Billions

Undoubtedly the most self-centred, self-contained and self-serving season of them all. Gone is the imaginative and brilliant work with the characters from the first season and the breadth and variety from the second. This is just marketing and an attack on the impressionable viewer. There are a few bright spots, standard good performances, but nothing that could be seen again without fast-forward. (28.05.2020)

Chuck, as a power broker arranging shady deals in restaurants and coffee shops. Finally, for his naysayers, a solid satisfaction, but otherwise, apart from this half-comedic and half-serious cultural insert, nothing new happens. This time, there’s no recap from the previous season, but it doesn’t matter, really. As a lukewarm start, it was somehow passable. (21.05.2020)

Aside from one of the few sex scenes in the entire series, this episode actually has almost nothing to offer. Other for a ton of eclectic chatter that borders at least halfway on self-indulgent exhibitionism, but which is often useless, except perhaps a few cases (Spyros, the main characters). (21.05.2020)

Serially staged boredom and futility, which is funny in places, but completely lacking any meaningful consistency and coherence between episodes. The last minutes hopefully give a hint that something real will start to happen and not just prepare for it. (21.05.2020)

A great performance by Chuck Rhoades and, for the first time in a long time, another respectably riveting episode. (21.05.2020)

This time the funny ploys are performed in tandem by the two main characters. Yeah, why not? Axel's is a little less fun and less for effect, but it's cooler, more nuanced. Fine by comparison. (21.05.2020)

Plans about how to take each other out, or until the last minutes it is not clear who of whom. A bit far-fetched and some of the loops are suspiciously simple, but whatever. A bunch of young and progressive people who somehow have mysterious connections to the most powerful people in the city, which is both a bit bullshit and an ambitious and inspiring comparison to the often lame reality. (21.05.2020)

Nothing was more exciting than the imaginary titan clash of Wendy vs Tyler. And nothing was warmer than Bobby's gesture at his favorite pizza place. (21.05.2020)

Thoroughbred comedy crowned by a boxing match and training montage like in Rocky. (21.05.2020)

Absurd situations that have little to do with the dramatic potential of, for example, the first season. The creators don't know which way to go anymore, so they keep adding one weird moment after another. (21.05.2020)

It's almost a sterile quick-turnaround borefest, but the gradual unveiling of the bond between Wendy and Ax is impressive and has due depth. So it stands out even amongst the incredible barrage of wordy dialogue, half of which is about nothing. (27.05.2020)

Only the last episode will make any sense now. Lamster is just a well-acted episode that doesn't advance the overall development of the characters or the plot of the show one iota. (27.05.2020)

Another overstuffed episode that exactly replicates the previous ones from each season finale, and it’s no longer bearable. The creators use the same tactics and methods over and over again, and that would annoy even a die-hard fan for the umpteenth time, let alone a disinterested viewer eager for quality TV. It's not that the last episode wasn't imaginative, but somehow, from left or right, it's predictable, it's coming from somewhere, and that's not good. Actually, it's quite boring. (27.05.2020)

The fifth season is losing pace and it’s recycling the same components over and over again. There are characters we like and shake our heads at, but working with the same narratives and twists for the fifth time is getting a bit hokey . The middle is one looping merry-go-round of chatter and uninteresting meetings. Admittedly, the ending speeds things up a bit and makes this wild game of cat and mouse a little more attractive, but some of the character motivations are questionable to say the least and some of the twists are in the dream category. It probably has the desired effect, but it's pretty sci-fi in places. (13.08.2023)

The follow-up to the overblown and unnecessarily overblown fourth season. The overly eccentric and verbose series continues and the only thing worth nothing this time perhaps is the appearance of a new and at first glance quite decently sophisticated "villain" and a witty and apt wrestling scene. So far all the ills of the previous season are copied in no small measure by this one. (05.08.2023)

The creators try to conduct some scenes in a similar spirit as Scorsese in Wolf of Wall Street, but they lack the directorial skill and sense of timing and improvisation of the master. There's a decent sparkle between the main actors, but otherwise it's basically a plodding 60 minutes of unremarkable routine (05.08.2023)

By far the brightest point of the episode, which follows in the same vein as the previous ones, are the interviews with the dean of the school, played by the excellent J.C MacKenzie. But also Frank Grillo surprises, this time he does not play an action role, but an artistic one – a painter – and he pulls it off quite decently. (06.08.2023)

An episode of short and actually unnecessary meetings where the protagonists usually say five and a half sentences to each other, whereupon the editor starts their work and another similar scene in a different place but with a similar concept follows, rinse and repeat for most of the episode. If the main characters used their phones, most episodes would be like 15 minutes long and they would actually be about nothing at all. Wendy and her psychological analysis is passable, the rest just fizzles. (08.08.2023)

The character of Wendy Rhoades is perhaps the most interesting of this season. She goes through believable and realistic situations, twists and turns, and emotional layers. The rest is not worth talking about, it's the usual routine that is nothing to write home about. (11.08.2023)

A weaker copy of Ocean's Eleven, where Paul Giamatti doesn't have anything close to the flair of Andy Garcia, let alone  George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The twists and turns and would-be suspenseful plot is actually pretty funny overkill by the end. (11.08.2023)