Damian Lewis: "Billions"

Marc and I have really enjoyed "Billions" this season--after having strayed from the fold, for several episodes.

A show succeeds or fails because of its characters. The current run of "Billions" has Corey Stoll as Mike Prince, who seems sort of eager to detonate a nuclear bomb. (A literally nuclear bomb.) Prince has an open marriage--but he doesn't want the details leaked to the press, so he arranges to have his spouse's boyfriend kidnapped off the side of a mountain by Chinese baddies. At the same time, Prince is squaring off against a man who will grease palms to have a hurricane downgraded to "tropical storm" level--and will heavily imply that this is a "business" move, via Prince, to protect certain financial interests in Florida--all as a way of portraying Prince as unscrupulous (and thus ruining Prince's shot at the presidency). Prince's nemesis also enjoys watching his girlfriend eat melted chocolate out of a diaper--and we get an hour focused on this behavioral tic, as well.

"Billions" is generally cartoonish, but there is enough attention to psychology to keep me interested (for now). Recently, two Prince employees refused an invitation to interview with a competitor. This would seem to be a virtue, in Prince's world, but in fact Prince understands something different about the refusal. I'm not taking the meeting because I know Axe will immediately seduce me--and I won't mention this stuff to Prince because the emotions Axe evokes are just very powerful and troubling for me. Prince fires the two ostensibly "loyal" employees.

And I'm always delighted by Condola Rashad's Kate, who briskly informs a scatterbrained source: "I need the thing. I do not need a list of your feelings about the thing...."

I'll miss this show.

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