Billions and Billions 2022

It has occurred to me that I haven't been providing my episode-by-episode impressions of Billions, that New York-centric show where the Governor and Attorney general of New York State are never in Albany, the state capitol. The Albany skyline just isn't as dramatic as zooming in from a helicopter over Manhattan.

As inaccurate as that part is, the show has legs. It is now in its 6th season, and is filled with New York City references. It's a Showtime show, so I don't know what ratings it must have on the West Coast, but it is obviously durable.

Gone is Bobby Axelrod, the Steve Cohen hedge fund character who creates fortunes the old fashioned way: insider trading. Bobby, Damien Lewis, jetted to Switzerland at the end of last season to avoid arrest for a failed attempt at hiding laundered money. Chuck had him, until he didn't.

Enter Mike Price, Corey Stoller, who has taken over Axe Capital and turned it into MPC, Mike Prince Capital, Mike is just as devious as Bobby, but is slightly adverse to going over the line headed for indictments. He's no less wealthy than Bobby, and certainly an Alpha+ male who never shaves but never seems to grow a beard beyond rugged stubble. Open collar, this guy is a dude without dangling bling around his neck. He has swagger.

Mike Prince advocates he's going to do things differently. His fund is going to make the investor audition to get on the 'Prince List.' No funny money is going to come in. Mike and his minions will get to choose the investor beauty pageant winners. Despite what seems to be Mike's altruistic approach to wealth management, the New York Attorney General, in the role of Charles Rhoades Jr. (Chuck) is taking  a scorched earth approach to billionaires.

Chuck himself is from a wealthy family. His father made a fortune in New York real estate. Chuck went to private schools in the city; he learned Latin; he went to and Yale on a legacy admission with no loans needed; he went to Yale Law School; he lives in a brownstone that likely has an East address with a number lower than 50, indicating proximity to Central Park. He occupies the entire brownstone. No sub-letting there. His kids go to private school in Manhattan. Chuck is rich. But not billionaire rich.

So the major plot line is drawn for Season 6. Chuck against the one-tenth of the one-percenters, no matter what they advertise themselves as.

The opening episode pits Chuck's working man anger at a wealthy, eccentric neighbor who abuts the Rhoades upstate gentleman's farm who thinks there is nothing wrong in firing revolutionary war cannons each day, filling the countryside with thunder and smoke. You know they're Revolutionary War canons because the guy's name is Revere.

The show is so sharply written that I have to wonder if the now deceased, long-term Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, who had a farm in Dutchess County, isn't somehow a model for Chuck. I don't know if Morgenthau ever felt the need to take on an upstate neighbor over noise. Little Hudson Valley news finds its way downstate. 

But if Robert did have a noise problem it would have to be a big noise problem, because I once read that Morgenthau was partially deaf from serving in the Navy during WW II and having his hearing impaired by the sound of battleship guns. The Morgenthau family was big in New York real estate. I once read that Robert's grandfather used his influence to get a subway line being built to have an express stop near where gran-père was developing apartments. Being near an express stop was meant to be a rental advantage. Morgenthau's father, Henry Morgenthau Jr. was FDR's Secretary of the Treasury ,and an architect of the New Deal.

The show's producers are a sharp lot. Dave Levian, Brian Koppleman and Andrew Ross Sorkin (also a financial reporter for the NYT) weave a tight rug. Chuck went to Yale Law school. Paul Giamatti's father was president of Yale, and then briefly the Major League Baseball Commissioner before passing away from a heart attack.

After the cannon guy, Chuck then embarks on getting doorman in upscale apartments that have doorman (you know, the guys with braid on their shoulder who look like Mexican generals) a better contract. After all, these guys  manned the buildings when all the tenants evacuated to the Hamptons when Covid was raging through the city. They didn't get to flee. They do all the subtle things, like hide the mistresses from the wife coming back from Pilates class.

For positions like Chuck's there is always a strong No. 2. For Chuck at the AG's office it was Kate Sacker, a statuesque woman who never loses a case. Mike knows where Samson's hair is, and aims to cut it off by poaching Kate from Chuck's staff.

