Billions...brash, bold, and brilliant

Paul Giamatti and Damien Lewis

One of the depressing things about modern movies is a failure to engage with ideas. I’ve written too often on here about the fundamental emptiness of the modern blockbuster so it is nice to take time to acknowledge a work that aspires to be about something.

I know it is fashionable to refer to this as the third Golden Age of television and trot out the usual names such as The Wire, Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and so on. But to that canon I would humbly like to make a case for admitting Billions.

It is the latest product of the exclusive deal between Sky Atlantic and Showtime and if you are fortunate enough you will have been able to binge watch via Sky Box Sets. However if you are watching weekly I will make this spoiler-free.

Billions revolves around two of the touchstones of 21^st century American society; 9/11 and the financial crash of 2008/9. The story plays out between two protagonists; hedge fund boss Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod (Damien Lewis) and US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti).

The banker is the self-made scrappy multi-billionaire who has dragged himself up from hardscrabble origins; the lawyer is the child of privilege who has lived as one of New York’s elite. In a brave move the show makes Axelrod the sympathetic one; a devoted family man. The notional good guy, Rhoades, is the one who cheats and bends rules and has a secret sex life that could ruin him.

The show takes up Gordon Gekko’s famous motto about greed being good. Axe may have committed the cardinal sin of making money out of 9/11 but he is helping the families of his former colleagues and first responders. Is this such a bad guy? This might be the first TV show with a kind word for bankers.

The clashes between these two men are almost Shakespearean. Lewis is unblinking but mercurial, Giamatti is a volcano of suppressed fury and sexual repression. They are physical and moral opposites. It’s like Othello with two actors alternating the roles of The Moor and Iago.

And in the middle is Desdemona, in this case Rhoades wife Wendy (Alison Tiff) who also happens to be Axelrod’s closest confidante. She is the catalyst for the tension between the two and all of the show’s memorable scenes either involve her or are about her.

Billions is a feast of wonderful writing. The plot is tense and suspenseful but leavened throughout by marvellous character moments which are gifts to a rich cast and keep the audience off guard throughout. Hand in hand is the most impressive roster of directors I can think of in any series with shows directed by Neil Burger, James Foley, John Dahl, Ryan Fleck, Karyn Kusama, and Neil LaBute among others. These are people who have been behind some of the most memorable American indie movies of the past twenty years. They have put together a body of work which documents a 21^st century view of the American male and Billions adds another layer to that in what it says about modern masculinity.

The ending of this first season is a combination of Shakespearean grandeur and Coppola-like levels of paranoia. It’s a perfect way for a season to end and while it is immensely satisfying it will also leave you eager to meet these characters again.