Billions

Great series similar in some ways to Wolf of Wall St and Succession. Loved those two as well. Billions is a clever collection of stories set in the high flying banking world, The cast are all fabulous - but let's be honest, the star of the show is / was Damien Lewis who played the lead - Bobby Axelrod (chief at the Axe Capital bank). Coming in at a very close second, in my opinion, is Paul Giamatti. Together, these actors provide outstanding onscreen performances as arch rival characters - with edge of seat excitment. But the class and intensity that Lewis brings to the show is second to none. He is utterly convincing in his role and pulls the cast around him to create compelling episodes in the first 5 seasons.

But all that changed when he left the show. I do not know the circumstances behind his departure, perhaps he felt it was done. Well, now it is and sadly season 6 tries, but will never reach the previous levels.

Seasons 1-5 the show had everything you want, good storylines, revenge, drama, personal vendettas. All the great actors and fireworks that go along with them. And honestly they had a really good thing going. I had no real complaints about the way they handled themselves, a few bumps here and there but overall a great show.

And then came season 6, this woke joke season is everything that's wrong with shows right now. First the direction they're going in is nothing short of boring and sad, second the way they went about it is just dumb, and of course let's not forget the main protagonist left. Honestly I have yet to meet a person who cares about anything they're doing now. But worst of all both the plot and the writing are complete and utter trash this season. I've never in my life heard so many references that no one knows or would ever recognize. They're starting to quote Latin phrases and philosophers and not even renown ones. And if that weren't bad enough, the plot is nonsensical. Chuck now comes off like a vengeful tyrant with no real bone to pick other than to snark and scowl at the rich, this isn't good or even decent, it's pathetic.

5/10, it was 10/10 for season 1-5 and now it's just bad so I figured I'll rate it in middle. Fair warning you give this show even 1 more season with this pathetic excuse for writing and I will outright drop the rating to 1.

The first two seasons of this show are some of the best TV I've watched. The battle between Axe and Chuck (two awesome lead characters) is thrilling, engaging stuff and there are some interesting sub-plots too. At one point it was one of my favourite shows of all time.

I was immensely excited for where this show would go but unfortunately it has ended up being a major disappointment. The writers went away from the rivalry that drove S1 and S2 and pushed the unbearable Taylor Mason as the lead character. Once they did that, this show started to go downhill. Season 3 was okay but S4 was utter garbage and now I don't care about the story.

This show is a perfect example of greed and political correctness ruining what was once a brilliant show. Such a shame

Season 1 - 4 were great. 5 however started to loose me. 6 was a total washout. Prince was a terrible protagonist, no match for Chuck, only was at times because the script said so.

Overall, this show is smart and well written, but not believable, people don't talk like this.

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.