Billions: a great series about people who don’t know how to lose

Billions is one of the best series of recent years. Seven seasons, memorable characters and a premise that sounds boring on paper but hooks you on screen from the very first episode.

It turns a world that could be quite technical and boring into a highly entertaining series, with morally gray characters and enough personality that you don’t just watch it to kill time.

It is a long series, uneven in places, but fairly consistent. And above all, it is one of those series that stays with you.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a good investment of your time. Better than 99% of any platform’s catalogue.

What Billions is about, without spoilers

The series begins with a clash between two very powerful men: Chuck Rhoades, a federal prosecutor in New York, and Bobby Axelrod, a billionaire at the head of a hedge fund.

One represents the law. The other, private money and the influence that comes with it.

In the middle is Wendy, who works for Axelrod as a therapist and, in turn, is Chuck’s wife. That complicates everything, but not in the way you imagine.

It is not a relationship drama. It is that Wendy knows both of them from the inside, understands how they think and, for a long time, works as the only point of balance between two brilliant, obsessive men who are quite willing to justify anything if they believe they are right

That said, Billions does not take long to open up beyond that triangle.

What begins as a legal pursuit ends up being a series about how ambition works: at work, at home, with friends, with partners.

Almost every character wants something, and almost all of them are willing to pay (or charge) a price to get it. The series explores that price with quite a bit of honesty, showing that there are no white knights, just that we are all fairly gray.

Even more so in the world of Wall Street, hedge funds and the federal prosecutor’s office, which is the setting where the plot unfolds.

That said, be clear that you do not need to know anything about finance to enjoy it. Obviously, it uses financial jargon, talks about complex deals and leans on a very specific world, but what really drives the series is far more universal: everyone wants to win, how much they are willing to sacrifice and how far they can go without losing themselves irretrievably along the way.

A series of characters

Billions has plot, and in its first seasons that is the main thing. There are investigations, legal moves, traps, leaks, betrayals, political and business strategies. But from minute one it is clear that the series is its characters.

Bobby Axelrod is the most charismatic character in the series. Not the best in moral terms, but definitely the one who raises the temperature of every scene when he appears. He has that slightly insulting confidence of someone who has been winning for so long that he can no longer conceive of any other option.

He is played by Damian Lewis, and he does it very well. Axelrod can work as an antihero or as a villain depending on the season. Sometimes you want him to win. At other times, the series reminds you that idealizing him is a mistake. But even when he acts in questionable ways, it is hard to look away.

Chuck Rhoades is different. He has less charisma, but no less intelligence. Paul Giamatti plays him with a mixture of pride, resentment and a constant need to prove that he is always the smartest person in the room and one step ahead.

Chuck’s problem is that it is not always easy to know -not even for him- what he really wants: justice, power, revenge or simply to win? Probably all three things at once, and that mix of ambitions makes him more human. And also more wounded and imperfect.

Wendy, is perhaps the character who evolves the most throughout the series. At first, she is perhaps the standard-bearer of morality in contrast to the other two.

But later on she loses some consistency in a way that is not entirely well justified. That is why she loses part of her status as the series progresses.

And she loses it because Taylor Mason is the smartest addition to the series. They appear later on, are cold, hard to read and have a different way of understanding power.

They do not replace anyone, but rather bring their own vision and ambition and prevent the series from being trapped in the initial duel between Chuck and Axe. They are at least as intelligent and strategic as the other two, just younger.

On a lower level, Mike Prince is also a good character, but he has an obvious problem: he is not on Axelrod’s level as the great central threat. Not because Corey Stoll does a bad job, but because the series itself pushes him toward an ambition that is too large and not always believable. His political turn feels somewhat forced.

Then there are the supporting characters, who are a fundamental part of the pleasure of watching Billions. Wags works very well as Axe’s right-hand man, with that mix of loyalty, cynicism and excess. Mafee brings humanity into a fairly savage environment. Dollar Bill represents the most aggressive logic of Axe Capital very well.

And, above all of them, we have Chuck’s father, Chuck Sr.. He is a supporting character who elevates many scenes just by appearing. He is unpleasant, classist and politically incorrect, but he has an internal coherence that makes him work very well.

He apologizes for nothing and has no intention of doing so at this point in his life. One of the most rounded characters in the series.

It’s not Wall Street, it’s spectacle

You should not go into Billions expecting a realistic portrait of Wall Street. It uses financial formulas, legal language, complex operations and references to the world of money, but everything serves the spectacle.

