It's a good show, especially thanks to smart writers and great actors - Giamatti and Lewis in particular. Many interesting characters and supporting characters. Degiulio, Hall, Orrin, Ben Kim, Dollar Bill, Spyros, Sacker and Cantu.
I think the show increasingly turns into this female empowerment focus which in itself is a good thing but unfortunately also makes the show less captivating and entertaining. They shifted away from their winning formula.
Sacker is a great character although borderline Mary Sue who apparently masters everything with perfect integrity and produces one impressive pop cultural reference after the other. Eventually you can't help but think it seems a bit unrealistic and forced when a geeky book smart woman clearly born in the 80s references movies and music that would be only natural coming from a streetwise guy born in the 60s and 70s. Coming from a character like hers, you get the feeling she's googling references just to be able to say them, as opposed to Wags and Axe.
Wendy Rhoades was great the first season when things focused on her impressive mental coaching and being relatively objective, but then throughout the seasons slowly shifts into a petty, spiteful, snobby and selfish individual with too much unearned respect and authority. Her moral downfall is interesting but they never managed to pull her back into an enjoyable character again. So much for character development. Reminds me of how they ruined Donna in Suits - she had her perfect niche as the sassy, quick-witted assistant to becoming a needy, insecure and annoying COO.
And then we have this over-the-top badass Bonnie character who, as pretty much all the women on the show, always gets the final word and is portrayed as 10x tougher than the guys. It's too much, seems more like a utopian character for certain writers rather than realistic and engaging.
The casting of Dave was probably the biggest miss - they should have had more focus on finding someone likeable instead of ticking yet another box. She comes off as manipulative and 'superior', but not in a fun, intriguing way.
Prince of course is not Axe, but given the circumstances he did okay.
Taylor is actually a decently interesting character despite the obvious forced progressivism behind the introduction, and makes enough sense.
From being a typical aggressive tradefloor with classic macho a-holes, the men slowly deteriorate into goofy whimps in a hedge fund now full of female badasses. That's a clear shift in the writing, and although this shift can be interesting to explore it unfortunately makes the show go from entertaining and fun to increasingly lame and melodramatic.
That said, overall it's a great show worth watching. Lots of fun moments and manoeuvres.
