Billions (TV series)
Billions is an American television drama series created by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. The show first aired on Showtime in January 2016, and has so far produced five seasons for a total of 55 episodes. The series is often set in large financial centers, most notably New York and Connecticut. The series tells the story of hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod, as he accumulates wealth and power in the world of high finance. Axelrod's aggressive tactics to secure high returns frequently cross over into the illegal—acts that United States Attorney Chuck Rhoades attempts to prosecute. A large ensemble secondary cast supports the series' story arcs.
Some plotlines mirror real-life prosecutions of financial crime by federal authorities. The series was inspired by the investigations undertaken by Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, on whom Rhoades is based. Bharara's 2013 prosecution of hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen of S.A.C. Capital Advisors loosely influenced the first season, while Salomon Brothers' 1991 manipulation of U.S. Treasury bonds inspired the second. The series also interweaves subplots with Wendy Rhoades, a psychiatrist turned performance coach, Taylor Mason, a market analyst, and Mike "Wags" Wagner, Axelrod's right-hand man.
The series has received generally positive reviews. Billions is considered the first American TV series to have a non-binary character. As such it was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series in the 29th, 30th, 31st GLAAD Media Awards for its representation of the LGBTQ community. The series has been nominated for multiple Satellite Awards, a Critics' Choice Television Award and an Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy Pilot Casting, the latter for its pilot episode. The show's coverage of the hedge fund industry has been recognized as realistic. The fifth season premiered on May 3, 2020.
Cast
Main
- Paul Giamatti as Charles "Chuck" Rhoades, Jr.: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who later attempts a run for governor of New York and is elected Attorney General of New York. Rhoades is ruthless and has a particular distaste for wealthy criminals who try to buy their way out of justice. Despite his significant power as U.S. Attorney, Rhoades struggles not to be overshadowed both by his higher-earning wife, Wendy, and by his well-connected, very rich father. He went to Yale and has a blind trust of which his father is a trustee. In private, he and his wife engage in BDSM role play, with Chuck acting as Wendy's "slave." The character is loosely based on Preet Bharara and Eliot Spitzer.
- Damian Lewis as Robert "Bobby" Axelrod: an ambitious billionaire manager of the hedge fund Axe Capital and a Hofstra University graduate who came from humble beginnings. He was one of his firm’s survivors of the September 11 attacks, reforming it as Axe Capital and paying the college tuition of the children of his colleagues who died in the World Trade Center. He is extremely charitable and generous in public, but uses insider trading and bribery to grow his firm's enormous wealth. He has animal-like instincts that make him extremely successful in his trading career. The character is loosely based on Steven A. Cohen and his former hedge fund S.A.C. Capital Advisors.
- Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades: a psychiatrist, in-house performance coach at Axe Capital and wife of Chuck Rhoades, Jr. She is self-possessed, motivated, and extremely successful. She has a strong relationship with Axelrod, her boss, with whom she has been working for more than 15 years. She participates with Chuck in various BDSM role play activities as Chuck is a sadomasochist.
- Malin Åkerman as Lara Axelrod : ex-wife of Bobby Axelrod and a former nurse. She is from a lower-class, blue-collar upbringing but has left her former self behind. She was devoted to her husband and their children. Her brother Dean was a firefighter who died during the 9/11 attacks. Lara disapproves of Axe's close relationship with Wendy.
- Toby Leonard Moore as Bryan Connerty, the Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force for the Southern District of New York and Rhoades's point man at the start of the series; he later succeeds Rhoades as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York until he engages in illegal witness tampering, eventually spending time in prison for his crime. Chuck transfers him to a white-collar prison after making a deal with his brother.
- David Costabile as Mike "Wags" Wagner: COO of Axe Capital and Axelrod's right-hand man. He is a known drug and sex addict and claims cocaine helps him focus on work.
- Condola Rashād as Kate Sacker: a former head of crime and Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, now attorney in Rhoades's office as Assistant to Attorney General of New York. She is biding her time until she has the opportunity to run for Congress. Her ultimate goal is to be President of the United States.
- Asia Kate Dillon as Taylor Amber Mason : a financial analyst at Axe Capital who becomes close to Axelrod, is appointed CIO of Axe Capital, and later forms Taylor Mason Capital, which is later forced back to Axe Capital as a subsidiary in-house fund under Axelrod's control.
- Jeffrey DeMunn as Charles Rhoades, Sr. : Chuck's father, a very wealthy and well-connected city/state power player who often uses his position to meddle in his son's affairs. He was abusive toward his ex-wife and frequently cheated on her. He had a child with, and then married, another woman.
