|
Just watched most of this season, and not sure what the show is really aiming to do. The Ax character, who they set up as this cutthroat bad-rear end capitalist, gets a ton of ham-fisted setups to come off as moral, woke, and personable. It doesn't really make him seem more layered or deep (he still speaks in goofy anecdotes and pedestrian movie references like the rest of the cast), and then he's not really evil enough to make you worry about what he's going to do. Part of the problem with this character is that they repeatedly paint him as a super-genius who has sherlock holmes powers of financial plays, and all his schemes come from inspired plays instead of any exploitation of actual flaws in the system. It basically refuses to touch the idea that wealth begets wealth, and guys like him in real life don't need to be a brilliant cyborg to go from 10 billion to 15. There's no real sense of the market or global trends, or what backchannel deals actually entail. Ax just buys a hot dog at a ballpark, tastes that the bun is stale, and then makes a genius investment in wheat futures that somehow helps out some mailman from the old neighborhood while screwing over a shrill dude who was sitting in the other team's section. I keep thinking about the movie Margin Call, which is also set in the world of complicated finance but is really about egos and selfish power moves. That movie managed to avoid being a technical slog, but still pulled real, effective drama out of characters so bought into a system of money and predatory behavior while still feeling real. In Billions, none of their deals feel real because they're all approached by Bobby or the autistic gender binary analyst hearing two facts about a thing and then smugly making some play that everyone else is floored by. It never feels real enough to conjure the actual drama that comes with powerful people very disconnected with the consequences of their actions running amuck.
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2017 19:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:51 |
|
|
I like that their character can't just be trans but also has to be autistic, which of course makes them the most morally centered person at the company.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2017 05:35
|
|