Television

Standard Of Review: 7 Ways To Fix ‘Billions’

As Billions ends its first season and begins to prepare for its second, television critic Harry Graff offers some suggestions on how to improve it.

By Harry Graff on March 31, 2016 10:08 am

billions logoTen episodes into its first season, I still do not really know what to make of Showtime’s Billions. On one hand, it’s a solid show that I always enjoy watching. On the other hand, it has enough flaws that it is pretty far from being a great show. So as Billions ends its first season and begins to prepare for its second, below are some suggestions on how to improve the show (this column contains spoilers through this Sunday’s episodes):

1. The Marriage Plot – One of the core tensions of Billions is that Chuck Rhoades, as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, seeks to prosecute hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, but his efforts are complicated by the fact that his wife Wendy works for Axe’s fund as a psychologist and performance coach. On paper, this is a great idea that Billions should be able to mine for juicy plot points. But the show suffers from a fundamental problem – I have trouble believing that Chuck and Wendy are actually married. Despite Wendy’s repeated statements that she loves Chuck, there is scant actual evidence of that on screen. Chuck is neither a good husband nor a loving father. Chuck treats Wendy with disdain, such as lying to her about his level of involvement in the case or making her uncomfortable by attending a funeral of one of Axe’s employees. And Chuck is not exactly father of the year, seemingly taking only a passing interest in his children’s lives. So why does Wendy love him? It is hard to believe that this is a marriage that actually exists, let alone one we should care about.

2. Less Food – Did your parents ever tell you not to chomp when you eat? Apparently Chuck never learned that lesson. I don’t know if this was an acting choice by Paul Giamatti or a character quirk dreamed up by the writers, but Chuck demonstratively chews on his food as if every meal is a porterhouse steak from Peter Luger. The writers generate numerous scenes of Chuck eating unhealthy food like burgers or Chinese food at restaurants or in his office, masticating like there is no tomorrow. Perhaps the writers’ goal is to make Chuck look like a hedonist and not the crusading ascetic that his public image might suggest. But I frequently end up grossed out at his chomping.

3. More Bryan Connerty – In my initial review of the show, I did not focus much on Bryan Connerty, one of the top AUSAs in Chuck’s office and Chuck’s second chair on the Axe investigation. But the show and actor Toby Leonard Moore have made Bryan into a real, three-dimensional character. At the show’s outset, Bryan rejects Biglaw jobs, and instead is a true believer in his work putting criminals behind bars.

Slowly but surely, though, Bryan’s righteousness is eroded by working with Chuck. One of the central themes of the show is that the government – ostensibly the “good guys” in fighting financial crime – engages in tactics that are as equally unethical and underhanded as those employed by Axe. For example, after Bryan is able to get an informant inside Axe’s office, Bryan is concerned that Axe is going to figure out that the informant is feeding information to the government. Chuck advises Bryan to plant phony information that a different employee of Axe is being investigated by the SEC, which would lead Axe to conclude that the other employee is the informant. Bryan initially balks, concluding that this action will hurt an innocent employee of Axe. But Bryan ultimately succumbs to Chuck’s pressure, and Axe fires the innocent employee, thus deflecting suspicion off the actual informant.

Chuck is immensely proud of Bryan and takes him out to a bar to celebrate. The resulting scene, in which Chuck and Bryan drunkenly but hollowly justify their behavior, sadly represents the loss of Bryan’s innocence. Bryan is still not completely on the dark side, but he is definitely on the road (or Rhoades) there. Bryan’s arc mirrors the mindset of many young attorneys, who go to law school in order to do justice but end up sacrificing those ideals for a paycheck or career advancement.

4. This is the End – Sometimes television shows benefit from a defined endpoint, allowing the writers to build forward momentum instead of spinning wheels. For example, after the notorious Lost episode “Stranger in a Strange Land” – often cited as the worst episode of that show – showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse convinced ABC to give them a certain end date, after which Lost quickly improved. Billions should follow that model. Showtime shows tend to last forever, but can you imagine Chuck still prosecuting Axe in Season 9 of Billions? The best thing for Billions would be to decide right now that it will end after four seasons, and to begin to work towards that goal.

5. Get the Guests – One of my favorite aspects about watching Billions on a weekly basis is seeing what actor is going to show up. So far this season, Billions’s  all-star crew of guests has included Jerry O’Connell, Rob Morrow, Terry Kinney, Dan Soder, Jeffrey DeMunn, Anthony Edwards, Harry Lennix, John Carroll Lynch, Ben Shenkman, Noah Emmerich, Jay Oakerson, and Kerry Bishé. While I know that 99 percent of the viewing audience probably does not care about any of these people, it always makes me happy when I see a familiar face onscreen.

6. Crossover with The People v. O.J. Simpson – In that vein, both Morrow and Steven Pasquale are pulling double duty on Billions and American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. Morrow plays Chuck’s Department of Justice frenemy Adam DeGiulio on Billions and member of Simpson’s super team of attorneys Barry Scheck on The People v. O.J. Simpson. Pasquale plays headhunter Chase on Billions and racist detective Mark Fuhrman on The People v. O.J. Simpson. Why stop there? Forget about the fact that The People v. O.J. Simpson is a true story about real characters, some of whom have passed away. Shouldn’t Axe hire a defense lawyer as brilliant as Johnnie Cochran? Couldn’t Gil Garcetti bring some much-needed discipline to the U.S. Attorney’s office? And who wouldn’t want to see Axe’s silver-spoon-fed sons mingle with Robert Kardashian’s daughters? Actually that last one is a terrible, terrible idea. Forget I mentioned it.

7. Chumba-what? – This week’s episode contains a flashback scene in which Axe is having an important conversation in the bathroom with his employee Donnie, who will later be the informant for the U.S. Attorney’s office. As Axe and Donnie are speaking, someone else walks into the bathroom listening to the 1997 song “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba. Axe yells at him to immediately leave the bathroom, but this brought to mind a number of questions. Who was this hedge fund employee who listens to “Tubthumping” at obscene volumes, in the bathroom no less? Was he listening to the entire Tubthumper album, or just that one song? Then, amazingly, the episode (which centers on Donnie) closes with audio of the “Tubthumping” line “Oh, Danny Boy, Danny Boy, Danny Boy.” As a child of the mid to late 90s, I was speechless. What other musical gems from the era could the show use? A scene of Axe’s opulence set to “Mo Money Mo Problems” by The Notorious B.I.G.? A tender love scene between Bryan and fellow employee Kate set to “All My Life” by K-Ci and JoJo? And of course, a scene of Chuck’s legal victory set to “I Want It That Way” by The Backstreet Boys?

I think I just fixed Billions.

Earlier: Standard Of Review: Showtime’s ‘Billions’ Shows Promise

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.