Chuck has been promising help to Kate when she wants to run for Congress. Promises, promises. Kate wearies of the Chuck machinations and delays because he always needs her, and is open to Mike's offer. She shows up in knock-out designer clothing, because of course now she is making beaucoup bucks in the private sector and proceeds to keep Mike Prince on the straight and narrow ethically while showing off her clothes and figure when she sits down and crosses her legs. Kate the Great.

Back at the AG's office Chuck needs his own ego stroked with a big case win. He personally goes in as the lead prosecutor against a fishy fish company selling mis-labelled goods. His opposing counsel is a pit bull of a defense attorney who embarrasses Chuck in open court. Result: Chuck has fish on his face.

Not to be deterred, and now without Sacker, Chuck needs a strong No. 2.  Enter the counsel for the fish company, Daevisa Mahar, affectionately known as 'Dave' played by Sakina Jaffrey, a pitch perfect female Jewish lawyer from the lower East Side who knows New York City and has been a Legal Aid attorney, prosecutor and a white shoe defense attorney. She knows how to switch sides. And win. She succumbs to Chuck's entreaty, and comes to work for him. Or rather, the people of New York State.

At the outset of the new season we are introduced to Mike Price being attached to ropes, rock climbing. It seems his ex-wife Andy is a rock climbing expert who of course runs a rock-climbing school. Mike has plans for New York City. He's not the mayor or the governor, but he wants the city to host the 2028 Olympics. New York City has never hosted the Olympics, and Mike wants to put it in New York's backyard, with his ex-wife as the rock climbing coach.

I think rock climbing is slated to become an Olympic sport. The writers on Billions never miss a tie-in. I don't know if there is anything underway for a New York 2028 bid, but with Mayor Mike (Bloomberg) there was a concerted effort to land the 2012 Olympics that went to London.

Mayor Mike tried to sell the Olympic selection committee on the "internationalism" of New York. He paved the way for the artists Christo and his wife Jean-Claude to erect fabric "gates" throughout Central Park. The Gates They looked like slalom gates, or Brobdingagian orange underpants drying in the breeze.

Mayor Mike wanted to demonstrate New York had European culture. He wanted a West Side stadium to be built for the games, and later used by the Giant and Jet football teams.

Imagine a West Side stadium being used for tail-gating, such as space would allow. The Budweiser/bratwurst crowd meets the shrimp and white wine set. The fan dynamics would have been a treasure to behold.

Mike's pursuit of the Olympics for the city is relentless. Chuck's opposition to all things Prince is relentless. Mike is set to woo the city's female Black mayor, Tess Johnson, played by Gameela Wright, and Irish-American governor Bob Sweeny, played by Matt Servitto, with the largesse of a new subway system, the Olympic Express.

Mike tries everything. Buy the new subway cars that only need an engineer, and not a conductor as well. One-man trains. Advanced automation. European in design in every way. An upgraded signal system that will allow non-stop service to Olympic venues. (Where the rock climbing is going to take place is beyond me, unless it means scaling up the of sides of 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in the hemisphere, and peeking in as the residents get ready for their day—or evening.)

Mike tries to donate the subway cars; tries to schmooze the MTA. The city is not for sale. The Governor and the Mayor have dug their heels in since Chuck embarrassed them with a bullhorn demonstration near a proposed venue site.

Prince and the writers need to advance this Olympic plot line, so Mike gets Machiavellian in his machinations. He donates money. His minions ruin the city's bond ratings so that the public bond funds will carry an onerous interest rate. Ergo, no borrowing for the upgrades and new cars without Mike's money.

Mike woos the Olympic selection committee with scholarships for students sponsored by the member of the committee. He jets the committee in and woos them with helicopters rides to Springsteen and Bob Jovi performing at Asbury Park's Stony Pony.

Wags arranges for more traditional wooing with escort entertainment at a place called the Palazzo, a floating venue of seduction and all things naughty. Things are looking good, but not great.

There is a fly in the ointment. This European consultant who brokers Olympic deals with prospective host cities, Colin Drache, played perfectly by Campbell Scott, who nails the haughty European accent, coiffed and tailored look, slimy deal-maker, who rules the world, needs to be overcome.

