Hands and feet tightly bound with rope, an anxious man lies supine on a cold office floor, nervous with anticipation. Beside him, a mysterious young woman clad in leather, knee-high boots, digs her heels into his chest and whispers: “You’re in need of correction, aren’t you?”
So begins “Billions,” the admirable new Showtime drama featuring Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Though intended as a sexually heated exchange between masochistic partners, this scene is an altogether appropriate opening sentiment for the show’s consistently smart — if not entirely innovative — critique of corporate egoism.
After all, as this show suggests, what is modern capitalism but an elaborate power play between dominator and bound submissive?
The show explores how government interests are distressingly entangled in banking and investment firms, resulting in fraudulent gains for the financial sector. In addition to exploring this collusion, “Billions” questions the value of mercy in an age of Machiavellian business tactics, and the culture of entitlement that fosters this cold mercilessness.
“Billions” is the brainchild of producing team Brian Koppelman and David Levien, in addition to Andrew Ross Sorkin, who is particularly knowledgeable on the subject matter. Sorkin, author of the best-selling novel “Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street,” again expresses his keen interest in skewering the corrupt, unstable world of finance.
The show follows ruthless U.S Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) as he orchestrates the political takedown of crooked hedge fund bigwig Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis).
Lewis, as evidenced in “Homeland,” is excellent at playing characters with strong dualities. Here he deftly transitions between a duplicitous New York hedge-funder and a devoted family man.
Equally fine is Paul Giamatti, who gives an invariably powerful performance balancing passion and restraint with suppressed frustration and brief masochistic predilections.
While the creators’ efforts are certainly commendable and the acting is uniformly excellent, “Billions” doesn’t take an original perspective on the subject matter to be truly revelatory. The show rests on the popular TV trope of hedonistic elites who derive power and validation from money and property. Watching their trappings and failings can be illuminating only up to a point, after which it can become tiring and verges on melodrama.
For those interested in economics and commerce, “Billions” will prove satisfying for the subject matter alone. For TV enthusiasts, however, wishing for something entirely original, sticking with “Billions” may prove difficult.
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