- Kelly AuCoin as "Dollar" Bill Stearn : a portfolio manager at Axe Capital with such loyalty to Axelrod that he would risk incriminating himself to save him. He was described by AuCoin as "the cheapest millionaire in America." Dollar Bill frequently resorts to insider trading and other legally dubious measures to create high returns for Axe Capital.
Recurring
- Dan Soder as Dudley Mafee: an Axe Capital employee who joins Taylor Mason Capital as its first employee.
- Malachi Weir as Lonnie Watley: a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He later joins a private law firm after being passed over for Head of Crim in favor of Sacker.
- Terry Kinney as Hall: a fixer on Axelrod's payroll who went into hiding after Axelrod's arrest in the finale of season 2 and returned in the middle of season 3.
- Glenn Fleshler as Orrin Bach: Axelrod's legal counsel.
- Stephen Kunken as Ari Spyros: a law school classmate and colleague at a private law firm of Chuck before his involvement in the public sector as an investigator for the SEC. In season 3, Spyros becomes head of compliance for Axe Capital.
- Nathan Darrow as Mick Danzig: an Axe Capital employee, whom Axelrod got out of an automatic weapons charge, who quit the firm for ethical reasons after it bankrupted the city of Sandicot, but was hired back out of spite against Taylor in Season 4.
- Ben Shenkman as Ira Schirmer: an attorney and a former law school classmate of Chuck, as well as former CEO/Chairman of bankrupted Ice Juice.
- Sam Gilroy as Michael Dimonda: a financial reporter.
- Dennis Boutsikaris as Kenneth Malverne: a rival of Axelrod's who leads a competing hedge fund in Seasons 1 and 2 only.
- Jerry O'Connell as Steven Birch: a rival of Axelrod's who leads a competing hedge fund.
- Christopher Denham as Oliver Dake: an official misconduct investigator and later United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Fired by Jacob Jeffcoat in season 3, he becomes a law professor at George Washington University.
- Daniel K. Isaac as Ben Kim: A graduate of Stanford University and Wharton School of Business, he is a Korean-American employee at Axe Capital promoted to portfolio manager in season 3.
- Will Roland as Winston: Taylor's lead quantitative analyst.
- Rob Morrow as Adam DeGiulio: a high-ranking DOJ employee and later judge of the Southern District of New York. Chuck manipulated a powerful senator to get him the prestigious job of solicitor general.
- Louis Cancelmi as Victor Mateo: an employee of Axelrod's fired in season 1, funded outside in season 3 and forced back in season 4.
- Jack Gilpin as Sean Ayles: runs Axelrod's foundation for Axelrod after his rise to power is revealed to the public in season 1.
- Arthur J. Nascarella as Bruno Caparello: former aging owner of Axelrod's favorite pizza shop bought out by Axe in season 4.
Guests
Season 1
- Susan Misner as Terri McCue: an FBI agent
- Scott Cohen as Pete Decker: Decker financial later runs gym group thanks to chuck getting him to agree to plea deal to prevent his parents going to jail for his illegal deals.
- Deborah Rush as Ellen Rhoades: Chuck's mother and Sr's ex-wife as of season 5.
- Melissa Errico as June Raichlein
- Austin Pendleton as Goose Quill
- Christopher Paul Richards as Dean Axelrod
- Steven Pasquale as Chase: a headhunter who works with Wendy
- Anthony Edwards as Judge Whit Wilcox: a corrupt judge who sent minorities to jail for profits from his personally invested private jails.
Season 2
- Eric Bogosian as Lawrence Boyd: CEO of investment bank Spartan Ives who gets Bobby Axelrod arrested in season 4 for his role in sabotaging the Ice Juice product launch and Initial Public Offering.
- Danny Strong as Todd Krakow: a hedge fund rival of Axelrod's and as of season 3, the new Secretary of Treasury
- David Strathairn as "Black" Jack Foley: a power player in the New York State political arena considered a king maker, dead in season 4.
- Mary-Louise Parker as George Minchak: a specialist in candidate-vetting for Foley, season 2 only
- Christopher Paul Richards as Dean Axelrod
- Richard Thomas as Sanford Bensinger: American Champion founder of the Giving fund, which encourages the giving of wealth assets to be used for greater good of the world.