Making a seven-season series about prosecution, investment, funds, politics and financial elites entertaining was not easy. Billions pulls it off because everything is a little exaggerated. Just enough for each conflict to have more tension, each character to seem brighter and each conversation to carry a strategic charge that it surely would not have in real life.

Visually, too, it reflects that upper-class and ultra-wealthy world very well. Huge apartments, immaculate offices, expensive restaurants, spectacular houses and a way of life that, seen from the outside, can inspire a certain envy. Anyone would feel like living in some of those places. Then you see the rest of their lives, of course, and the envy drops quite a bit.

Here the comparison with Succession is inevitable. Both series talk about power, elites, huge egos and personal relationships contaminated by ambition. But the feeling they leave behind is different.

Succession has more critical prestige, but it can also feel colder, more unpleasant and, from my point of view, somewhat overrated. Its characters are so hateful that you often want things to go badly for them. All of them.

In Billions, on the other hand, the characters do terrible things, but they are more understandable and human. You can empathize with them even when you should not. It may be less realistic and less sharp, sure, but it is more entertaining.

Evolution across the seasons

The first seasons are the strongest. The engine is clear: the central conflict is powerful and the series knows exactly what it wants to say.

Later on, Taylor’s arrival broadens the board nicely without forcing anything. The series begins to explore more forms of ambition and power, giving it more room to grow.

Finally, the stage with Mike Prince as the central antagonist is the weakest. Prince is not a bad character, but when the series tries to turn him into a huge threat, with all his political side, it loses credibility. Billions remains more than acceptable in that stretch, but you can tell it is below its best moments.

However, the final season regains some of its pulse.

It is not the best possible ending and it resolves the problem too easily, especially considering the scale of the threat it had built before, but it does leave a satisfying feeling. After a more uneven stage, it raises the level again with a more than decent conclusion.

What I liked most about Billions

Billions manages something difficult: making a world that could be very dry on paper entertaining. Federal prosecution, hedge funds, politics, regulation. All of that could have led to a series drier than eating cardboard.

But no, here it becomes a continuous power game that is a pleasure to follow.

And it is a pleasure to follow because of its characters. Very upper-class characters who are a tiny bit over the top. With strengths and weaknesses and who also evolve.

Not always with the same success, but with enough development for you to notice the effect of the passage of time and of their decisions. They are not the same at the beginning as they are at the end, which is appreciated in a seven-season series.

Of course, for the characters to shine, their dialogue has to be up to the task.

The ones in Billions are fast and sharp. No one talks like that in real life -everyone always seems to have the exact right line ready- but it gives the series a more ambitious tone and sets it apart from others that are flatter or less carefully crafted.

You can feel the writer’s hand, but in this case that excess is entertaining and suits it well.

Finally, this is a series to watch without your phone. To pay attention to. It gives a lot, but it demands from you a higher level of attention than the one we have become used to in many productions of recent years. Because of the subjects it deals with, because of the number of characters and because storylines from several seasons intertwine.

What I like least about Billions

One part that does not work so well is that it sometimes stretches its characters’ intelligence too far.

Chuck and Axelrod -and almost Taylor or Mike too- are brilliant, but at times they seem capable of anticipating everything implausibly far in advance. Superhumanly so.

It is hard to believe they had some twists planned, to the point where you know that there will always be an ace up someone’s sleeve from one of them. But because the tension is well constructed, it barely takes any excitement away from the final stretches of some conflicts.

The evolution of some character also did not quite work for me, but it is a minor point.

Verdict

Billions is well worth watching. It is an entertaining, ambitious and fairly consistent series. It is not light, but it is not inaccessible either. It only asks you to pay attention.

It has some very good seasons, a weaker stretch near the end and a finale that recovers part of its level. It has a cast of characters you will remember and a distinctive universe you will want to squeeze dry until the end.

Do not watch it expecting a faithful portrait of Wall Street or a deep critique of capitalism. Watch it for what it is: a series about very intelligent people who do not know how to settle for what they have. And pay the price for it.

Billions technical details

Field	Data
Original title	Billions
Year	2016-2023
Seasons	7
Episodes	84
Creators	Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin
Main cast	Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Maggie Siff, Corey Stoll, David Costabile, Asia Kate Dillon, Condola Rashad, Jeffrey DeMunn
Genre	Drama
Country	United States
Spoilers	No, just light mentions of the general evolution