people spending tens of millions on houses in the Hamptons or jetting off to Quebec to hang with Metallica.
With corporate corruption and selective regulation still making headlines, Billions also has the chance to answer big questions, but when Axe muses, "When did it become a crime to succeed in this country?" you get the sense the show is more interested in glib one-liners than sincere exploration. The episodic rush of wheeling and dealing only occasionally allows viewers to understand what's happening; one episode might involve several explanations for the importance of a "short squeeze," but you're more frequently just expected to know that blackmail and threats and emasculation are the tools of the trade for all Showtime fixers, regardless of context. And squeezing Billions into that genre reduces the chances that anybody will take the show seriously as a substantive critique of a corrupt system.
Haha I did the exact same thing.I thought that said Daniel Day Lewis and my eyes almost popped out of my head.
Oh well. This still sounds interesting and I like Paul Giamatti a lot.
I felt it was a pretty meh pilot. Liked Lewis and Toby Leonard Moore, Giamatti feels a little over the top, Siff is ok, but i've never been a fan of her, and Akerman had too little screen time, but i wasn't impressed.
Most problems i have are with the script (those fucking one-liners) and characterization. I mean that opening scene, get the fuck out.
Feels like Ray Donovan on Wall Street. At least Billions is better.
So Billions, the premiere of which is already online, is in the buy column for now. If it strays too far into repetition, and if its palpable energy and verve cant hide a tendency toward predictability common enough occurrences on soaps about rich people, and on Showtime programs in particular itd be easy to dump the show as ruthlessly as Bobby Axelrod excises a poor performer from his portfolio. But in the first half of its season, the lively momentum and diverting character studies of Billions offer reasonable dividends for those willing to invest.
- Variety: TV Review: Billions (By Maureen Ryan)
But I put in the six hours, and it was just enough to make me curious to see where the story goes next, and to see if all the talent involved in front of and behind the camera can coalesce into something more than another glib Showtime series about a fixer with a great wardrobe. Someone who's smarter about money than me might warn me about the sunk cost fallacy, and suggest that continued spending of my time won't bring me any closer to a reward. For now, though, I'm just invested enough to keep going, even if I doubt I'd have been had Showtime only sent two or three episodes.
Sorry Showtime, but with all the good TV on right now I don't have time for one of those "it takes 6 hours to become marginally interesting" type shows.
Be honest with yourself, you know you do.
Whenever Billions gets dense with discussion of financial regulations and insider trading, it feels a little desperately eager to show you how smart it is. When it allows itself to be a tawdry soap opera about people who alternate sleeping around with stabbing their allies in the back, its more effective.
I don't! These days I'd much rather spend my extra time watching a movie or reading a book instead of watching mediocre/bad/unfulfilling TV.
Season 1: episode 1 "Pilot"
When an inside tip is received it sets off a high stakes game of cat and mouse.
I guess no one watched, lawl
I guess no one watched, lawl
Showtime says its new drama Billions snagged the best series debut performance ever for one of its original series: 2.99 million views to date. Billions was sampled early across platforms, delivering 1.6 million views prior to its Sunday night debut on the network the most ever for a Showtime series. Then, on Sunday night, the Paul Giamatti and Damien Lewis starrer delivered 1.4 million viewers on the network. Prior record holder, Ray Donovan clocked 2.91 million views including linear premiere night and advance sampling on subscriber platforms in 2013.
I guess no one watched, lawl
Watched the first two eps on Hulu, not sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, I'm kind of interested, largely for Giamatti and Lewis. On the other, the dialogue is pretty awful and feels forced.
That said, I loved Lewis' delivery the end of ep. 2when he revealed to the family that he really wanted their building just to spite them for cheating him out of $16 when he was a kid.
Season 1: episode 2 "Naming Rights"
Chuck's probe is derailed temporarily; Axe makes an aggressive move.
Damn, this thread is dead.
I thought the second episode was a lot more entertaining than the pilot. It's still not a great show, but it's heading in the right direction.
PR:Renewed for season two.
Showtime has picked up its new series Billions for a second season, just two episodes into its first run.
The Wall Street drama starring Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff and Malin Akerman has performed pretty well particularly in delayed and multiplatform viewing. The on-air premiere drew about 900,000 viewers and a 0.2 in adults 18-49, which grew to 950,000 and 0.3 in episode 2.
Including pre-premiere streaming and multiple airings on premiere night, the series opener grew to 3 million. After-the-fact viewing has more than doubled that number Showtime says 6.5 million people have watched the first episode, a record for a series premiere on the channel. (Ray Donovan held the old mark with 6.1 million.)