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Billions (1 Viewer)

Maurile Tremblay

Maurile Tremblay

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On Showtime, starting January 19, starring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Looks like it might be fun.

 
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First episode was decent but I'm not sold. Seems like they're basing this on Steven A. Cohen at SAC Capital.

 
whoknew said:
I thought it was pretty silly. Its going to need some nudity if it wants to keep me.
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I kept waiting for Damien Lewis's wife to get naked (she is a complete smokeshow) but alas it never happened. I did kindof like the cartoonish way of showing Capital Investment Firms though. May give it one more episode.

 
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I watched the second episode last night, I'm in. I'd say to anyone watch the second episode before you check out on this completely.

I don't want to give anything away but this episode really gave more depth to the characters.

 
It was a little hokey and stereotypical but Paul Giamatti is great so I'll give this one a little time. First episode had a couple good moments. The scenes with Giamatti's dad, the wife threatening the lady that spoke out in the scholarship meeting.

 
I turned it off halfway through the first episode. Hated it. Thought Damian Lewis and his wife were a couple of stereotypical cartoons. The scene in the hallway where he tells the two younger associates how their "tip" is going to go south was horrible overracting, as was his wife threatening the widow. Thought it was awful.

 
I'm in. Definitely some questionable writing and tone issues, but good acting and compelling plot. Reminds me of Dexter in that way. Flawed but worth the watch.

 
For his father's friend, is that really a guy we want to spend our tax dollars on to keep in prison? Seems to me that as long as the crime isn't violent and the person can make any victims whole monetarily, a financial punishment that benefits society -- such as the settlement discussed on the show -- would do much more good.

 
Good episode last night. For the show to continue you knew Axelrod wasn't copping to the deal, but that scene in Giamatti's office was great. The show might not be a mega hit, but I'm enjoying it and will continue to tune in.

 
This show is really entertaining. Too early to know if it's legitimately good, but I've watched since the first episode. Some pretty great quotes so far. Damian Lewis is much better in this than he was in post-S1 of Homeland, and Giamatti is of course awesome.

 
Just power watched a bunch. Caught up now. Only thing that bugs me is that Giammati's wife works at the place making big bucks. No way the DA or whatever he is could have a wife working at one of those places. Small nit. Oh, and Giammati involved in BDSM is not a pretty thought.

 
The General said:
Just power watched a bunch. Caught up now. Only thing that bugs me is that Giammati's wife works at the place making big bucks. No way the DA or whatever he is could have a wife working at one of those places. Small nit. Oh, and Giammati involved in BDSM is not a pretty thought.
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Glad the white dude finally took the black girl down.  

There aren't too many believable couples in this show, now that I think of it.  

Dollar Bill rules.  

 
This show is so awful but I keep watching just to see what happens. The episode a few weeks back when Axe went to the Metallica show was possibly the worst-written episode of television I've ever seen. But it feels like a payoff is coming, and the over-the-top drama is entertaining in a trainwreck kind of way.

 
The main characters wives are my two least favorites on the show. Especially Giammati's wife, I find myself rolling my eyes 90% of the time she speaks. She comes off like she thinks she's some sort of rain maker, I just don't see it in that kind of environment. 

 
It took a few episodes for Damian Lewis's role to grow on me but it's worth a watch.   Plus, any show with two chicks making out and doing blow makes it an instant hit for me.

 
Kraft... said:
The main characters wives are my two least favorites on the show. Especially Giammati's wife, I find myself rolling my eyes 90% of the time she speaks. She comes off like she thinks she's some sort of rain maker, I just don't see it in that kind of environment. 
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The ironic part is that character is probably the most accurate in real life.  The show's entertaining, but in no way accurate in a business or law sense on a day to day basis.

 
Arizona Ron said:
It took a few episodes for Damian Lewis's role to grow on me but it's worth a watch.   Plus, any show with two chicks making out and doing blow makes it an instant hit for me.
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You mean Vinyl, right? I watched these both last night and want to make sure I'm not confusing them myself.

 
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mquinnjr said:
You mean Vinyl, right? I watched these both last night and want to make sure I'm not confusing them myself.
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No, remember the Indian girl in the State's Attorneys office got blackmailed by Axe's shady henchman (Guy with the glasses, does the dirty work).  First couple episodes.  

 
Show is pretty good, but agree some of the writing is not the greatest.  The writing is not as awful as Sons of Anarchy, but it has potential to get there....

 
I really enjoyed this show. It seems more Entourage than Boardwalk Empire, where it's maybe more of a "fun" show than one that will ever be critically acclaimed. Case in point: the 2-man scene to close out the finale should have been awesome, but the writing was so over the top and it was SO overacted by the two of them, that it was actually distracting. Plus how did Chuck even get in the door? Minor quibbles possibly about what was a very entertaining first season IMO. Too lazy to look up whether this was picked up for a second season, but I hope so.

 
That seen was brutal.  "The only thing more dangerous than a guy who has unlimited resources is a guy with nothing to lose."  Ugh.  Otherwise I like this show. 

 
Major said:
If you want a good look at the man they based Billions on, then check out this Frontilne documentary.  Enjoyed it much more than Billions. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/to-catch-a-trader/
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Thanks for linking that. I was reading about Steven Cohen the other day, had never heard of him before, what a badass. 

After Wharton, Cohen got a Wall Street job as a junior trader in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. in 1978, where he eventually managed a $75 million portfolio and six traders.[10]

His first day on the job at Gruntal & Co., he made an $8,000 profit. He would eventually go on to make the company around $100,000 a day.[11] Cohen was running his own trading group at Gruntal by 1984, and continued running it until he started his own company, SAC.[11]

In 1992, Cohen started SAC Capital Partners with $20 million of his own money; today the firm manages $14 billion in equity.[13] Originally known as a rapid-fire trader who never held trading positions for extended periods of time, Cohen now holds an increasing number of equities for longer periods of time.[10][14]
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In 2014, Forbes Magazine estimated Cohen's fortune at $10.3 billion in September 2014, ranking him the 35th richest person in the United States.[15]

In 1998, the Cohen family purchased a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) home on 14 acres (57,000 m2) in Greenwich, Connecticut.[16]

His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion,[17] considerably higher than his 2004 compensation ($450 million),[18] 2001 compensation ($428 million),[11] and 2003 compensation ($350 million).[19] In addition, Cohen owns 7% of search engine Baidu[20] and owns 5% of SSD design firm OCZ Technology.[21]

In February 2013 Forbes listed Cohen as one of the 40 Highest-Earning hedge fund managers.[22] In December 2013, Cohen's New York penthouse in the highly coveted Bloomberg Tower was listed for sale for 98 million dollars.[23] Cohen is one of the minority owners of the New York Mets, and holds a four percent stake in the baseball team.[24]
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Steven Cohen Pledges $275 Million to Veteran Mental Health Care

 
Watched the finale last night. 

That final scene was possibly the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen in years.  What the hell was going on with Damian Lewis' accent there? 

Really enjoyed the rest of it for what it was. 

 
I love the show and thought the finale was really good considering this is the same network that gave us several terrible season finales of Homeland. 

The women on this show are all smoking hot.

 
Finally caught up.  Entertaining first season but agree that some of the lines are pretty bad.  That last scene took me out of the moment as it was so over-the-top.

 
I will add that I love how things turned out with Wendy.  Kudos to her for recognizing that she was living with two monsters, and I'm glad she didn't pick a side -- saying goodbye to both guys made a lot of sense.

 
Anyone still watching? Show is meh, but it has landed a spot in my rotation - I don't see it lasting long enough for a Chuck Governor run.

 
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