Billions Guide to High Finance
By: Rani Eva Dewi
Tags: Hedge Funds, Brands, TV Series, Finance, TV Shows

Image from Billions Official Facebook

“Self-righteousness is an indulgence I cannot afford.”

Chuck Rhoades

I was just randomly watching Damian Lewis interview in 2016. After admiring his work in Band of Brothers, I became curious of his other works. He was a guest in an American talkshow and talked about his upcoming television show. That was when I heard about Billions for the first time. I decided to give it a try, expecting the great performance of Damian Lewis. Turns out, the story is really engaging and I became really invested to the story.

Bobby and Chuck (Image from Billion Official Facebook)

In the beginning, Billions tells a story mainly about Bobby Axelrod (played by Damian Lewis) hedge fund manager who manages to accumulate wealth and power by doing anything to achieve his goal, even through illegal conduct. Chuck Rhoades, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is not going to make it easier for Bobby and will do anything in his power to prosecute Bobby’s wrongdoings even with some questionable moves. The story then revolves around the politics and power play both in law enforcement and private enterprise environment.

Blurry Lines

There is no visible line between good or bad in this series. Chuck Rhoades, even in a high position law enforcement, often has questionable motives especially in his pursuit of Bobby Axelrod. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Chuck Rhoades is not necessarily a good example of law enforcement. He would do anything to maintain his reputation and power.

One memorable scene for me was when Chuck and his wife, Wendy, intimate details regarding their marriage threatens his chance to get New York State Attorney General position. Wendy and Chuck engage in BDSM roleplay and the competitor threatens to reveal this to the public. After discussing this issue, Wendy asks Chuck to back off the race. When he is about to step down as a candidate in a press conference, he suddenly announces the rumour himself and manages to gain supporter through his convincing speech. The things he does for power.

It is just like how Bobby Axelrod will do anything to get what he wants. However, Bobby also loves doing charity work and helps his friends. He is also portrayed as a very loving father who cares about his family a lot. It also happens to a lot of characters in the series. No one is free from their greed and self interest. There is no telling what will they do and what is their moral compass. Which makes it really interesting in a larger than life context and reality in general.

Compelling Story Arcs

Out of all characters, Taylor Mason and Wendy Rhoades are among my favourites. Taylor Mason, with the bold introduction as non-binary and ask people to use ‘they’, is a very talented analyst who originally hired as an intern in Axe Capital. Meanwhile, Wendy Rhoades is a psychiatrist and in-house performance coach at Axe Capital. Both characters have interesting development and growth in the series.

Brillian Taylor (Image from Billions Official Facebook)

Taylor Mason starts as an intern at Axe Capital. Due to their capability and valuable input to the company, Bobby assigns Taylor as the Chief Investment Officer and establish some sort of mentor-mentee relationship. The inevitable clash of ideas and vision eventually push Taylor to betray Bobby and set their own companies. Taylor is very adamant in their idea of a quant firm that will make its decisions based on math, not ego like Axe Capital.

Wendy Rhoades is often put in a difficult position due to his husband position as law enforcement and her position at Axe Capital. I really admire her ability to navigate the relationships betwen her work and private life, even if in the end it is still hard. She is also really good at providing her service to other hedge fund working at Axe Capital. Watching her working makes me wish that every company could hire someone as capable as her to support the company workers performance.

Wendy and Bobby (Image from Billions Official Facebook)

The interaction between Taylor and Wendy has become one of my favourites due to their understanding of each other situation. Taylor even offers Wendy to join her more ethical company. Wendy argues that Axe Capital values loyalty and relationships which Taylor refutes by emphasising that all Bobby cares about is his self interest and money.

Even after they go separate ways, Taylor keeps in touch with Wendy and tries to remain civil. This often puts Wendy in a difficult position. In a way, she actually believes Taylor’s view regarding Bobby. However, she has been a very dear friend and business partner with Bobby for so long. It makes the situation more interesting to watch and expect for the future developments.

Hyper-realistic

According to several hedge funders, Billions successfully captures the ‘friends and frenemies’ behavioral element between hedge fund managers. They also love how the series accurately portray the real hedge fund managers behavior, strategy, and investment decision. They especially relate the most with Bobby’s passion and approach to the investigation of his firm.

For me personally, watching Billions has given me a chance to understand the untouchable world of hedge fund and high finance. Even if the depiction is not entirely accurate, it has piqued my interest to dig deeper and try to understand the system in order to get better understanding of the story. The characters are also very interesting.

Billions makes me feel so small in this larger scheme of economy and power balance. However, it makes me thankful at the same time because I do not have to deal with the things the characters have to face, which mostly unpleasant. I guess when you get some, you are bound to lose some.

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