Colin, in what is expected to be a conference room announcement at MPC to Mike, Wags and Scooter, says that yes, indeed the city will get the Olympics, but ever so subtly adds, "there are still some parties that need to be...pause...pause ...pause...inspired."

Did that Teutonic SOB just solicit a bribe? You betcha. The thesaurus will not list "inspired" next to bribe, but that's just what that Continental extortionist has done. Mike was trying to get the Olympics without resorting to the expected glad-handing and outright bribery, but here it is, the "inspired" hurdle.

Mike clears the room and he and Colin go mano-mano off camera. Meanwhile, Dave and Chuck are trying to derail Prince getting the Olympics for the city. Chuck's conscience can't allow a guy like Prince to woo his way in. It's almost like it's the Gilded Age. Chuck represents old money and power by patrimony of having almost come ashore from Henry Hudson's ship The Half Moon. Prince is the nouveau rich interloper. White Hat vs. Black Hat.

Chuck puts his top gumshoe Carl on it and he comes back about the helicopter ride to Asbury Park. From there, Dave extracts from a bartender information that the entourage all left for someplace called The Palazzo afterward.

There is no doubt guessing what The Palazzo is, but there is the unknown as to where it is. It is apparently a newly established, permanent floating high-end brothel that flits around Manhattan. No one seems to know where it has now landed.

Chuck, as anyone who has watched this series from the beginning knows, was quite the submissive, seeing a dominatrix and even having Wendy role play the tough, leather girl. Chuck has changed, but still has contacts in the sex underworld. He tracks his old dominatrix down and asks about Palazzo, telling her he is only there on business, and not kinky business.

She can't resist inflicting a little pain by yanking hard on Chuck's ear, but does come forth with the information, and the password for the place.

Chuck, Dave and a gaggle of state police approach the address as Chuck tries to get in using the password. Nope, "members only tonight."

Chuck didn't come unprepared. He instructs the police to take the door, and they do, forcing it open with a pair of battering rams. And what do they find? Many tables spread out in a large room, four at a table, well dressed men and women playing bridge. Dave comments that she's never seen so many people under 25 playing bridge. They've obviously been tipped off. And it turns out Wags has been the source of the tip. Chuck and the posse leave empty handed.

Chuck is getting desperate. The Olympic bid announcement is but a day away and he's got nothing to derail Mike from an outstanding victory. More digging, and Dave comes up with wire transfers of millions to Colin Drache's off-shore account. Can't tell if any are from Mike Prince, but they are for $5 million a piece. Inspired.

Is this the bribe Chuck is after? Round up the state police posse again and arrest Drache at the announcement party at Mike's brownstone. Drache is seen on the top step with a triumphant Mike, taking in the fireworks and cheers from the public who have heard the good news: New York City will host the 2028 Olympics! But before you can fire a starter's pistol, Drache is gone. Where is he? As one online reviewer put it, he disappears like Keyser Soze.

Mike tries to celebrate with Andy, his champion rock climbing ex-wife. They've been trying to rekindle the magic. He reluctantly concedes he'll try harder to be around, not be all business. She seems satisfied, for now. Hugs and kisses and whatever follows, follows off camera.

Chuck and Wendy meanwhile might have been reignited. They've ben bamboozled into manning some carnival fund raising booth for the kids' school. Chuck wins a silent auction to have the world-famous chef Daniel Boulud personally prepare a meal for two.

Chuck tries to give the voucher to Wendy, but she has no one to use it with, and Chuck certainly doesn't either. It occurs to them that maybe they'll both use it back at Chuck's brownstone together. What the hell, right? They even nearly have phone sex going over the possible menu with each other.

Chef Boulud puts on a sumptuous spread, but no Chuck and Wendy. They can't make it? Huh? Chef and the nanny sit down to some obscenely delicious entrées. Chuck and Wendy were last seen watching the Brownstone staircase demonstration of Mike winning the bid for the city. Where did they do?

Episode 8 might tell us if we see Chuck sit up smiling in a sumptuous hotel bed with lots of pillows, and Wendy comes strolling out of the shower wrapped in one of those hotel towels you can't get from that pillow guy in Minnesota, smelling fresh from the hotel bath soap, and there isn't a piece of leather or a whip in sight.

You GOTTA stay tuned.

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