Billions

[CaptainCrunch]

I find Chuck to be the real villain and a unlikeable busybody, I was glad he was fired for abuse of power, it was well deserved.



I'm amazed that there wasn't a criminal investigation into his office with all of the back dealing and basically manipulation of government to make a flimsy case.


I hope at the end of this series he's in prison for a lengthy term.

[Krovikan]

I've always thought that Billions was a story of two people who were both Villains and Heroes in their own right. So I've always found Axel and Chuck to be love/hate characters, and I continue to feel that about Chuck.

But the Mike Prince character, I find little about him redeeming, I personally think they need to get his story line wrapped up and move on to a new character.

[Manhattanboy]

I didn't mind the finale after a very weak season. It was an entertaining hour.

But we needed more Prince-Rian action and possibly Piper Perabo learning of their liaison.

The Dave character was the highlight of the season - the Slacker character has reached her limit in my view.

Don't know what to make of Wendy. I was hoping for at least one more scene of her in leather. I may have to re-watch her nasty season 1 stuff.

[CaptainCrunch]

Look "I like Mike".


He is the quintissential Devil in a civilized form. But his little speech to Rian was very Satan like.


But at the end of the day. This show went from prosecutor going after Criminals, and Axe was a criminal. Went to just more populist BS that just because Prince is rich he's evil. Chuck is a crusader, period. In the real world. Chuck would have been sued into oblivion, for what is essentially completely illegal actions. And Dave sitting there going, I'm going to clear you, its part of the master plan because Prince leaned against the wall when he was leaving is the height of BS. Does a prosecutor now find it ok to spend probably millions to prosecute based on, I don't like rich people. Because the only evidence she had came from illegal actions by Chuck, so she's in a complete ethical violation territory.



I don't want to watch a show that suddenly has a millionaire (Chuck) waxing poetically about the little guy. He's actually worse then Prince, who while he's doing it for power, is actually doing #### for the little guy,



Next years show should really be Dave prosecuting Chuck and getting him 10 years in a Federal prison.

[Weitz]

I enjoyed it. The characters were great and the story was well done.

You know what would have been boring? Another season of axe and chuck.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I enjoyed it. The characters were great and the story was well done.

You know what would have been boring? Another season of axe and chuck.

Ya, it took me about 3 episodes to starting getting used to the new pace. The lack of old Wags still upsets me. He’s the one character that should have never really changed. But otherwise, I started to enjoy it but would really love it if they ramp up the intensity a bit more.

[csnarpy]

And we’re back!

Last 10 episodes of the series started this week and along for the ride is Damian Lewis.

Really glad he’s back. I hope he helps bring back the energy into this final season. It would take a miracle to bring back season 1 to the final season, but crossing fingers!

[CaptainCrunch]

Spoiler!

Well for those that are watching, the old saying is "This shizzle got real". We finally saw the capricious side of Michael as he destroyed Wendy, Wags and Taylor in one two minute delicious piece of monologue that was so well done and chilling that you felt the victims spines collapsing in on themselves.

Now I kinda cheered as Prince took away everything from Taylor, money, power, influence because I find the Taylor character to be bad. But after Wags earlier went to bat for Wendy and ripped chuck with the whole if you screw her I'm coming for you. To see his face crumple as he lost everything. Then to see that Prince went absolutely above and beyond to completely destroy Wendy for now and all time was kind of delicious.


Ah and for those that think that the trio and chuck can just casually betray Prince anyways. Right now with them facing criminal charges of corporate espionage, and Price becoming a huge power, the only way it can happen is if Chuck throws Wendy under the bus, at which time Wags explodes the hard drive bomb.


And now we're going to bet the confrontation between Prince and Bobby.

For a final season its felt like Billions was sluggish and slow, too full of long exposition and BS and short of what made this show great which is the ultimate game of power. But that arrived in a title wave.

[csnarpy]

Unfortunately there is only a few episodes left. .. just as it’s getting good. …

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

Unfortunately there is only a few episodes left. .. just as it’s getting good. …

Loved the confrontation between Prince and Axe in the last episode.


The visualization of it was brilliant with Prince and his associates in Tuxes believing that they are doing the work of Angels and saving the country. Axe shows up in the leather jacket and Slayer shirt and absolutely looks like the role of the Devil on a crusade.


Just the whole dialogue was terrific in that scene.

[Weitz]

Not a bad penultimate episode.

But I feel like the final episode is going to be super rushed or disappointing.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Not a bad penultimate episode.

But I feel like the final episode is going to be super rushed or disappointing.

Absolutely agree, I feel they need a few more episodes to close this out properly.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Not a bad penultimate episode.

But I feel like the final episode is going to be super rushed or disappointing.

I absolutely don't believe the Senator last night, just based on the cut away from the meeting between her and Chuck.

Spoiler!

They want Prince to absolutely believe that he's won on all fronts. Its just like I don't believe that prosecutor went and handed the Prosecutors case to Prince that easily.


I did love the steps away from the idiot explanation.


