Billions

Author
Discussion

Fifty

9,392 posts

232 months

Tuesday 24th October 2023
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Other than openly admit that he'd quite happily pull the nuke trigger first?

Higgs boson

1,105 posts

168 months

Tuesday 24th October 2023
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Funk said:
It's because someone taking the piss called him 'Mike Prints' - he gets a bit touchy about it and took it out on a poor, undeserving Epson.
Very good. biggrin

P-Jay

11,042 posts

206 months

Tuesday 24th October 2023
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highway said:
Corey Stoll plays Prince as a fundamentally alright sort of bloke. The only questionable things he’s shown to have done are getting his wife’s lover taken captive and stealing the self repairing concrete idea.
I don’t think the story has done nearly enough to show him as being dangerously unstable and not suited for office
I think it mostly comes from 'The Oracle' AKA Wendy, and we're supposed to just accept it. She sees his almost unlimited resources and resilience combined with an over-blown, God complex ego as the worst mix for President.

They have evolved the character a lot. After all, the Series was supposed to end 2 series ago with Axe losing, but finding a ‘win’ at the last moment. He came in as the anti-Axe, driven by morality, not greed. In Series 6 and 7 he’s become so self-righteous he can’t even contemplate he may be wrong. The way he treats his employees, he’s obviously paranoid, the rings the hidden CCTV etc, and expects absolute loyalty and obedience. He’s surrounded himself with sycophants all competing to be closer to Prince. You can see it in the way he treated his Wife’s side-piece, he didn’t give him up just because he was the wife’s BF, he tried to hide that from her, not even because it benefited him, in so-much that he was absolutely sure that leaving him out to dry to get him into the White House was the greater good for America and the world.

Some people think he’s based on Trump and there are some elements of that, but I think a closer match is Elon Musk. Elon believes his own hype and the almost mythical stories about himself. Luckily Musk can’t run for POTUS.

Kevin Cozner

1,077 posts

119 months

Tuesday 24th October 2023
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Fifty said:
Other than openly admit that he'd quite happily pull the nuke trigger first?
If he was certain the other side were about to, which I have some sympathy with. If you know 100% the other side are about to nuke you, why wait? And besides, isn't that the right thing to say to ensure the nuclear deterrent remains a deterrent?

Either way, it doesn't portray him as so beyond the pale of even a typical politician that he must be stopped at any cost. In my opinion.

LF5335

7,443 posts

58 months

Tuesday 24th October 2023
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Kevin Cozner said:
If he was certain the other side were about to, which I have some sympathy with. If you know 100% the other side are about to nuke you, why wait? And besides, isn't that the right thing to say to ensure the nuclear deterrent remains a deterrent?

Either way, it doesn't portray him as so beyond the pale of even a typical politician that he must be stopped at any cost. In my opinion.
The buck stops here - Truman. This wasn’t enough for him

I am the buck.

The whole point is you’re supposed to see a megalomaniac who is so far removed from reality that he’ll do anything to stay in power aka Trump.

highway

2,343 posts

275 months

Wednesday 25th October 2023
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If you want to show he’s a bad guy, then show he’s a really bad guy. That’s not been done here and they have had ample time to do so. Could have shown him being vindictive, spiteful and a load of other ‘baddie’ terms.
It’s just not been done.
And nearly every cast member speaks in the same fast, clipped, pointy sort of way. With some adding in pop culture references to try and sound modern.
It’s been a good series but it’s definitely run its course.
Axes wife just disappeared and Taylor went from co- star to generic ensemble cast member.
Prince seems no more diabolical than Chuck. Or Axe

LF5335

7,443 posts

58 months

Wednesday 25th October 2023
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I think what they’ve done is make it clear that Prince is the bad guy, whilst not being that bad really. He’s not got any truly redeeming features, just that you feel a bit sorry for him. Whereas the Axe vs Chuck aspect was more nuanced. You liked both, you wanted both to win, you also disliked both and wanted both to lose. They were likeable fleshed out characters, Prince isn’t, he’s just a foil to end the series.

