Starring: Paul Giamatti, Corey Stoll, Maggie Siff, David Costabile, Asia Kate Dillon, Damian Lewis, Kelly AuCoin, Condola Rashad, Toby Leonard Moore, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dan Soder, Daniel K. Isaac, Louis Cancelmi, Ben Shenkman, Daniel Breaker, John Malkovich
Mike Prince must be some kind of threat to humankind to make allies out of prosecutor Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti) and hedge-fund billionaire Bobby Axelrod (Lewis) in their attempt to thwart Prince's presidential bid. He's ruthless and amoral, but so is just about everyone in Billions. Why Prince deserves such special mistreatment is the subject of debate, but it adds a juicy element to a show that has been waning in recent years and is now in its final season. The show ends on a happy note for most of its cast, which is not par for the course for such a cynical show, but we'll take it.
Prince (Stoll), as you may recall, bought out Axe Capital and sent its owner Bobby Axelrod into exile in a castle in London. (We should all have his problems). At now Mike Prince Capital, the underlings Prince inherited from Axe Capital: Wendy Rhoades (Siff), Mike "Wags" Wagner (Costabile), and Taylor Mason (Dillon) hatch a plot to undermine and destroy Prince's ego-driven presidential run. I guess his brand of greed is simply too much for even these people to handle. Chuck, who regains his position as the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, is looking for revenge against Prince for screwing him out of his chance to put Axe behind bars. Chuck will soon find his mutual goal of Prince's destruction makes for strange bedfellows, including his ex-wife Wendy.
Axe returns in a limited capacity after spending all of season six on the sidelines. He is hesitant to take on Prince because Prince can buy him eight times over, but he eventually joins the fight after Chuck assists him in aiding a Russian oligarch frenemy (Malkovich). Prince is a formidable opponent, able to sniff out deception and exact his revenge ruthlessly but also with political savvy. The plot hatched by his enemies is handled with such precision that they could have a future in espionage. There are more double-crosses and triple-crosses than you can keep track of, so you wind up going with the flow.
Billions is still at its core soap-opera fun taking place in the financial milieu. Terms and phrases are thrown around known by a select few, but we get something of an idea of what's happening. The dialogue still contains too many cutesy pop culture references which serve to show off the writers' knowledge, but we don't allow it to ruin our good time, or the characters'. It's not like there will be an eighth season to correct this, so we'll be satisfied with what's here.
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