The whole key to this thing isn't Chuck, or Axe, its Wendy, they're going to attack Prince not on a money level, or a power level, but on an emotional level. That's why they went after Prince's wife and chased her off, because she's the emotional support for Prince.


I have this hope that Chuck and Prince both end up as cell mates even though I don't think that Prince has done anything that's criminal to get a conviction. But Chuck has done some pretty dubious things.


Axe of course is going to win this whole thing, he's probably going to end up with Prince's assets and money, Chuck serving a stint in a Federal Medium Security Prison and Wendy in his bed.

[nfotiu]

Finale is available for streaming in US anyway.

Spoiler!

I found the ending satisfying, maybe a little too tidy. The trading went into the silly zone in terms of far fetchedness and illegalities, but entertaining nonetheless. Much better season than the last couple.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying.

It's funny because Chuck continued to be the real villain in this show. I mean throughout it, he's probably the most unethical prosecutor in the 50 states. Was there anything really illegal or criminal in Mike Prince's process?

I mean sure he bribed the Olympic committee to bring the Olympics to New York, but is that even a crime anymore?

There might have been money that was nebulous, but it was never clear that he got it through nefarious means.

He spent the last season making sure his trades were ethical trades.

It never felt like Chuck had any kind of real criminal case against Prince like he did against Bobby.

Instead this was and its why I found Chuck to be an unbearable character, grrrr billionaires bad, blargy blargy, meanwhile Chuck is a man with means and is the ultimate expression of old money.

In terms of the mechanics of the end, it got a lot better after being kind of meh and long on exposition over the last couple of seasons. But in the end the final resolution was kind of rushed, and then the final 20 minutes with the characters going , your actually a good guy, no your a good guy, no no your a good guy.

Meanwhile Bobby who had actually been a criminal and a fugitive fleeing justice. Is allowed to continue to trade and do business, and even his lines to Taylor about doing vicious things. And lets make some "Funking" money is kind of hilarious.

Mike Prince having been screwed over by a bunch of ethically challenged rebels is the only one that's really left with some dignity. But the wrong guy got destroyed.

I mean frankly even Prince's answer to the nuclear option, saying, yeah in the right situation I would fire off those bad boys, is the right answer for a person that wants to take on the ultimate responsibility of things.

I guess what I'm trying to say is even though the actor who played Prince was really good, the premise of his villany was pretty weak.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying.

It's funny because Chuck continued to be the real villain in this show. I mean throughout it, he's probably the most unethical prosecutor in the 50 states. Was there anything really illegal or criminal in Mike Prince's process?

I mean sure he bribed the Olympic committee to bring the Olympics to New York, but is that even a crime anymore?

There might have been money that was nebulous, but it was never clear that he got it through nefarious means.

He spent the last season making sure his trades were ethical trades.

It never felt like Chuck had any kind of real criminal case against Prince like he did against Bobby.

Instead this was and its why I found Chuck to be an unbearable character, grrrr billionaires bad, blargy blargy, meanwhile Chuck is a man with means and is the ultimate expression of old money.

In terms of the mechanics of the end, it got a lot better after being kind of meh and long on exposition over the last couple of seasons. But in the end the final resolution was kind of rushed, and then the final 20 minutes with the characters going , your actually a good guy, no your a good guy, no no your a good guy.

Meanwhile Bobby who had actually been a criminal and a fugitive fleeing justice. Is allowed to continue to trade and do business, and even his lines to Taylor about doing vicious things. And lets make some "Funking" money is kind of hilarious.

Mike Prince having been screwed over by a bunch of ethically challenged rebels is the only one that's really left with some dignity. But the wrong guy got destroyed.

I mean frankly even Prince's answer to the nuclear option, saying, yeah in the right situation I would fire off those bad boys, is the right answer for a person that wants to take on the ultimate responsibility of things.

I guess what I'm trying to say is even though the actor who played Prince was really good, the premise of his villany was pretty weak.

I'll still say I generally liked the season and ending. But, yeah, I can't help thinking I'd take Prince over Trump as president in a second, so it was a hard sell to see how horrible Prince as president would be. Also, like the season about the Olympics, both the presidency and Olympics have lost so much cachet recently that its hard to envision them as big prizes to real billionaires.

[Strange Brew]

I pretty much hate watched the last two seasons but that was a satisfying finale. That was a show that ran its course but they did a nice job of happy endings across the board.

The market manipulation in the finale was ludicrous, as was the idea of Prince as the second coming of Hitler. But I always found the show’s high points to be the chuckles, acting and unique characters and never the realism.

[csnarpy]

I agree, I enjoyed that finale. I didn’t think they rushed it at all actually. Definitely some nostalgia involved. When Bobby got up on the table to preach to his guys, it just reminded me of season one. Which is what I think they wanted.

Overall, it gave me the old flavour back which I’d been wanting. Initially, with the slow pace of the new billions - I was coming around to. I thought I could continue on with the show without Axelrod. But when he came back, it was just brought back the the reason I really started watching the show in the first place.