Starring: Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti, David Costabile, Maggie Siff, Jeffrey Demunn, Asia Kate Dillon, Dan Soder, Corey Stoll, Frank Grillo
Billions has now morphed into a show about the art of the deal instead of how the deal affects the characters. As enthusiastic as I was about the show's first four seasons, I cautioned that the myriad double crosses, back stabbings, back door deals, and eleventh hour swerves may start to grow tiresome. There is little character growth among any of the leads, except maybe they've grown even more calculating and heartless. Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Lewis) is forever trying to win monetary battles for the sake of retaining his title as the toughest guy on the block. His latest adversary is Michael Prince (Stoll), a rival billionaire who at least appears to have some semblance of scruples. By the conclusion of episode seven, Axelrod goes on a vicious tirade about destroying Prince, yet another in a series full of such tirades.
This is the first season which featured a mid-season finale. It is likely the next episodes, when the season resumes, will deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and how it may reduce Axe from a multi-billionaire to a mere billionaire. Oh, the horror. On Axe's tail once again is New York state AG Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), whose uneasy alliance with Axe fell apart at the end of season four.
Rhoades is still corrupt, but still fancies himself more moral than Axe, so he doesn't see any hypocrisy in going after Axe full tilt. Not as much in the middle anywhere is Chuck's now estranged wife Wendy (Siff), who still works for Axe but also may be the object of his desire after long last.
Her relationship with an artist (Grillo) on Axe's payroll inflames his jealousy. There has always been a "will they or won't they?" vibe under the surface between Axe and Wendy, and if it were up to Axe, it would be a "will they" and soon.
We are now at the stage of Billions where we wonder why Axe doesn't just take his billion dollar ball and go home. The stress must be killing him. Four seasons worth of these dealings with millions or sometimes billions of dollars on the line may soon cause a serious case of PTSD. And what about Chuck? His wife left him, his string-pulling father needs a kidney, and he is forever scheming to get what he wants. Isn't this exhausting after a while? The details of the schemes in which either Chuck or Axe tries to enrich himself are a blur after a while. They all come down to the same thing. Both men want to win with a scorched earth policy and collateral damage be damned.
For the first time in the series' history, I find my attention wandering and my patience waning.
This is straying from delicious soap opera to CNBC.
Update: The second half of season five premiered on Showtime in 2021. The emergence of Mike Prince as Axe's bitter business rival trying to walk a fine line between riches and morality gives the show a needed boost from its repetition. A major character exits the show at the end and Prince is there to fill the void as a rich man trying to stick to his morals in a dog-eat-dog world of finance. My curiosity is now piqued for a sixth season with Corey Stoll in charge of Axe Capital.
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