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Billions vs Succession


closetohumping

Which show would you binge first  

43 members have voted

  1. 1. Better show

    • Billions
      10
    • Succession
      33


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Succession is a better made/written show.  Billions is more enjoyable because there’s at least some characters you root for.  Every person in succession is diseased and indicative of almost everything we despise about our society.  And it’s so dead on, we can’t enjoy ourselves.  In billions, there’s a half dozen they are close to what we really are but they don’t cross the line and are fun as fuck to watch. 
 

but succession went from summer fill-in candy for HBO to downright cinema 

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My problem with Billions remains the same. Chuck. Paul Giamatti is on a different show. He deeply believes he’s acting on a prestige PBS program. Meanwhile, every character, including his father, is having fun. 
 

The weee of Chuck’s dispute with Prince isn’t fleshed out very well. If Prince had personally wronged Chuck, and he wants revenge I would understand. Nope. Deep hates goes from 0-100 in Season 5 without any explanation. Chuck hates the super wealthy. Prince is super wealthy. They hate each other. That’s pretty damned lazy for a cinephile like Koppelman. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/28/2023 at 10:11 AM, HiggyBaby said:

I’ll have to give Succession another shot. I got about four episodes into season 1 and didn’t get into it. Mostly because all the characters are completely unlikable. For me Billions has been a much more entertaining watch.

This.  I have started traveling for work a shit ton, so I download series that are great for 1 hour flights.  I’ve already rewatched Sopranos, and I just started Succession, mostly due to this thread.

First 2 episodes suck ass.  The characters are not compelling. There’s not really a protagonist.  There’s not really an interesting bad guy either.  It’s all lukewarm idiots who should be cuntpunted, but nobody’s a threat either.  It’s fucking boring.

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1 hour ago, hobbes2702 said:

I’ll never understand the “no one is likeable” as a reason to not watch a show. Why do y’all need a likeable protagonist to watch a tv show? No one is likeable in Breaking Bad, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. 

Bullshit. Walter is compelling at the very least.

I just watched 2 more episodes.  Fuck this show.  It’s a pail of room temp piss.  It sucks.

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32 minutes ago, slorch said:

Bullshit. Walter is compelling at the very least.

I just watched 2 more episodes.  Fuck this show.  It’s a pail of room temp piss.  It sucks.

Tom alone is worth sticking with. Granted I was one of the first big fans of this show on this board when it came out in the summer years ago.

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Succession was, easy to say in hindsight, launched as a summer fill-in for HBO.  Good cast, high production value, but nothing out of the park.  No big names, no mass marketing campaign, but a solid show.  It absolutely took off in Season 2 though.  By the end, it was truly cinema.  But unlike Breaking Bad or Mad Men, where you ebb and flow between rooting for a character and hoping for their demise...Succession stands alone.  You hate every single fucking person the entire fucking time, but yet---you cannot look away.  And in that regard, it stands apart.  And always will.  As much as I loved Greg & Tom scenes---if they had ended it in some kinda murder-suicide pact, I would be just as happy as I am now rewatching it.  McKay & Company did something truly exceptional and I don't think I'll be able to fully appreciate it until a few years from now upon a full re-watch.  Phenomenal.  

Billions was and always will be just screen candy.  Nothing wrong with that.  It had a much more known cast when launched.  It circles itself in trite disregard.  It's fun.  It's silly.  It's cliche.  It wore out its welcome though, but shit happens.  Both shows will end up being noted for a long time to come.

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On 10/23/2023 at 6:06 PM, Mother mopar said:
On 10/23/2023 at 5:46 PM, veritas aequitas said:
Give me Billions, Axe, Wags and Prince

Wags is fucking nails, love his character.

Yea the actor playing Wags was also on Breaking Bad.  Great there too.  
 

* going to disagree with Giamatti sucking.   He’s awesome imo 

 

*in real life Axe and Wendy lost their spouses to cancer in 2021

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On 10/25/2023 at 7:27 PM, veritas aequitas said:

It has an argument for best made but it was far from the best show. Not a single character on it that I wanted to live to the end.

This is a very odd rubric to measure art and TV.

I'm imaging a 19th century critic saying they just don't want to root for the killer in Crime and Punishment. Or Breaking Bad isn't great because Walter actually goes bad.

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