‘Billions’ Season 5 Episode 1 review: WHAT IT’S ABOUT Chuck (Paul Giamatti) and Wendy (Maggie Siff) are dividing up; Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon) and the team have rejoined Axe Capital; Bobby (Damian Lewis) has a new rival and he’s even richer — Michael Prince (Corey Stoll) — while Chuck has a new friend, Catherine Brant (Julianna Margulies, that joins from the 4th episode.) Meanwhile, Bobby’s interest in art develops, or a single artist in particular: Nico Tanner (Frank Grillo –“Captain America’s” Brock Rumlow.) “Wags” (David Costabile) is exploring his inner-dad.
MY SAY The single real thing any”Billions” enthusiast desires from this review is a coherent response to the next: Is the 5th better than the 4th?
The Review ‘Billions’ Season 5 Episode 1
Let’s unpack that query, although otherwise or coherent, you’re going to get your response. Some hardcore grumbled about the end of their 4th which, though maybe a jump-the-shark one, was a”Caddyshack” one, with Chuck nemesis Bryan Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) effectively playing with the Bill Murray role, and Chuck as the gopher. (The gopher wins, as you will remember ). It was all so implausible, over-the-top, subsequently Taylor rejoins Axe Capital after everything?
Meanwhile, the new nemesis of Chuck is the one? What goes around comes around … and around.
What slowly appears on the hardcore is that”Billions” is really well done in a lot of smaller ways that it had fooled them into believing it needs to have a handle on the Large Ways too. That there’s some kind of bending of this arc within this universe toward finality and meaning, and that”Billions” has something important to say about human affairs, or that there is a real heart to Bobby worth knowing, worth investigating.
Nah. No bending circularity, and no heart but for the apparent. “I am a monster,” Bobby explains a couple of episodes in. (Uh-huh. We all understand ). The 4th pointed to a emptiness at the show’s core, too, where the echo we heard was the sound of carnivores bouncing from one another, like gilded ping pong balls. The”Billions” formula necessitates rivalries and rivalries we shall have.
I’m going with yes — when set beneath COVID-19 lockdown contrary New York, that the 5th better. We know what is important, even though Bobby does not. We can understand the vanity of those bonfires, and the pettiness of these . “Billions”‘ really is practically the depravity of the one-half-of-the-one-per cent, after all. Bernie Sanders may be an enthusiast. He’s got the opportunity to catch.
As always, the craftsmanship remains superlative. What other show has this many multi-level New York celebrities (and a five-star British one) who will juggle dialogue so rococo it leaves the listener with vertigo? What other play is this funny?