- Ritchie Coster as Donald Thayer
- James Wolk as Craig Heidecker
- Tammy Blanchard as Melanie
- Allan Havey as Karl Allard: assistant ASUA of EDNY sent to SDNY as Chuck's owed favor follows Chuck to State Attorney's office in season 4.
Season 3
- Mike Birbiglia as Oscar Langstraat: a disruptive impact venture capitalist who has a fling with Taylor Mason. He pulls his funds from Axe Capital in season 5 after Taylor Mason rejoins Axe Capital.
- Clancy Brown as Waylon "Jock" Jeffcoat: Attorney General of the United States, to be tried for crimes at the end of season 4 with Bryan Connerty.
- Harris Yulin as Judge Funt: owes Chuck a favor for keeping his son's medical career alive and not sending him to jail for misusing his prescription pad for his own drug addiction.
- John Malkovich as Grigor Andolov: a Russian oil billionaire, who is shadier than Axe and ruthless criminal in Eastern Europe protected by various authoritarian governments.
- Sarah Stiles as Bonnie Barella: a new trader at Axe Capital.
Season 4
- Nina Arianda as Rebecca Cantu: a billionaire financier and businesswoman that dates Bobby, grew up in small town Iowa.
- Michael Rispoli as Ritchie Sansome: a NYPD Captain who trades favors with Chuck
- Saul Rubinek as Hap Halloran
- Jade Eshete as Lauren Turner: an investor relations employee for Taylor Mason Capital
- Samantha Mathis as Sara Hammon: COO of Taylor Mason Capital
- Kevin Pollak as Douglas Mason: Taylor's Father
- Matt Servitto as Bob Sweeney: the New York Governor who was elected thanks to Chuck's influences
Season 5
- Julianna Margulies as Catherine Brant: an Ivy League sociology professor and bestselling author
- Corey Stoll as Michael Thomas Aquinius Prince: a business titan, grew up as small town Indiana farm boy, wants to give back to society. Prince attended New Castle High School where he was named Indiana Mr. Basketball as a senior.
- Roma Maffia as Mary Ann Gramm: District Attorney of Manhattan
- Daniel Breaker as Scooter Dunbar: Michael Prince's right-hand man
- Frank Grillo as Nico Tanner: a modern artist who Axelrod funds for 8 more paintings for himself.
- Rick Hoffman as Dr. Swerdlow: a medical man with unorthodox methods
- Rebecca Quin as herself
- Hikaru Nakamura as himself
Episodes
Production
Development
The series was ordered by Showtime in March 2015, and the first season premiered on January 17, 2016. On January 26, 2016, the series was renewed for the second season, which premiered on February 19, 2017. Showtime confirmed in April 2017 that Asia Kate Dillon, who is non-binary, would be a series regular in the third season. Billions is considered to be the first American TV series to have a non-binary character.Preet Bharara, the inspiration for U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes was somewhat critical of his casting, jokingly referring to the Italian American actor as "noted Indian American actor Paul Giamatti".
Broadcast
The first episode was made available on January 1, 2016, via video on demand services in the U.S. and via CraveTV in Canada. It premiered on Stan in Australia on January 27, 2016 and in Canada on The Movie Network on January 17, 2016, simultaneous with the American broadcast.Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an overall approval rating of 86%, with a rating of 77% for season 1, 89% for season 2, 93% for season 3, 97% for season 4, and 86% for season 5.. The site's critical consensus for the first season reads: "Despite a lack of likable characters, Billions soapy melodrama and larger-than-life canvas offer plenty of repeat viewing potential." For season 2 it reads: "An influx of new characters and a fresh narrative twist give Billions an added boost during its thoroughly entertaining second season." The site's critical consensus for the third season states:"Anchored by the performances of Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, the third season of Billions continues a convincing fable of greed, power and competition." On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season reads, "With tables turned and alliances formed, Billions fourth season goes full throttle with sharp dialogue, better rivalries, and bigger stakes." On Metacritic, the first season has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews", while the second season has a score of 67 out of 100, based on reviews from 6 critics, also indicating "generally favorable reviews". Praise for the series has steadily grown over time—also on Metacritic, its third season scored a 77 out of 100, while its fourth currently holds a score of 87 out 100 based on reviews from 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The show's coverage of the hedge fund industry has been widely recognized as realistic.In 2017, after introducing Taylor Mason in season 2, Billions became the first American TV series to have a non-binary character and actor. The series has received positive comments because of its representation of non-binary gender, with praise for its depiction of inclusion of non-binary pronouns in the workplace.