'Billions' remains champ of well-bred pulp
When “Billions” premiered in January 2016, it was a show to be taken very seriously. Co-created by the A-list screenwriting duo of Brian Koppelman and David Levien and esteemed New York Times financial reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, and starring two Emmy award winning actors in Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, the Showtime series was well pedigreed for peak television. Could it do for Wall Street what “Mad Men” had done for advertising or “The Sopranos” for organized crime? Was this the next great American novel to be told in episodic form?
For its first two seasons, “Billions” has been content to shock and titillate in the manner of a great beach read. The characters may quote liberally from Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” but, in tone and temperament, the show has more in common with Mario Puzo’s pulpy bestseller on which that cinematic masterpiece was based. The saga of crusading U.S. attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti) and rapacious hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Lewis) has seen multiple reversals of fortune; Bobby torpedoed Chuck’s investigation into Axe Capital’s improprieties in the first season, while the second season ended with Chuck betraying his father and best friend (and obliterating his own trust fund) just for the ego-satiating pleasure of seeing Bobby in handcuffs. Season three kicked off with both men circling the drain, their death spiral threatening to drag the woman they both adore – Chuck’s wife and Axe Capital performance coach extraordinaire, Wendy (Maggie Siff) – down with them. They pulled out of it by pinning their spitefully convoluted misdeeds on a relatively innocent man.
Nobody gets away clean on “Billions” because, in this rarefied air, no one ascends without committing a sin or twelve. Some critics have complained that the main characters aren’t likable, and that the lavish milieu is harder to stomach in these ultra-corrupt – financially, politically and morally – times. Koppelman and Levien appeared to be answering this charge by imbuing Chuck with righteous purpose after dropping out of the New York gubernatorial race. Abhorred by the unjust prosecutorial focus of newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Waylon "Jock' Jeffcoat (Clancy Brown), Chuck was in the process of orchestrating a putsch by baiting this unholy hybrid of Jeff Sessions and Greg Abbott into obstructing justice. As the now drawn-into-the-muck Wendy put it, “It’s not enough to resist or not resist anymore. You have to assassinate this f-----, Chuck.”
Real-life political implications aside (“resist” is a weaponized word in 2018), the idea of Chuck trying to launder his soul by taking down hypocritical holy roller like Jeffcoat gave us a clear rooting interest for the first time in the series’ run. It was Chuck’s redemption arc. Bobby, on the other hand, was speeding directly into Michael Corleone territory by entertaining the murder of the unexpectedly disloyal Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon). Would he cave to the Russian oligarch investor (John Malkovich) he desperately courted upon returning to the helm of Axe Capital?
The final episode delivered dual gut punches to Chuck and Bobby: the former was outmaneuvered by vengeful former protégés, Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) and Dake (Christopher Denham), while the latter couldn’t countenance the ultimate liquidation of his vengeful protégé. In the final scene, these two blood rivals who’ve battered each other for two gloriously tawdry seasons find themselves scheming together over a glass of wine as the ever-perceptive Wendy watches. A formidable new alliance has been formed. It’s Rocky Balboa teaming up with Apollo Creed to take down Clubber Lang, or Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage joining forces to conquer The Hart Foundation.
And it’s “Billions” embracing its crowd-pleasing instincts to become the high-toned royal rumble it was always meant to be. Novels are all well and good, but peak television just got its “Rocky III."
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