Billions (Showtime)

[TONGO]

Should I watch this show? I got not even 5 minutes into the pilot and some hooker is peeing on a guy after she put a cig out on his chest. I thought it was gonna be like Dallas.

[Siddon]

Should I watch this show? I got not even 5 minutes into the pilot and some hooker is peeing on a guy after she put a cig out on his chest. I thought it was gonna be like Dallas.




The sex stuff is fairly minor (and spread out) but you will get those shocking moments here and there.


You really don't understand what you are getting into by episode 6.


Once season two comes along you'll end up watching it in one sitting.


You'll also feel the need to go back and watch everything again to get all the characters straight because it's game of thrones level deep cast.

[honeykid]

Definitely watch it. It's one of my current favourites and I think it builds well on each previous season. At least, it has so far. That said, we're only 3 seasons in and I do feel that season/series 3 is, more often than not, the peak of a series once you look back on it.

[TONGO]

Thank you kid & don :) I'm starting season 2 of Wentworth and may watch Billions along with it.

[GulfportDoc]

I think Billions has a fine cast and a somewhat entertaining story. It's main fault was in too frequent grandstanding of the main characters by way of featured "speeches". It's almost as if the drums rolled, the spotlight came on, and the featured character had the stage to rattle off a page of script-- not so much to provide dialogue as to stand and deliver a soliloquy. I'm sure the actors loved it, but repetitive use of this technique became trite.

The S & M stuff was so incongruous and unnecessary that it was glaringly superfluous. Apparently all Showtime or HBO series now have to feature a kinky deviance of the month. Evidently no story can do without them. Bestiality and necrophilia will certainly be in vogue with a few month's time..:rolleyes:

Despite some good acting and decent plot spinning we had to bail somewhere between the 1st and 2nd seasons. If the consensus is that Billions got better later, then we might take another look. Giamatti's and Lewis' work is certainly at a high level, but we prefer seeing them portraying more believable characters.

~Doc

[honeykid]

The S & M stuff was so incongruous and unnecessary that it was glaringly superfluous. Apparently all Showtime or HBO series now have to feature a kinky deviance of the month. Evidently no story can do without them. Bestiality and necrophilia will certainly be in vogue with a few month's time..:rolleyes:

I'm in the UK and I have noticed (and pointed out on numerous occasions) that the subscription stuff in the US often has sexual or swearing/extreme violence scenes in the first 5 minutes. I assume it's not only to grab the viewer but, more likely, to show why you're paying the money. After all, if you're just getting quality you could probably show it on/watch network tv and not pay the extra.

Wentworth is also fantastic, T. I missed season 4 because my head exploded and my Sky box cannibalised itself in order to keep recording, so most of it disappeared, but I tuned in for season 5 and, with a couple of plots I had to catch up on, it continued very well and the quality hasn't dropped. Hope you enjoy it.

[GulfportDoc]

I'm in the UK and I have noticed (and pointed out on numerous occasions) that the subscription stuff in the US often has sexual or swearing/extreme violence scenes in the first 5 minutes. I assume it's not only to grab the viewer but, more likely, to show why you're paying the money. After all, if you're just getting quality you could probably show it on/watch network tv and not pay the extra.

Wentworth is also fantastic, T. I missed season 4 because my head exploded and my Sky box cannibalised itself in order to keep recording, so most of it disappeared, but I tuned in for season 5 and, with a couple of plots I had to catch up on, it continued very well and the quality hasn't dropped. Hope you enjoy it.
You make some good points, HK. I hadn't noticed that the rank stuff was particularly limited to early in the presentations. In Billions for example the kink interludes are peppered throughout. It's as if someone realized that there hadn't been a porn interlude in 30 minutes more or less, so it was time to throw one in. The interludes are annoying enough, but what is most irksome is that they have nothing whatever to do with the story or character development. It's as if they're porn commercial breaks..:)

It seems to me that early on, both nudity and language may have been a draw for the cable or subscription channels in the U.S. There was a pretty strict code on network TV, either written or unwritten. But today I suspect as many are drawn to these services because there are no commercials, and that the stories seem better developed. Those hold the attractions for me. But yet the mindset of the subscription services may still be that the public wants to see titillation and porn.

I haven't sampled Wentworth. I'm not a fan of prison movies, although there have been a few exceptions. The recent Escape at Dannemora is well done without dwelling on the overly trodden badass hierarchy of prison life. But IMO the prison class of stories was pretty much expired after 1947's Brute Force, with Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn. Still, I can't say that I've seen any female prison movies. With your recommendation it would be worth checking out.

~Doc

[TONGO]

I haven't sampled Wentworth. I'm not a fan of prison movies, although there have been a few exceptions. The recent Escape at Dannemora is well done without dwelling on the overly trodden badass hierarchy of prison life. But IMO the prison class of stories was pretty much expired after 1947's Brute Force, with Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn. Still, I can't say that I've seen any female prison movies. With your recommendation it would be worth checking out.

~Doc

The first season of Wentworth is good but at times felt a little too sanitary, harder than Orange is the New Black though. The second season it stepped up in every area and I honestly think you should give it a shot. ALOT of intrigue in Wentworth ;)