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Great episode tonight!

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The meeting scene almost put me off the entire show. I don't care how different these guys are than the other funds in town, no one talks to people like that. Hell, guys don't even engage in locker room talk like that. Everyone seemed so far out of character, even the people we had never seen. The COO looked like he couldn't believe those were his lines.

Awful. Just awful.

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Yeah, I thought that was a little over the top as well. The jury is still out for me on this one.

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Also, thinking about it this morning, there's something to the fact that he wasn't at work on 9/11. Either he was out doing something shady or he got a tip that something was going to go down. Somehow that is going to be a plot line later on. He still feels guilty about it and that's why he's sending all of his old coworkers'kids to college.

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Interesting point, I will this in the back of my mind.

It'll be interesting to see how many seasons this show gets renewed for, how many seasons can they run after hedge fund managers before the plot gets stale?

True Detective.

Fargo.

American Horror Story.

And those are three shows that in general are lauded for their story telling. And they are definitely the exception.

Yeah, True Detective was lauded for their story telling in season two.

American Crime is another one.

The point is TV is already away from the idea that every show has to run for 100 episodes. What you're referring to are anthologies and they were a lot more popular back in the 50s and 60s but they're still around. It's just really difficult to find a good story to tell and repeating the process by starting over each season is even more difficult.

I could only get through about 20 minutes of the pilot.

I like Giamatti as an actor, and agree with the person that he was brilliant in Love & Mercy...but he was so miscast in this show. They have him as worse than a caricature. Just awful.

Too much dialog for Lewis to handle without his accent slipping all over the place.

I could still get past both of those if the writing was good, and unfortunately it is just utterly terrible. I stayed on a bit further, but the scene where they were describing a huge purchase, and it just turns into HBO's Ballers for a quick cut of Lewis strutting through a mansion hall, then right back to them, and a guy says "people hate guys who buy things like that," I knew it wasn't going to be good.

I want to like it really bad. This was in my top 5 for 2016 that I was super pumped about. And damn if it didn't annoy the hell out of me from the start.

Going to try to get through the rest of the pilot and episode 2 this week, but I'm thinking that just by reading some other thoughts, I might as well wait to see if it turns into something really good before wasting more time.

I guess I'm an unrefined loser.

I liked the first two episodes just fine. I didn't think anything was out of place regarding the mansion scene or discussion.

People slobbered all over newsroom, and while i watched most of the first season, i quickly lost interest in whatever plot it was trying to build our advance. I do agree that Billions, whatever it becomes, would be great to have wrapped up in 2-3 seasons. That is true with most tv shows though.

The problem is that once a show is popular it is really hard to say no to more money and success ( until it declines).

I think last night's episode was the best so far. I'll hang in there for a couple more at least.

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Also, thinking about it this morning, there's something to the fact that he wasn't at work on 9/11. Either he was out doing something shady or he got a tip that something was going to go down. Somehow that is going to be a plot line later on. He still feels guilty about it and that's why he's sending all of his old coworkers'kids to college.

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Yes, I will laugh if it comes out that he was tipped off about 9/11 and used the info to build the foundation of his fortune.


I like the show though... This episode covered apoptosis, dog walking etiquette, and ATM. Plus, I loved the "old cock sucker" zinger the Chairman of the Board gave the mistress.

Just watched this episode.

The writing is just so horrible.

"My solar plexus is collapsing!!!! "

"ATM, you know what that means?"

The fake cattle prod.

The profanity is just terrible. I don't mean that it is terrible that they use so much profanity it is that they use it so poorly.
Compare the way VEEP works in profanity, it feels right, it adds to the show. It make the characters seem more real.
The profanity on this show is just done so slopy and heavy handed. It just feels lazy. It makes the characters seem so flat.

The writing sounds like a home schooled kid that joined the army and is trying to cuss with is buddies at basic. Yeah you are using ALL of the words, you just aren't using them correctly

Agree that the writing is painfully awkward. Feels like nobody consulted a hedge fund or DA office before writing something they felt like fit that world.

The bigger laugh is we all chose a school that prides itself on a an atm logo.

Isn't this the work of Andrew Ross Sorkin? Didn't figure him for a screenwriter.

I wonder if the actors are also thinking "WTF!?! I have to say what!?!" I mean, they can't be happy with their performance. Paul Giamotti has such a good delivery but I felt bad for the dog poop scene. And the whole ATM part... Wow that was bad.

I'm still gonna watch the season but it's getting pretty bad.

I want to like it but the writing, both plot and dialogue, is just terrible.

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I thought Paul's dad and the board member was a decent twist. Kind of corny but it is what it is.

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But darlin, I just took a pill

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I don't know why you guys are tearing every little bit down. Stop watching.

It isn't perfect, but entertaining and for the moment, i want to watch a few more. Some people rave about vikings, but after season 3, meh.

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Because it's Showtime and it has some actors that I've liked in the past. It should be better for those 2 reasons alone. I'm gonna keep watching because I like good vs bad shows and shows with women & $$$!

Feels like they had enough good plot for a couple of episodes and as they stretch it out the cheese grows.

I wonder if there is gonna be a baseball reference in every episode..

I am at the point now where I watch because it is so bad.

The dog **** scene was ridiculous.

Anybody watch last nights episode? Starting it right now

Just watched it,
Thought it was a step up from the last few (PG's massive overacting aside).

This week was not as horrible.

This week was much better. IMO a lot of that is due to the story zeroing on the 2 main characters and not everyone else involved. It was much better overall.

A lot of it had to do with how much they down keyed the dialog.

There wasn't as many "12 year old homeschooled boy thinking that is how adults use profanity" moments.

I thought the dialogue between Axe and the singer at the concert was kind of weak. Other than that I thought this episode was much better.

I'm trying to like this show, but the writing is just terrible. Can they make it any more obvious when a character is brought on that he will ultimately be killed off (from the show, not actually murdered)? You could see from the "he's always late" in the private jet scene that his buddy would be booted.

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I'm trying to like this show, but the writing is just terrible. Can they make it any more obvious when a character is brought on that he will ultimately be killed off (from the show, not actually murdered)? You could see from the "he's always late" in the private jet scene that his buddy would be booted.

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Similar to the cop who's only a couple weeks away from retirement. Sure to be among the body count.

I'm probably going to keep watching for now, but it's pretty bad. My wife hadn't seen the first 3 episodes but was watching #4 with me last night. Partway through, I was compelled (on my own) to acknowledge how bad it is. She eventually bailed to do something else.

The guy shooting at deer and subsequent pep talk - bad, the 2nd in command Wags character - terribly over-the-top in every scene since episode 1, the shoe-horned in explanation of what a short squeeze is - awful, the scenes with the mucisians (especially with Hetfield) - cheesy, Paul Giamatti's father - over-the-top, and Paul Giamatti has too many over-the-top moments as well.

It was hard to find a scene in this episode that wasn't uncomfortably cheesy or over-the-top. I can't believe people thought this episode was an improvement.