I decided to try and hate watch this series because I heard it was bad, and oh boy is it, but not even in a so bad it’s good way. It’s not really possible to hate watch this, just feel pity for it.
I had heard about that the original show runner who wanted the show to have a feminine message got booted out, Sam Levinson came in and did a ton of reshoots, and that Levinson has a history of pushing the nudity envelope and all that is present in spades. You can catch a glimmer of the original vision, but it’s buried under a lot of very obvious reshoots, and a lot and a lot, of nudity and sexuality. Lily-Rose Melody Depp never spends a scene in normal clothes, she’s always in a bikini, lingerie, or some high art dress that’s barely there. When I say she’s always, she’s always, there’s one scene she’s meeting her team at her house to discuss business. What would 99% of people do? Show up in sweats and a T shirt. This scene? Nope, she shows up to the table in lingerie. After so many leering camera shots, you start to feel icky because you realize there’s no reason for the camera to be following her ass everywhere.
In any case, The Weeknd doesn’t have the charisma to pull off the role he’s in. He comes across as skeevy, and less a charismatic charmer / cult leader he’s supposed to be.
That’s about it. The original vision as much as I can tell was to highlight the vapid sexuality of mainstream pop. How it’s all about sex, but without any sexuality and how the main character takes control of her sexuality, learns to be a cult leader from The Weeknd, and deploys it. The meeting with the producer in the last episode was the closest I’d say the show came to art.
But thank god it god canceled. It’d be hard to pull this off with a feminist show runner, and I don’t think it would have been possible to be the Next Big Show on HBO ™ like they were wanting, but the Sam Levinson cut definitely couldn’t.
I mean the Idol isn’t good, but it was very deliberately giving the middle finger to the nudity police and the nudity police have come down hard in response. Btw it hasn’t been cancelled (yet).
Now there is a blast from the past. Downloaded quite a few Canadian Tv shows back then. Real tough to find episodes. Don’t think I ever saw past S4.
As for the article, Going after a 15 year old show for 1 guest spot of a supernatural character, on an otherwise exemplary show? Come on.
I just finished an Australian series called Totally Completely Fine. Very dark comedy around suicide, death, family trauma, etc wrapped in sad comedic situations. It was very emotionally draining for me. Reminded me of binging Six Feet Under back in the day.
Apparently my Paramount Plus subscription through Amazon Prime grants me access to SHOWTIME via Paramount Plus by way of Amazon Prime. I forgot about Billions. I made it as far as season 4 a while back and it was going from stupid to more stupid but I’m going back for more.
I’m literally in the exact same boat wrt Billions. Is this Prime → Paramount Plus → Showtime thing easy to figure out.
I don’t really want to watch Billions, but I’m plot committed. I told myself I’d go back when the series is over. Is it? I don’t want to google for the answer lest I spoil myself.
Watched the first (free) ep of Silo. Thought it was OK. Have read the novels so I know the story. Is it worth re-upping my Apple TV subscription to watch it through to the end?
There’s an absurdity to Billions that makes it enjoyable, though it’s gotten progressively stale in the latter seasons. With Axe coming back for the final season maybe it can go out with a bang.
