Billions

With Crave now readily available I tried watching Billions.

Even with the great Paul Giamatti, it's not holding my interest. The concept of the District Attorney Generals wife working for a hedge fund is silly. Beyond that the character of Bobby Axelrod isn't believable. He's part Mark Baum part John Gotti, neither of which ended up doing very well. And Terry Kinney as Hall the fixer wouldn't survive. I can suspend disbelief for Liev Schreiber...he's Liev schreiber. Terry Kinney doesn't have that sort of presence and fixers died out by the mid 90's. Eventually for the good of the show he's going to get whacked.

This is not negate the great work Giamatti and Glenn Fleshler have put into this series. I just don't like fairy tales.

Paul Giamatti is a stud, even as Mordecai Richler.

Playing Pig Virus in Howard Stern's Private Parts should have been a career ending role, for Giamatti it was only the beginning.

He still shows up on The Howard stern Show from time to time.

Top speculators rarely lose at poker. Damien Lewis gives it his all as Bobby Axelrod, it's not his fault that the character is not believable. He's more John Gregory than David Einhorn...and we all know what Einhorn did to Gregory.

Phil C. McNasty said:

Giamatti is a superb actor

Click to expand...

You must have gotten a charge from Giamatti's spot on impersonation of Paul Heyman in Cinderella man.

shack said:

And his father was an excellent baseball commish. Banned Pete Rose's ass for life.

Click to expand...

Holly Shit, Angelo Bartolomeo Giamatti IS Paul Giamatti's father, former President of Yale University and Baseball Commish. The Pete Rose case took it out of him, he died at the obscenely young age of 51.

Bart was also a poet...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Paul Giamatti chose Paul Heyman as his blueprint for Cinderella Man. Rusty played James Braddock who fought Max Baer...Jethro Bodine's dad.

After not watching it for a week, I decided to watch another episode.

What happens, Mary Louise Parker shows up wearing glasses and Chuck (Paul Giamatti) gets set up. He walks into a trap enthusiastically, set up by his wife. Hall is going to get whacked.

She smitteth me!

Maggie Siff's character became more and more pathetic in Sons of Anarchy. Karl Sutter gave his wife star billing on the show at the expense of Siff. Taylor Mason fascinates me, there must be some massive demons in her closet.

I'm seriously pissed that Crave has dropped Weeds from their platform, WTF.

Terry Kinney is a good actor, he proved it in Oz. He plays Hall the fix, an impossible task...Liev Schreiber has ruined it for everyone else.

I've stuck with Billions, the quality of the writing has improved since S1. It's not a show you can binge, too dense.

Priceless scene!

Ira, Chuck's lawyer whom he broke to lure Axe into a short by sabotage, takes his very hot fiancee to a high flautin Itie eatery to propose marriage. Two plates of tagliatelle with Parma butter sauce are brought to the table. She is the type of girl, if she sits on your face, that is what you would be tasting. The Maitre D comes over with White Truffles...if you have to ask how much WT costs per shave, you can't afford it. He declines, she takes 20 shavings. He gets cold feet and declines to propose. She seemed to understand, at least she got a $400.00 plate of pasta.

I had to watch it again, it's almost as good as Big Pussy's back injury/gun bust from The Sopranos.

Due to YT restrictions on nudity, the full Big Pussy gun bust sequence cannot be shown. The actor who puts the cuffs on Puss, knocks out Ray Donovan.

Maggie Siff's character has developed nicely, I lost interest in Sons of Anarchy after they killed off her character so shamefully.

Wendy arranged a sit down between Chuck and Axe, I'm expecting Gotterdammerung for both Taylor and Grigor.

John Malkovich is a God!

Being a financial farmaioli, I never understood the term "Schmuck on wheels".

Until E3 on what is turning out to be the best season of the series. Large corporations make out like thieves turning children into addicts. Anyone that opposes them gets crushed. Chuck Rhodes, as Attorney General of NYSD, does not take on a difficult case against a conglomerate, being almost impossible to win, it would make him look like a "Schmuck on wheels". As such the whistle-blower gets tossed into the fire, reduced to living in his mother's basement. $ Bill Stearn doesn't want to become a "Schmuck on wheels" in Axe's eyes, so he hatches a diabolical plot to save his reputation. He reached a point where he became a lot of feathers but not much chicken.

By the time of Goodfellas, Robert De Niro was already a multi-millionaire thanks to a land deal set up by his financial adviser. As a reward, he gets him a role in the film.

Billions is sweet revenge for Maggie Siff. The character of Tara Knowles in Sons of Anarchy was never that well written. Creator Kurt Sutter favored his wife Katey Sagal. Maggie soldiered on as her character got weaker, I lost interest after Tara was killed off. I didn't like how it was done.

Wendy Rhodes is a 180, perhaps the most fascinating character on the show. It's not easy playing nasty and supportive at the same time, and she's working with Don Paul Giamatti. Maggie is killing.