![]() Photograph: Eric Liebowitz/NBC Universal, Inc As they shoot inside-baseball money lingo at each other like spitballs, a clash of titans in the same Shakespearean vein as the Roys’ squabbles unfurls, stretching all the way down to hell. The fun of their cat-and-mouse game comes from 1) the agility of their maneuvers, each one wriggling out of defeat just as it seems like the other finally has them licked and 2) the panoply of supporting appearances from character actors having a ball, foremost among them the squirrelly David Costabile as a lecherous, coke-addicted COO too good at his job to fire. Who doesn’t love watching guys in suits yell at each other in boardrooms, especially when said guys happen to be heavyweight thespians Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti? Showtime’s still-running marquee title offers dual perspectives on high finance by pitting a hedge fund manager who’ll break any law he pleases to ensure robust returns for his elite clients against the BDSM-enthusiast federal attorney hot on his trail. While the drama pays closer attention to the R-rated shenanigans of telegenic young people, Pierpoint nonetheless shares an office culture with Waystar/Royco in broad strokes: a toxic atmosphere of harassment, hollow promises to sluice out the poison, a carefully designed system of plausible deniabilities to insulate and protect the monsters at the top. ![]() During their six-month trial period that comprises the first season, however, they mostly chart exotic new frontiers of sexual deviancy and ingest the full smorgasbord of controlled substances available on Wall Street. ![]() ![]() Rather than the C-suite, creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay track a group of hungry recent grads as they climb over each other’s knife-studded backs toward a full-time position at an uppermost-tier investment bank in London. Photograph: Simon Ridgeway/BBC/Bad Wolf/HBOĪ channel-surfer doesn’t even have to leave HBO to remain in the milieu of hostile takeovers and blue-chip portfolios, though this one goes bottom-up instead of top-down. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |