Bill Needle

Yep...not that season 5 was anything special, but that preview for season 6 convinced me to join Lewis in Switzerland.

Coral

I keep forgetting that Axe has kids... and so does Axe apparently.
Can't remember, but was being apart from his kids brought up as a downside to running away (or going to prison)?

So I guess at some point Wendy will hook up with Prince.

I forgot that Damien Lewis' wife passed away in April (didn't read the article posted above - dunno if they mention it).... it probably added to his decision to leave the show.

RichC2

Yeah, filming in NYC while raising kids in the UK as a single parent can't be easy.

dex14

RichC2

This is back this weekend.

Rob V

So Damian Lewis is off the show? I know it ended with him bailing on his arraignment, but I had no idea he flat out quit. This show was a guilty pleasure but I never thought it was awesome... with Bobby gone, it'll be even less than that now.

dex14

Yes, he is off the show.

bunkaroo

Seems like they wanted to leave the door open for him. Still this seems like another Showtime show that will go longer than it should. So is it Chuck vs Michael Prince now?

If this is a wrap up seasons I’ll check it out but if they intend to just keep going without Bobby, I’m out.

RichC2

I think it's more of a soft reboot than a wrap up, but who knows.

Bill Needle

I still have Showtime so I'll probably check it out. Like most I would much prefer Lewis still be involved, but even with him the show was really just going in repetitive circles with the main characters. Maybe with the change they will find some fresh ideas. But the leash will be very short because even last season I was pretty well done with the show.

Rob V

^^ Agreed that it was going in circles. It needs to end... I was hoping to see a Seinfeld type ending where they're both in prison for the crimes they committed against each other

Shannon Nutt

The showrunners have known for a while that Lewis was leaving the series - so be it their own greed or Showtime's insistence, they've decided to plow ahead. I mean Corey Stoll is a really good actor, but this seems far too late in the series' run to start over with a new protagonist. I'm still going to watch it, but I don't have high hopes (last season was kind of a mess).

dex14

I’m loving the amount of Piper Perabo I’ve been seeing in things lately.

Coral

I like that most of the characters on the show appear to be well-read and have acquired a lot of knowledge through personal experience, but I find it unrealistic that Taylor would have as much knowledge as she does.
She seems to know everything about everything. I get that she's extremely smart, but she's supposed to be in her mid to late 20s - yet she makes so many pop-culture references that pre-date her.

She made a reference to Eric Dolphy who isn't exactly a one of the well known jazz artists to a non-jazz fan. And even Rian (mid-20's) references Miles Davis's Bitches Brew in response - which means she not only has knowledge of Miles Davis and that album, but also Eric Dolphy since she kept her response jazz-related. Then Rian mentions seeing a punch buggy and not punching someone. Did she see a lot of punch buggies in the 2000's?

bunkaroo

They’re really going over the top this season with all
the references. It’s becoming laughable.

Bill Needle

The show has become insufferable...a smug fantasy camp full of characters jerking off into a ceiling fan. There was literally nothing entertaining about this (or last week's) episode. Despite the awful looking previews at the end of last season I gave it a fair shot and now I'm done.

Rob V

^^ your post made me laugh... and you're not wrong. I thought this show was full of itself from day 1 but the wife loved it so I carried on. I don't know if the writers are literary geniuses or toxic assholes who use a thesaurus for every third word in order to confuse the fuck out of its audience. I just signed up for 6 months of Showtime at a nice rate... but only to watch the Ray Donovan finale. I'm not sure I'll ever bother with Billions with Bobby gone.

Bill Needle

I also could have mentioned the unbelievably lazy, cartoonish, and paper thin stereotypes that drop in each week to act as fluffers, but it seemed gratuitous.

bunkaroo

This week’s episode was the one…the one that made me tap out. About 15 mins in. Maybe it’s because I’m rewatching the amazing Breaking Bad and my tolerance is being lowered for shitty writing. Chuck says some line about the loud crashes in the song Rio…what a dumb line for his character to say. The whole cast are just delivery mechanisms for cutesy pop culture references now. Ugh.

I’ll throw it on the pile of Showtime shows that didn’t know when to quit….Weeds…Dexter…Ray Donovan…

uteotw

I haven't even tried that latest ep., but I'm in the same camp--the utter smugness of it all is just too much and not entertaining, and with Axe gone it's just that much worse and a shell of what it used to be. Think I'm out too.

dex14

Renewed: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/bil...me-1235182384/

Red Dog

The adding machine pop-ups were bizarre.

dex14

That was terrible.

Coral

It was the cymbal crashes on Hungry Like the Wolf - which is a weird choice as there's nothing overwhelming/distinctive in the cymbals on that song. But yeah, the constant pop-culture references are annoying as hell.
The price tags was dumb and useless. I couldn't even read half of them as the print was too small - and after the first couple I realized it was pointless anyways, so I didn't even try to read them.

Axe leaving hurts the show, but it was on a downward slide for a while.
The characters are simpletons and are too easily convinced to do things. Even the ending of the last episode was dumb. Chuck blocks traffic for his protest and other drivers are pissed, and then they join him in his protest. That's just not believable and isn't how people would react.

Another issue is the constant turns people take. This is like wrestling... people changing sides all the time.
The only thing interesting this episode was we got to hear how much Taylor is worth as we find out she's close to having 100M. I was always curious to see how much these characters have made.

Like all the other Showtime shows that I've watched - I'm in too deep to bail, but I will stick it out for closure and only watch it while I'm on the internet and doing other stuff.

I'm actually sad this got renewed for another season.

dex14

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paramou...ne-11675659107