What is the secret of the popularity of the TV series "Billions" - a film about those who make the world bend under themselves

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Too much professional slang, too few attractive character traits, complex financial machinations, primitive human weaknesses - and yet "Billions" received the same audience recognition and rather high ratings. What's the secret to the show's success? In addressing the world-old theme of the struggle for money and for power? Or in a game led by heroes - a game that is subtle and often rather dirty, but still exciting, because the stakes are very high?

Filming the series and its plot

The premiere of the first season of "Billions" took place in January 2016, and now the fifth is being prepared for release, and there is no reason to predict an early completion of this project. The series has been collecting good reviews for four years, and viewers accept it more favorably than critics. In "Billions" there are no good characters, even just cute characters are hard to find there. Only those who are "in the subject" are able to follow the logic of most conversations of financiers, and the creators of the series do not condescend to the non-professional viewer in terms of explanations of terms. And yet, the release of new series is expected all over the world, including in countries where hedge funds do not exist at all and this area of business remains something exotic.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financier and columnist for The New York Times, co-wrote and wrote the series, taking as the main storyline the confrontation between Chuck Rhodes, Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Bobby Axelrod (Ax), billionaire and head of hedge -fund. The activities of the second are related to the management of investments of large players, and often success is achieved through the use of insider information from the business world. This is prohibited by law and punishable. Chuck Rhodes, by virtue of his desire for justice, ruthlessly fights against criminals, and Ax for him is another big fish that should join the list of caught and punished tycoons of the financial world.

The details of the scriptwriters were thrown by life itself, the prototype for this character was the ex-prosecutor of the Southern District of Preet Bharara, who earned the fame of the most aggressive fighter against corruption in New York. During his tenure, from 2009 to 2017, he brought to justice over a hundred Wall Street executives, targeting, among others, Steve Cohen, head of hedge fund SAC Capital. This is the prototype of another hero of the series - which is easy to guess at least by the similarity of the names of the companies - the real one and the serial one.

The struggle between these two figures in the series is complicated by the fact that Axelrod's wife has been working for many years for Rhodes, who is a valuable part of the team and is forced to distinguish between her family and professional roles.

A lot of attention is paid to the family in Billions, but it must be admitted that as an institution it loses to other, stronger relationships based on joint business and common financial interests. The themes of marriage, the relationship of fathers and children in the series almost never leave the agenda, and it seems that against the background of financial cataclysms of the modern world, family and family ties become an archaic and burdensome relic of the past, and sentimentality becomes an anchor that interferes with a person in his natural the desire for power and money, and ultimately for freedom. Because the financiers and the rich of "Billions" know: after certain amounts, that level of well-being begins, which allows you to "send everyone" and live in a new, different dimension.

TV series actors

Aksa was played by Damian Lewis, a British actor who had already received an Emmy and a Golden Globe by that time for his role in the TV series Homeland. The image of his opponent Chuck is embodied by the actor Paul Giamatti, who could be seen in supporting and leading roles in the films "The Truman Show", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Illusionist".

Both heroes have young, successful and beautiful wives, the blonde Lara, played by Malin Ackerman, and the brunette Wendy, the one that becomes part of this strange triangle - albeit not a love triangle, but still very reminiscent of it. Her role was played by Maggie Siff. The number of minor and incidental characters in the series is quite impressive, the roles were played by members of the Metallica group, and its vocalist James Hetfield voiced, perhaps, the main motto of the series: "I just play."

In the third season, Ax's main opponent in this game is no longer Chuck, but the head of the Russian mafia Grigory Andolov, who was brilliantly played by John Malkovich.

It is difficult to reproach the creators of Billions for displaying only “glossy” faces on the screen, no, on the faces of “financiers” you can see traces of stress, lack of sleep, and the habit of constantly being on the lookout, because the game continues every minute. Perhaps, they are more attracted to female characters - ambitious and enterprising, who do not agree to secondary roles and even vice versa, who have great power over their husbands.

A distinctive image, certainly remembered by the viewer, is Taylor Mason, a person of non-binary gender, who in the series insists on using “they” instead of “he” or “she”. This is so far atypical for the Russian viewer discussion of variations in the awareness of their gender identity. Actress Asia Keith Dillon, who played Taylor, a brilliant assistant, and then Ax's opponent, as well as her character, defines herself as a person of a gender other than male or female.

Show triggers: what triggers strong emotions in the viewer?

"Billions" is a series that is relevant for the present time, since it touches on several acute issues of modern society. At the same time, through the interaction of the characters, the creators show the existing views on some social irritants, and therefore at certain moments it is difficult to remain indifferent to what is happening on the screen, since the parallels with the real life of everyone can be traced quite clearly.

The struggle between financiers and legalists cannot be waged in a vacuum, it is woven into family and everyday life, where a lot of space is devoted to the relationship of spouses, and the upbringing of children (however, from a certain moment children somehow practically disappear from the focus), and diseases, and various romantic and sentimental events. These all become factors influencing politics, business, quotes, and the larger the figure of the player, the more exciting it is to keep track of the rates, even if they boil down to just a good or bad date. And by the way, the leitmotif of "Billions" seems to be the direct dependence of success on the willingness to sacrifice those values that for an ordinary person are considered - at least in theory - to be absolute.

What is more surprising - that for the sake of his career ambitions a person substitutes his father or that a father, proud of his son, approves of this way of moving towards the goal? And what about a woman's readiness to instantly break off a relationship with her beloved man because he tripped up her business? Even viewers of "Billions" who are far from the world of big money make them think: "What would I do?"

And yes, Billions is about big, very big money. This is a world where tablets, with their one-day use, resemble newspapers, where you can buy much more than just expensive and luxurious things. Isn't this the most attractive illusion and the most reliable way to grab and hold the attention of viewers?

More about how to win the audience's attention: Nathan Fillion.