Billions is one of Showtime's most successful TV series. The series premiered on Showtime in 2016 and since then have release 6 seasons. Now it is back for the seventh season. The first episode of the new season is available for streaming on Paramount Plus. Showtime and Paramount have merged their streaming services and now all Showtime content can be streamed on Paramount Plus. Although Paramount Plus have increased its subscription fee after making Showtime content available, it seems to continue on improving its services and business model to compete in streaming space. They do offer cheaper subscription fees for content with commercials.
Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the first episode of the new season, and planning to watch please stop reading here. This post may contain spoilers. Feel free to come back after watching to share your thoughts.
Billions became a successful show immediately during its first season. The story revolved around investment fund company Axe Capital and its founder Bobby Axelrod. It focused on topics of markets, trading, investment and battles between rich and powerful ego-centric characters. It was a great show and there was a lot of topics surrounding money, investment, trading, markets, and crypto could have been explored. However, for some reason it slowly started shifting its focus from the above mentioned topics to something else. It became more about cat and mouse chase style story between Axe and Chuck Rhodes, the district attorney. Over time it became less and less about money and investments, but rather endless battles and efforts of two sides trying to destroy each other. Not even two sides battling, but more like two individuals trying to prove who has more power.
Even the characters fighting with each other were replaced from one season to another. It started out Bobby vs Chuck. Then it became Bobby vs Taylor Mason, then Bobby vs Chuck again, then Bobby vs Prince, then Prince vs Chuck, etc. The repetition of the same theme made the show less interesting. I was surprised that it was renewed for the seventh season. Especially because the main character, Bobby Axelrod was completely removed from season six. I thought it was time for Billions to end. Billions surprised me again, by brining Bobby Axelrod back in season seven. While the overall content of the show continued to drop in its quality of story telling, they continued to managed to offer just enough for the original audience to come back and see what they have produced this time. I thinking brining back Bobby was a right move the producers and perhaps they may return to their original vision for the show. However, with story they have built so far it might be difficult to do so. It seems show's theme have shifted drastically from money and investment to political and legal drama, it may be difficult to return.
As I have expected, the first episode of season seven presented the direction the theme of the show will be heading to, politics. Big reveal towards the end of the last season was that Michael Prince wants to run for the president of the US. The opening of the new season was just that, Price wants to become the next president. Everything is shifting within the company, management roles reassigned, everybody now knows what Price is planning to do, and many seem to secretly agree that is a bad idea. Based on how Prince presents his vision as president, everybody around him seems to think he would be a dictator as a president. Now, these are the people who are working for him now. They seem to be fine working for him, and they seem to get along just fine with him. Moreover he seems to give them more autonomy on how they run their part of the business. Yet, they all seem to think as a president who would be a different person? What is even more strange is that they all approve of his plans when talking to him in person, but when talking to others they seem concerned.
I am not sure this is a great story idea. Some things are not adding up. I can already see where it is heading. It probably will turn out to be a disappointment. However, that also makes me want to continue watching to see how the story will unfold. Especially with Bobby Axelrod coming back to the show, I wonder how the writers will integrate him back to the storyline. After watching the first episode, it looks like the battle this time will be between Axelrod and Price. While Prince is launching his presidential bid, Wendy and associates believe Bobby is the only person who can stop Prince from becoming the president. The character of Price as presented as somebody who has never lost, and always managed to achieve the goals he had set. Even Bobby lost his company when he went against Prince. Based on this it shouldn't be too difficult for the viewer to accept as Price becoming a president is a sure thing. But of course the story they will build will revolve around stopping this from happening.
I do not like this premise for the story. I wish the story continued to be around money and investments. But rather producers see more value in political drama and perhaps involvement of money in politics. Chuck Rhodes is still in the picture, and will probably play an important role again, as he had done so far in all of the previous seasons. Whose side he is going to be on this time is not clear yet. There were seasons when Chuck was against Axe, and there were also seasons where Chuck teamed up with Axe. It is not clear at this time what position Chuck will take. As Chuck has become a central character in the entire story, I wouldn't even ignore the idea that he too may want to run for a president and make the fight between three characters this time.
At the end of the episode, Axe and his old crew meet up in London. He tells them what he has been doing and appears to be happy to see them all. The scene move from New York to London was so fast, it was obvious right away where they were. One minute Wendy is at the restaurant with family in New York, the next scene she is in London. It didn't make sense right away. There was just some time delay in between scenes. They had to bring Bobby back somehow. But since he is facing legal problems in the US, he wouldn't be able to appear in New York City right away. Now the question is, will they keep Bobby in London for the entire season or will they be able to bring him back to New York City. Either storyline can be interesting one.
In the last season Billions integrated bitcoin and crypto into the story but made some misrepresentations about bitcoin and crypto, what they are, how they work, etc. You can read my review of season six - Billions - Season 6: Another Misrepresentation Of Bitcoin & Crypto?