This week on Billions, Axelrod takes a swing and affluenza kids are taken clamming. My thoughts are after the jump.
This week felt like a bit of a filler episode. There was a ton of ground covered last week so when this episode aired, I felt like the momentum slowed down a bit. It was still a fascinating episode but it had the least amount of material to offer so far in the series.
We did however get a fantastic opening scene with Axelrod finding out about his neighbor Bruce driving Axe's kids home drunk after getting some swimming pool laps in. So, what does he do? He dashes away in just his swim trunks, jumps in his jeep, and proceeds to drive over to Bruce's house party to deck him right in the nose. The drunkard deserved it for sure, but as it always goes in the land of the rich and famous, stories are told and some of them do not look good for Axe and the incoming charges from Bruce. That is basically the bulk of the episode; Axe trying to make his way around bad publicity so he can avoid losing a bit of money. Interesting? Sure. Does it push the plot along? As far as I can tell at the moment, not really. Yes, you can chalk it up to "character development" but it seems like stuff we already know about Bobby Axelrod. He is not one to mess with, he will hurt you if he is wronged, and he will get away with it. We have seen him do this in the non-profit sector already, but I guess a reminder does not hurt, especially with Chuck and the team doing more digging on him.
The bit of the episode that pushed the plot along just a tad bit was Chuck having some conflicts with his old team. He recused himself from Axelrod's case last week, though he still wants to be in the loop. This leads to a bit of friction with certain individuals wanting more credit and control over the proceedings. Chuck is able to put them in his place, another one of the show's way of drawing parallels between Bobby and Chuck. Chuck may not be as subtle or even as good at getting his way, but he will get it done. Unless his wife takes charge.
We had a tiny bit of Wendy this week. We had a scene with her and Bobby meeting with another business couple who are doing a much better job at their marriage than they are. (Great cameo by John Carrol Lynch. It is always great to see him.) After Wendy takes control of Chuck, alluding to another night of weird kinky Paul Giamatti sex, she explores her other options so she does not have to work for Axe anymore and release the tension between her and her husband. Chase, her headhunter type, finally comes back with an offer at another company with a fantastic salary. She would be crazy not to accept this deal. However, crazy is a thing not foreign to the characters on this show. Though, my real concern is not if she will take it, but if Axelrod will let her take it.
Last thing to mention is Axe's wife and the kids at home. It is as if the show realizes that it has not focused on these characters nearly as much as anyone else and decided to give them a subplot this time around. I liked the idea of "affluenza" being addressed in theory, but in practice it was tedious. I did not need to see any of it and it just resulted in having a couple of scenes with whiny children that distracted from the rest of the episode. As for the final scene with Axe pulling the kids out of their camping trip and enabling their brattiness, I do not know what it is implying. Nothing good for sure, but I felt that the message was a bit unclear.
All in all, this was an interesting episode with some intriguing ideas moving forward. Not too much plot development here, but that is fine as long as these ideas are delivered on in the next few weeks of the show. I definitely missed this show last week when it took a break so I am glad that it is back.
Grade: B-.
No comments:
Post a Comment