Following the eventful and status quo shifting season 4 finale, the characters of Billions adapt to their new scenario. Wendy (Maggie Siff) is living in one of Axe’s flats as she deals with her separation from Chuck (Paul Giamatti), who himself is reeling from the separation and has put to aside his truce with Axe and is gunning for him again. Axe (Damian Lewis) has managed to bring Taylor Mason (Asia Kate Dillon) back into the Axe Capitol family for an uneasy alliance, at the same time as new troubles both personal and business lay ahead for him.
Billions is often now compared to HBO’s Succession (2018) and they do share large similarities as glossy shows, with sharp writing and a large ensemble cast that focuses on the lives of the incredibly rich. However, a comparison with Jesse Armstrong’s juggernaut won’t do many shows any favours, but Billions has been around longer and is not interested in that comparison, because it has its own identity. What makes Billions shine is that despite the real drama and great production values, it is also very self-deprecating and full of razor-sharp writing that not only delivers great twists but also intentionally campy and pop culture specific dialogue for its excellent to say.
The decision to bring in Mike Prince (Corey Stoll) as a new adversary to Axe was much needed, and the best moments of the season happen when the two ‘alpha’ males are together and playing psychological warfare with each other. Lewis and Stoll really shine in these moments, and especially with Axe having a partial crisis about what he really wants from life right now, this new adversary really brings out the best (or worst in many ways) in him. I look forward to where the rest of the season takes this story, as Prince seems at the moment to have the upper hand at every stage right now, but never write out Axe.
Although they bring in new characters and storylines, everything Chuck does is simply less interesting when it doesn’t involve Axe and Wendy, and despite Giamatti’s best efforts, Chuck does feel very much secondary in this season and increasingly desperate in going after Axe all the time.
The best dynamic in the show is one that has slowly revealed itself and really came to a head in season 4, and that is the friendship/chemistry between Wendy and Axe. The two bounce off each other perfectly and their scenes simmer with sexual chemistry, and this is quickly becoming the real heart of the show. This will they/won’t they continues here, with the disappointing development of Wendy taking a new partner (something Axe does not handle well), and it felt like a slight let down after a season 4 finale that really teased something, and I hope the rest of the episodes pursue this more.
There are good performances all around as always, but in this season so far it is very much Lewis and Siff who shine, both in scenes together and apart. There are very few actors on TV who can make mysterious and often nasty men as likable and charismatic as Lewis does, and Bobby Axelrod is likely the best example of that. As for Siff, over the years she has become just as much a lead as Lewis or Giamatti, and she continues to show why here, as she is the connective tissue between the two main side of the story, and is forging her own way now, and Siff brings real strength but also vulnerability to Wendy in this season, which makes you really connect to her journey.
There is definitely a feeling of the show struggling, now into its fifth year, to really decide whether it wants to continue to tread the old ground that has proved successful, or to forge a new way forward for the show and its characters. In these seven episodes, it bounces between doing either and therefore has varying levels of success and failure. However, it is clearly not helped by the fact that Covid caused the season to be stopped essentially halfway through, so we cannot fully tell yet whether they were building towards something much more different and bolder, and a new direction for the show in the rest of season 5 (and into the already announced season 6).
Overall, this is still very much an enjoyable show with some snappy writing, strong production values and superb cast, but it is important that in the final episodes of this season, whenever they are released, that Billions forges a new dynamic and allows itself to have a real purpose again instead of re-treading old successes.
Rating = 3/5
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