Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 10, 2016

The worlds of high power law and high power wealth collide in Billions, Showtime's brilliantly addictive new show that follows a billionaire hedge fund manager, a U.S. Attorney with a spotless prosecutorial record out to get him, and the attorney's wife, who works for the billionaire, caught in the middle. It's fascinating stuff, very well versed in its world, populated by richly complex characters, and intriguingly developing over its first season run. The show, from Creators Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin, finds an intensive balance between the disparate worlds and the crossover effects from their interactions. It's high stakes and high entertainment value that yields one of the year's top new shows.

The show follows a hedge fund manager named Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) who lost all of his friends on 9/11 but has rebuilt himself, and the business, in the years since. He's worth a billion dollars but makes much of his money by way of insider trading. It's made him, and many others around him, very wealthy, but it's also caught the attention of New York U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) who values his perfect 81-0 prosecutorial record by going only after slam-dunk cases. Axe isn't a slam-dunk. He's not the typical slime ball money man. He's very charitable, comes from humble roots, and lives a high class but admirable home life with his wife Lara (Malin Åkerman) and their two sons. Complicating matters is Chuck's wife Wendy (Maggie Siff) who works as a motivational counselor at Axe's firm.

Billions works so well because it doesn't necessarily paint a target on the "bad guy's" back and it doesn't necessarily glamorize Rhodes. The show is one of stark contrasts not only of characters and how they carry themselves, but contrasts in perception as well. Axe looks like the prototypical bad guy on the surface, the type that's slimed in the media and popular opinion because he's one of the "1%." But the show makes him a likable, though perhaps not always sympathetic, character, at least at the beginning. He's an atypical hedge fund type, super wealthy yes, ambitious, yes, and ruthless, yes, but he's not monochromatic. From the start, the show paints in bold and contrasting colors, situates him, often, against a shiny white, pure background, and depicts him handing out cash for kids to attend college; living a seemingly good, albeit high end, home life with his wife and two sons; and as a 9/11 survivor with something of a guilty conscience but a positive outlook on life. He's not above reproach -- there's no denying that -- but the show's refusal to simply slap a label and a stereotype on him elevates the program significantly beyond trite dramatic admonitions of his type and molds him into a real, multifaceted, layered, and even somewhat likable human being.

Contrast that with Rhodes, who is in many ways much like his opponent. Sure he's not in the upper crust of elite wealth, but his drive and ambitions are similar. He wants to win and he'll do what he must to accomplish his goals. The show depicts him in a much darker light, physically for sure in a way that contrasts against the clean and bright lines of Axe's workplace surroundings but also as the show develops his character, both in his profession and his home life with Wendy, who is the show's most fascinating character. Her personal drive has landed her a key job at Axe's firm but also puts her front-and-center in the middle of her husband's investigation. It's her swing role, as well as the insightful and detailed development of the two main characters, that gives the show not only a personality, but a sense of uniqueness, high stakes, intrigue, and depth that's often missing in other shows and films that paint with broader strokes rather than the finer touches on display throughout Billions.

Performances are terrific, too, and the core players mold the characters even beyond the finely honed script. Damian Lewis is terrific as Axe, finding the character's center well beyond even the detailed moldings the script provides. He strikes the right chord in the central personality, one that's kind and ruthless at the same time, likable but capable of strong-arming when necessary, strong-willed but tender. His Axe is one of the most dynamically fascinating characters on television today, and Lewis' performance is more than spot-on; it's an inhabited, inclusive, and insightful effort that more than anything else in the show beyond the core concept principles drives it to its insanely successful heights. Paul Giamatti is strong as Rhodes, never quite escaping the same kind of front he carries in many of his performances, but he successfully navigates the character's intricacies, and his place in the home and professional worlds around him, with a knowing confidence of character that's a major compliment to the strong writing behind him. Maggie Siff is likewise brilliant in her role, bringing an inner and outer complexity to her part and playing off the sort of tug-of-war in which she finds herself with a confidence that runs much deeper beyond the character's superficialities. Support performances from Malin Åkerman, Jerry O'Connell, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Terry Kinney are terrific, too.

Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Billions: Season One features a very clean, highly detailed, richly colored, and naturally sharp 1080p transfer. The digitally sourced image is terrific, boasting the sort of high-end digital look that might lack the denser texturing of film but that shows off what digital can accomplish on the top end of the scale. Details are precise and tangibly so. Clothing -- particularly high-dollar neckties and suit jackets -- are amazingly well defined in close-up to the point that textures and fabric density are plainly obvious, down to the finest stitches on jackets and ridges on ties. Faces are a playground of unflappably intimate textures, whether pores or Paul Giamatti's thick facial hair. Color saturation is excellent and the palette takes on a clean, natural look. Vibrancy is terrific, again most notably on attire but in various support elements inside and outside as well. Even crisp, white shirts are brilliantly realistic. Black levels are suitably deep and flesh tones appear accurate. Source noise is kept in check and never interferes with the presentation. This is about as top-end as modern digitally sourced 1080p Blu-ray images get.

Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Billions: Season One features a very good, albeit rather basic and straightforward, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is, much more often than not, very front-heavy, with surrounds presenting lighter ambient effects, finer details, and light musical support rather than heavy, full-on sonic assault-like elements. Musical definition is fine. It presents smoothly across the front with accurate instrumental clarity, strong depth when necessary, and wide positioning. Ambient street level effects, bustling offices or bars and restaurants, scattered applause at large gatherings, and other more gentle elements effortlessly, but usually not too aggressively, enrich the experience where necessary. Dialogue is the primary component, and it's delivered fluidly and naturally through the center, with always-on clarity and prioritization.

Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Billions: Season One contains supplements on each Blu-ray disc.

Disc One:

• Street Slang (1080p, 3:02): A discussion of the show's key economic vocabulary.
• Character Profiles (1080p): A closer look at four characters from the show: Axe (2:07), Chuck (1:42), Wendy (1:52), and Lara (1:47).

Disc Two:

• Location: New York (1080p, 6:57): As the title suggests, this piece looks at the important role New York City plays in the show as not just a setting, but a character in it. It also looks at the importance of food in the show and set design.

Disc Three:

• Character Development (1080p, 10:48): A look at the show's central conflicts, the layered characters, their backgrounds, and their core interactions.

Disc Four:

• Shadows and Light (1080p, 7:51): A closer look at the contrasts within the show's characters and the gray areas in between. It also looks at how the production accentuates or contrasts them throughout the season.

Billions: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Billions is a fantastic show. It's layered, unique in its characterizations, superbly acted, and smartly constructed. It moves quick, absorbs its audience, and stands as one of the best new shows on TV this year. Showtime's Blu-ray release of Billions: Season One features standout video, solid audio, and a few good supplements scattered around all four discs. Very highly recommended.