I agree it ran its course about 2 series back, now it’s just turned a bit too pop culture, obscure US celebrities for anyone outside the US and super fast “aren’t we sooooo clever” talking.

jonsp

1,192 posts

171 months

Wednesday 25th October 2023
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highway said:
Corey Stoll plays Prince as a fundamentally alright sort of bloke. The only questionable things he’s shown to have done are getting his wife’s lover taken captive and stealing the self repairing concrete idea.
I don’t think the story has done nearly enough to show him as being dangerously unstable and not suited for office
Remember the billions in crypto he had hidden? That was rather naughty, although he ended up losing it

thepritch

1,564 posts

180 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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A very late , latecomer to the Billions party. Saw this thread surface a few days ago having never heard of it. I read a few posts with intrigue and as I was out for the count with (man)flu I figured it could be a decent watch.

Have binge watched the 1st series and halfway through the second in about 3 days. Loving it!

(I have to admit to regularly rewinding a lot due to slipping into sleep. And had to put on subtitles at some points as the voices were a bit mumbled so I couldn’t clearly hear what they were saying)

Looking forward to more!

daqinggregg

4,502 posts

144 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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The early series (2/3) of Billions, I found myself constantly having to Google things because I’m not very au fait with the world of financial jargon (that was a good thing) not many TV series had/have me doing this.

Latterly it’s become dumbed down; sure it’s had its high points (Chuck’s dalliances, etc.) but just seemed to have run out of steam.

Fortunately season 7 seems to have got it mojo back, while no where near as enjoyable as the early seasons, it’s still a decent watch.

Slop

503 posts

236 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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IMO, first few series were great, almost worth it for the art and the cars

https://www.imcdb.org/movie_4270492-Billions.html

Went off for a while, loving the new series

S

Kevin Cozner

1,077 posts

119 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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highway said:
If you want to show he’s a bad guy, then show he’s a really bad guy. That’s not been done here and they have had ample time to do so.
It probably just shows how cynical we are about politicians that short of Prince going full Holocaust we don't think they've done enough to portray him as someone who is so bad, beyond even our current politicians, that he must be stopped at all costs.

Fifty

9,392 posts

232 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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5am tomorrow and we find out….

Fifty

9,392 posts

232 months

Friday 27th October 2023
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No actual spoilers but I guess it panned out how we all kind of expected. Some nice 1:1 scenarios but I can’t quite work out if I’m satisfied or not?

a311

6,146 posts

192 months

Friday 27th October 2023
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Fifty said:
No actual spoilers but I guess it panned out how we all kind of expected. Some nice 1:1 scenarios but I can’t quite work out if I’m satisfied or not?
I had no intention of watching it live but happened to be awake and up so put it on. It had a lot to do in a short amount of time so for me spent the majority of the time closing out of story lines.

They probably could have done a bit more to make Prince a bit more of a bad guy, as im still not sure he was all that bad, but was satisfying to see Axe take him down all the same.

Greshamst

2,350 posts

135 months

Friday 27th October 2023
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maybe I’m being dumb here, but the Admirals fund doesn’t make sense to me… if Prince had bought the company from Ax, then all funds belong to Prince. So any funds diverted out of Michael Prince Capital to the Admiral Fund would belong to Michael Prince. You can’t just say “oh here’s an old dormant company account that you didn’t know about, so the money isn’t yours anymore


LF5335

7,443 posts

58 months

Friday 27th October 2023
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pretty much as expected, although the two extras at the start were a bit of a surprise, although there were always going to be more “surprises” in the final episode. I love the idea that they’re all multi-billionaires now while poor old Mike is skint with just $100million to his name. I’d take that level of skint all day long.

There is the small matter of him being able to make a comeback as he promised, as plenty do in the real world.


Anyway, it was an agreeable conclusion to a fine series. It should have concluded a few series ago, but this has been a good watch.

-Cappo-

20,168 posts

218 months

Friday 27th October 2023
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Just finished it. Without adding a spoiler tag, I'll just say, I'm very happy with the wrap-up.

(Oh ok, I'll add a spoiler biggrin)



TBH, it was a bit far-fetched in places really, but it did tie a lot of loose ends together and was still very enjoyable, and, I feel, finished well.


Gweeds

7,954 posts

67 months

Saturday 28th October 2023
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Yep - happy with the way that ended. It does leave some doors open for the rumoured spin-offs but I think they should leave it.

LuckyThirteen

790 posts

34 months

Saturday 28th October 2023
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It had the feel of

'lets just wrap it up and tie off all loose ends'

It was satisfying, but also unsatisfying.

The last series has felt hurried towards its conclusion. The last two series had the feel of having to almost make it up as they went along.

All this said, it's been an overall enjoyable watch